AEC Regent III RT

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The AEC Regent III RT was a variant of the AEC Regent III. It was a double-decker bus produced jointly between AEC and London Transport. It was the standard red London bus during the 1950s. The prototype (London Transport RT 1) was built in 1938 with AEC's 8.8-litre engine (a stopgap measure until the new 9.6-litre was available) and air-operated pre-selective gearbox. Finding a satisfactory British substitute for the German air compressor, bought from Bosch, was to cause problems for AEC, once war broke out. A prototype was placed into service disguised as an old vehicle. It carried a secondhand open-staircase body previously carried on Leyland Titan TD 111, dating from 1931. Thus bodied, RT 1 entered service in July 1938 as ST 1140 even though it was nothing like a standard ST vehicle. It continued in service until December 1938