Title: London’s Pre-War Smaller Classes
Author: Ken Blacker
Publisher: Capital Transport
ISBN: 978-1-85414-473-7
Specification: 285mm x 220mm, 144pp, hardback
Price: £30
AEC may have called itself “the maker of London’s buses” for five decades, but even in the 1930s when London Transport was fresh and young, its relationship with the Southall-based manufacturer was as much about contractual obligation as unconditional product satisfaction.
Had it not guaranteed to buy 90% of its motorbuses from AEC from 1933, it might well have bought many more of them from Leyland Motors, as it did when purchasing trolleybuses.
