SVBM secures rare AEC Renown
The Scottish Vintage Bus Museum has filled a significant gap in its already extensive collection of prewar vehicles by purchasing at auction a 1926 AEC Renown 413 new to the Glasgow General Omnibus Company, which traded as GOC.
Metcalfe-bodied 22 (VA 5777) is the only survivor of 65 single-deckers that GOC bought at its inception to establish services linking Glasgow with towns in Lanarkshire. Although Metcalfe was based in Romford, it assembled the bodies for the GOC buses in Hamilton, where GOC was based.
GOC’s choice of vehicle and red and cream livery was influenced by an early association with the London General Omnibus Company, but it soon came under the control of Scottish Motor Traction whose chairman, William Thomson, considered the AECs to be unreliable and expensive to operate.
