Grace's Guide To British Industrial History

Registered UK Charity (No. 115342)

Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 167,025 pages of information and 246,693 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.

Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 147,919 pages of information and 233,587 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.

AEC: Reliance

From Graces Guide
1954. AEC Reliance. Reg No. WNL 259A (formerly 8031 PT).
1954. AEC Reliance. Reg No. WNL 259A (formerly 8031 PT).
1960. AEC Reliance with Park Royal B44F. Reg No: 756 KFC. Exhibit at the Oxford Bus Museum.
1960. AEC Reliance with Park Royal B44F. Reg No: 756 KFC.
1960. AEC Reliance with Duple Britannia body. Reg No: 569 KKK. Exhibit at the Dover Transport Museum.
1960. AEC Reliance Single-Deck Bus. Reg No: 497 ALH.
AEC Reliance. Reg No: WKG 284.

Note: This is a sub-section of AEC: Buses.

The AEC Reliance was a single-deck bus or coach chassis with a mid-underfloor-mounted engine, built by AEC in Southall, west London, England between 1953 and 1979. The name had previously been used between 1928 and 1931 for another single-deck bus chassis.

Two prototypes were completed in 1953, one with Duple coach bodywork and one with Park Royal bus bodywork.

Production vehicles entered service from 1954. The last Reliance entered service in 1981.

Following successive changes to Construction & Use regulations, the maximum length of the Reliance was increased twice from the original 30': firstly, to permit an overall length of 36' from 1962[5]; and later, to permit a length of 12 metres.

Various AEC engines were fitted during the chassis's production, including the 7.7-litre AH470, 8.1-litre AH505, 9.6-litre AH590, 11.3-litre AH690 and 12.4-litre AH760.

Transmissions fitted to the Reliance include an AEC synchromesh gearbox, AEC Monocontrol semi-automatic epicyclic transmission, and ZF synchromesh gearbox.

The Reliance had the Leyland Tiger Cub and, from 1959, the Leyland Leopard as its major competitors throughout its life, even though they were built under the same ownership from 1962 onwards; later, the Volvo B58 won a number of customers' orders away from both the Reliance and the Leopard.

See Also

Loading...


Sources of Information