Sandstone Heritage Trust - News
Bedwas & Machen Fleet No. 7 Bodywork by Bruce Coachworks,Cardiff.
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The AEC Regal III recently donated by John Allen to Sandstone Heritage Trust is a direct descendant of the first AEC’s manufactured in 1909.
To go back in history, AEC which is short for Associated Equipment Co., began as a bus making subsidiary of the London General Omnibus Company and its first major product was the famous LGOC “B” type , double decker bus with open top and open rear staircase. It was similar in design to the horse buses it was destined to replace. It had a 4 cylinder petrol engine and a few thousand were built including a few single deck versions.
Some of these buses became famous as troop carriers in the First World War of 1914 – 1918. Seating on the top deck was knife-board, oblong seated benches with no weather protection for the driver and passengers. Many of the B type buses were later converted to lorries as they became out dated. In those days a bus’s useful life would be between 5 and 8 years. The “B” models were produced from 1912 onwards.