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AEC Regals T Class Bus

he 'T'-type AEC Regal can claim to be the class of London vehicle that stayed in production or delivery - albeit intermittently - for the longest period (from 1929 to 1948), although the number of models and designs over those 20 years varied and developed considerably. Throughout that time, however, the different 'T' versions achieved a distinctive quality and most of the 801 examples would be instantly recogniseable as belonging to the breed, despite their many variations.

The classification 'T' was used for buses and coaches, with petrol or oil engines, vehicles built entirely to L.G.O.C. or London Transport specifications, 'off the shelf' examples straight from the manufacturer, and miscellaneous models of various shapes and sizes acquired from other operators either as purchases or as a result of takeovers. The only attributes that they all had in common were that they were all single-deck halfcabs, and had an AEC chassis and engine (usually the Regal 662 or, in the case of oil engines, the O662).

T class buses and coaches served greater London from 1929 to 1962, in a wide variety of forms and modifications. Before the war they were best known as saloon coaches, while after the war they were mostly to be found running rural bus services.

This page will not attempt to describe a complete history of the type, as this is well documented by authors far more qualified than myself. However, I am hoping that the list below can become a useful reference as it develops, thereby becoming not a potted history of the class, but a series of potted histories of each individual vehicle.

Of the 801 examples built, only 8 are believed to survive today. This is a surprisingly small proportion of the total production ( 1 in 100 ) in comparison with the Leyland-equivalent 'TD' buses (both types were finally retired in 1962), of which 4 survive out of 131 built ( 1 in 33 ). There are several probable reasons for this.

Firstly, the early Ts were built several years before the second world war, which meant that they were becoming well worn at the outbreak of hostilities. The chances of them surviving until the 1950s (when the first seeds of the preservation movement were sprouting) were therefore slim. Yet, the vehicle generally acknowledged as being the very first bus to be acquired privately for preservation was none other than T31 of 1929, now operated by the London Bus Preservation Trust.