British United Traction Ltd

In 1946, Leyland Motors Ltd and Associated Equipment Ltd amalgamated their trolleybus manufacturing and sles activities in a company called British United Traction. At first, all trolleybuses were produced on two 500-foot long assembly lines at Leyland's Kingston-upon-Thames factory. Home market chassis were developed and designated by AEC while Leyland had similar responsibilites for export models. When Leyland sold the Kingston-upon-Thames factory in 1948 BUT trolleybus production, generally speaking, was divided between Southall and Leyland in the same manner. Customers could specify electrical equipment made by any of the five firms, Crompton Parkinson, English Electric, Metro-Vick, GEC or BTH. AEC constructed the 9611T and 9612T 4-wheeled double-decker and the 9641T 6-wheeled single- and double-decker. Leyland built the 4-wheeled ETB Series single-decker. BUT buses were exported to diversed places like Zaragosa, Johannesburg, San Sebastian, Barcelona, Pretoria, Auckland, Mechinoimport, Hobart, Dunedin, Wellington, Launceston, Copenhagen, Montevideo and Colombo.

British United Traction Ltd RETB1 (United Kingdom)

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Page created: 5 July 2009