AEC Regent II

The AEC Regent II was a front-engined double-decker bus chassis built by the Associated Equipment Company from 1945 to 1947. Although it was officially a new type, it was very similar to the original Regent of 1929. Every Regent II was documented as new with the A173 engine, also called the 7.7-litre, and a four speed sliding mesh gearbox. The only buses that departed from the standard were the 100 bought by the Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company, classified O661/20, whose front end was redesigned to take the bonnets and radiator grilles that company used on its own double-deckers. Other early buyers included Liverpool, Hull, Lowestoft, Morecambe and Heysham, Reading, Oxford and Mansfield operators, and Dundee later ran former London Transport examples. Of almost 700 built, only nine are recorded as surviving, and one can still be ridden at the East Anglia Transport Museum near Lowestoft.