AEC
From Graces Guide
The Associated Equipment Company was a manufacturer of commercial vehicles from 1912 to 1977.
Background
- The Associated Equipment Co started in June 1912 and was a subsidiary of The London Underground Group LGOC.
- 1928 Introduced a six-cylinder CI engine of their own design under the Acro licence and ran it experimentally.
- 1944 Producing diesel marine engines of either four or six cylinders and producing 47, 59 or 100 bhp.
- 1944 Advert for Oil engines.
- 1961 Acquired Thornycroft.
- 1962 Merged with Leyland.
- 1968 Announce the first V8 diesel engine to be designed and built in Britain.
- 1977 The name was discontinued.
Lorries
- 1906 Servicing company for the London Motor Omnibus Company with the fleet name of Vanguard.
- 1912 AEC commenced manufacture of buses for London.
- 1916 Produced a lorry chassis for the Forces.
- 1926 It merged for two years with British Daimler.
- 1927 Moved from Walthamstow to Southall.
- WW2 Produced 9,620 Matador 4x4 medium artillery tractors and numerous other vehicles for the Forces.
- 1948 Produced the Matador and Monarch at 12-ton gross weight.
- 1948 Acquired Maudslay Motor Co Ltd of Alchester and Crossley Motors of Manchester.
- 1949 Acquired the body-building company Park Royal Vehicles and its subsidiary of Charles H. Roe of Leeds.
- 1953 Produced the Mercury for an 8-ton payload.
- 1957 Moved in to earth moving equipment but these ceased under this badge in 1967.
- 1968 The 'Mandator' uses the new V8 engine.
Buses
- The first major customer was United Automobile the outside sales were made by Daimler. These vehicles carried Daimler on the radiator and many of them had Daimler engines.
- In 1926 an arrangement with Daimler chassis were built at Walthamstow and then at AEC in Southall.
- During World War I AEC had built 8,000 Y-Type chassis for the war department.
- New models were K-Type of 1919 and later the larger S-Type.
- Vehicles for the other than LGOC were later known by type numbers 301-K, 401-S and 501 for Y-Types.
- The NS had a drop frame of steel designed to lower the centre of gravity and to hopefully persuade the Metropolitan Police to allow the upper deck to be roofed.
- G. J. Rackham design was the first new six-cylinder overhead camshaft engine. Fitted into 416/426 chassis. Coach operators enjoyed the smooth and powerful engine.
- Regal Single and Regent double-deckers arrived in 1929.
- A six-wheeled version The Renown taken up by LGOC was the best selling six-wheeler on the market.
- 1931 They developed a reliable 8.8 litre engine.
- 1932 AEC'S were offered with fluid transmission greatly easing urban bus driving.
- London Passenger Transport Board was created in July 1933 and took all tram, trolleybus, local bus and coach operations in the London area.
- Q-Type designed by Rackham as a double-decker sold mainly as a single-decker.
- 1939 150 of London's RT-Type met a new specification a larger engine 9.6 litres and air brakes.
- 4,650 London RT's were built after the war until 1954.
- Before the war AEC started to experiment with engine positions. They had built an underfloor-engined bus and an underfloor-engined railcar for the Great Western Railway.
- 1944 Over 3,000 diesel buses have been produced by this date and in regular service with the London Passenger Transport Board.
- 1949 The Regal IV was introduced with a similar design it had standard preselector gearbox and air-brakes.
- This formed the framework for either a bus or coach, gaining a larger seating capacity.
- From 1951 to 1953 a London version was made.
- 1950's the commercial vehicle industry was critically aware of weight saving. Therefore lighter versions of the Regent III were introduced over the former models.
- 1958 the Routemaster was produced.
- This design featured coil suspension, independent at the front, automatic transmission, and power steering.
- 1962 AEC sold out to Leyland.
- Leyland had acquired by now, Crossley Motors, Maudslay, and Thornycroft, therefore having most of the monopoly on the overall market.
- AEC continued as a separate entity and next launched the Renown 250 of this model were built.
- 1970 a new rear-engined coach named the Sabre was exhibited at the Commercial Motor Show. It featured a V8 engine, however the chassis never got beyond being a prototype. The Swift continued to be produced until 1975.
- 1979 the company had closed down.
Sources of Information
- British Lorries 1900-1992 by S. W. Stevens-Stratten. Pub. Ian Allen Publishing
- Ian Allan - British Buses Since 1900 - Aldridge and Morris
- The Modern Diesel edited by Geoffrey Smith. Published by Iliffe & Sons 1944
- The Engineer of 24th May 1968 p810