· Lowheight AEC Regent & Bridgemaster types ·
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www.aecsouthall.co.uk presents a selection of black & white images from the Barry Hitchcox archive of AEC buses photographed in Oxford between 1960 and 1962.
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Before moving to London, Barry's local home bus fleet was City of Oxford Motor Services, in the days when the city offered a feast of AECs. Barry built up a collection of photos depicting the Oxford fleet between about 1958/9 (with the demise of the last Guys) and 1961/2 (which saw the arrival of the Dennis Lolines) when the fleet was exclusively AEC!
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For 6½ years up to July 1988 Barry was a driver at London Transport's Streatham Garage (and a conductor for a year and a half before that). He would drive mainly AEC-engined RMs on routes 49 and 159 (very few of Streatham's RMs had Leyland engines) and RMLs on routes 37 and 137. Barry is not alone in his view that the Routemaster is probably the best thing ever to run on four (or six!) wheels, and he felt truly honoured to have had that direct contact with AEC products.
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But back to the Oxford of the early 1960s, and Gloucester Green Bus Station - where most of these lowheight double deckers were photographed. |