AEC Regent V

Pictured here in Mount Pleasant Road, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent (as it was turning into Monson Road), is VKR39; one of eight lowbridge Park Royal bodied Regent V's that was delivered to Maidstone & District in 1956.   The image, supplied by the owner, Paul Baker, probably dates from the late 50's. (The photographer is unknown and I would gladly attribute the image if the original photographer can be determined; Ed.)

Paul Baker, who has recently repatriated this bus from Austria where it had been converted to a "Playbus", is now in the process of restoration.
Can anyone help?  Paul's question is in the construction of the raised section of the lower deck ceiling/upper deck floor, whether it was originally sheet steel, and if so what gauge? If anyone has any information that may assist, Paul would be very grateful.  Please make contact via the "Contact" page and I'll pass on any details. Ed.

Here are PDF files of the recovery of VKR39 from Austria and of the interior prior beginning restoration.

VKR39 Recovery & VKR39 interior

Registration Number HJV 560 (Body Nos. B40423-9), this AEC Regent V of 1957 vintage was destined for the fleet of Grimsby-Cleethorpes Transport, where it was the first of seven similar vehicles with 63-seat highbridge, rear-entrance bodies, that had Park Royal body shells but completed by Park Royal's Roe division (Information courtesy of Roger Hardy).

 Registration Number 159 JHX, another AEC Regent V with PRV bodywork (Body No. 39191), was a demonstrator dating from 1956 that ended up with King Alfred (Information courtesy of Martin Ingle).

Registration Number UNF 11 is the second of three 1957 PRV bodied (Body No. B40859) AEC Regent V's for Arthur Mayne & Sons, Manchester.

  Registration Number HRG 207 this AEC Regent V was one of a batch of five with bodies by Crossley and Gardner engines. It was very unusual for AEC to source from elsewhere but was done to match their Daimlers; this one was in operation in Aberdeen (Information courtesy of Martin Ingle).

Registration PFN843 Built September 1958 (Body Nos. B42279-318) for East Kent.

Registration 220CXK Built February 1962 (Body No. B46990) destined for British European Airways as a coach for transporting passengers between Heathrow airport and central London.

 Here 220 CXK undergoes a tilt test. 

I'm grateful to Gordon Macklay for advising me that 220 CXK was the only one of its type for BEA, having the lower deck capacity of the thirty-foot vehicle being reduced to 55 by the inclusion of a special luggage section at the rear of the lower deck.  Later, BEA used 27 foot 6 inch Routemasters fitted with luggage trailers that replaced both the one-and-a-half deck AEC Regal IV coaches and 220 CXK in 1966. (Ed.)

Registration 305AOW Built February 1962 (Body Nos. B46991-7120) for Southampton Corporation.

Registration 242AJB Built March 1962 (Body Nos. B48701-11) for Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell.

Registration WFN840 Built August 1961 (Body Nos. B45722-37) for East Kent.

Registration YJG818 Built May 1962 (Body Nos. B48723-39) for East Kent.

Registration 367EWE Built March 1963 (Body Nos. B48974-82) for Sheffield Corporation.

Registration 6791FN Built April 1963 (Body Nos. B49016-38) for East Kent.
(In 2016 this vehicle was seen in The Netherlands in a sorry state; see here)

Registration AFN7748 Built February 1964 (Body Nos. B50032-51) for East Kent.

Registration 373HWE Built December 1963 (Body Nos. B49966-77) for Sheffield.

Registration 433HCY Built April 1964 (Body Nos. B50643-7) for South Wales.

Registration CTT509C Built May 1965 (Body Nos. B51593-8) for Devon General.

Registration GJG740D Built January 1966 (Body Nos. B54151-80) for East Kent.

Registration MFN945F Built October 1967 (Body Nos. B55509-23) for East Kent.

Built March 1958 (Body Nos. B41911-2160) for Tehran.

Built between April 1966 & December 1967 (Body Nos. B53947-54146) for Tehran. Click here for detailed photographs of one of these units during construction.

Built November 1958 (Body Nos. B42726-825) for Tehran.