AEC Truck Books - History and Models

AEC Lorries

This book tells the story of AEC, one of Britain's leading lorry manufacturers. It places the company within the wider changes that shaped road transport in the second half of the twentieth century.

New transport laws in the 1960s introduced revised weight limits and licensing rules. As a result, lorries became larger and more powerful, could carry heavier loads, and operated over much longer distances. British vehicles increasingly worked abroad, including routes across Europe and into the Middle East. Over time, further technical progress led to higher permitted gross weights, reaching today's UK limit of 44 tonnes for standard haulage.

Using 180 rare and previously unpublished photographs, the book examines one of the most well-known and easily recognised names on British roads.

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The AEC Story - from the Regent to the Monarch

From 1929 until 1979, a succession of buses and trucks trundled out of the AEC works in Southall, Middlesex. The company was responsible for the successful Routemaster double-decker buses, used by London Transport, as well as numerous other bus and lorry designs. In this volume Brian Thackray examines in some detail the AEC's passenger and commercial vehicle designs of the early and middle 1930s.

The spotlight also falls on the development of the high-speed oil engine and the less familiar military and off-road designs as well as the railcars built for the Great Western Railway. This is a book of interest to people who once worked in the factory, which closed down in 1979, and to those with an interest in British buses and commercial vehicles.

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AEC Mustang and Marshall

The AEC Mustang was announced in 1956 to be built at the former Maudslay works near Alcester. This twin-steering six wheeler 'Chinese Six' model was rated for 18 tons gross weight, placing it in the medium-weight range. Sales were moderate but the Mustang achieved some popularity as general haulage flats, tankers, box vans and tippers.
By 1962 the Mustang concept was being superseded by AEC's new Marshal 6 x 2 conventional, medium-weight six-wheeler. This offered a higher gross vehicle weight and a better payload than the Mustang. From 1964 Marshals enjoyed ten years of popularity as general haulage lorries, benefiting from the great increase in UK road transport following the Beeching decimation of the railways.
As the 1970s progressed they were increasingly replaced by articulated lorries, though they enjoyed continued sales to tipper operators, for quarries, as aggregate hauliers, for millers and cement firms. Several large users, such as the London Brick company, were still buying Marshals until the end of their production in 1977.

Graham Edge tells this story knowledgeably, and includes a large number of museum-quality archive photographs of Mustangs and Marshals at work in a wide variety of situations. The Appendices cover chassis designations and details as well as Mustang and Marshal engines.

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