AEC

The Associated Equipment Company was a manufacturer of Lorries and Buses from 1912 to 1977.

Background

• The Associated Equipment Co started in June 1912.
• It was a subsidiary of The London Underground Group LGOC
• 1961 Acquired Thornycroft
• 1962 Merged with Leyland
• 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 Monach at 12-ton gross weight.
• 1948 Acquired Maudslay Motor Co Ltd of Alchester and Crossley Motors of Manchester
• 1949 Acquired the body-building comapny 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

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.
• 1949 the Regal IV was introduced with a similar design it had standard preselector gearbox and airbrakes.
• 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, independant at the front, automatic transmission, and power steering.
• 1962 AEC sold out to Leyland.
• Leyland had accquired by now, Crossley, Maudslay, and Thornycroft, therefore having most of the monopoly on the overall market.
• AEC continued as a seperate 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