USA Regent

ARGENTINA Martin Donato sent pictures of the Twentyfive AEC Regal IV 9834 -E bodied by Verheul (Holland) which ran in Argentina in the early '60s. They were in service in Buenos Aires city - with no success - and then in Mar del Plata city.

Martin wishes to know technical characteristics of them. If you can help, contact Martín at donato_martin@hotmail.com

CANADA Gray Line of Vancouver, BC operate two Routemasters on a tour of Vancouver using this BIG Pink branding. One is DJ 3874 (formerly RML2466 in its London days) and pictured here in August 2011 is DJ 3923 (an RM model for which the original identity eludes us at present). Thanks to Mike Foinette for the picture.

RML2466 was originally bought by West Coast Sightseeing of Burnaby, BC in January 2011, along with RML2564.

CANADA Double Deck Tours of Niagara Falls, Canada have around 20 Routemasters in the fleet. Many of the fleet still have their original AEC engines. A heavy sightseeing tour of the Falls area with a route in excess of 30 miles long keeps these vehicles extremely busy all Summer. Those in use in February 2011 were:
1 RCL2255, 2 RCL2252, 4 RM2165, 5 RM583, 6 RM1909, 7 RM2206, 8 RM1242, 9 RM1888, 10 RM1618, 11 RM1548, 12 RM2174, 14 RM2162, 15 RMLxxxx,
16 RM1676, 17 RM797, 18 RM1604, 19 RM1102, 21 RM187, 22 RM1676,23 RM1221, 24 RMLxxxx.
RMLs 2467, 2501 and 2555 were acquired in November 2004, and would account for numbers 15 and 24.

Numbers 2, 4, 10 and at least two more were still active in September 2020.

Further photos can be found on Ray Soper's page at http://www.old-bus-photos.co.uk/wp-content/themes/Old-Bus-Photos/galleries/double_deck_toures/double_deck_tours.php

Updated April 2021. Thanks to Ray Soper for info and David Whitmarsh for the photos.

FALKLAND ISLANDS Former London Transport Routemaster RML2593 is now owned by the Falkland Islands Co Ltd, registered F124G, operating at Stanley for cruise ship tour work during the summer months. It operates a free shuttle from the landing pier to the Museum via various tourist points of interest and was pictured in January 2011. Updated January 2012. Thanks to Stephen Luxton of the F.I.C. for info, and to Ivor Warburton for the picture.

URUGUAY AEC Verhuels (ACLO mark IVs) were running in service in Montevideo with the COECT and UCOT companies in the mid-2000s. Nestor Brasesco (cincosietediesel@hotmail.com) sent this picture of number 36 on the Carrasco service in October 2004.

Some pictures of historic COECT buses including the ACLOs can be seen on the COECT website (http://www.coetc.com/ and click on the Hostoria section). Thanks to Luis Feijoó for this information.

URUGUAY CETCU, a group of enthusiasts in the history of buses in Uruguay, bought an ACLO (AEC for South America) REGAL II and restored it in the CUTCSA works. This bus was new to CUTCSA in 1938, with a wooden body made in Uruguay by Aguila, fleet number 491. It was renumbered 130 in 1954, and rebuilt with its wooden body in 1962 by CUTCSA, the biggest urban bus operator in Montevideo. It was replaced by a Leyland Worldmaster in 1971 and sold to an operator of country routes, close to Montevideo. In 1985 it was sold to a single bus operator in the northern rural area of Uruguay, working in a route of 90 km. most of them unpaved, from Santa Clara to Paso de Pereira, close to the river Negro, where it worked until 1994. The ACLO is painted in the old CUTCSA livery, light gray with a red band written with "CUTCSA 130" in shadowed white. The pictures were taken on April 5th 2000. On July 20th 1999 this bus and another one restored owned by CETCU, a Chevrolet 1935, were declared "national historical monument" by the Uruguayan government. CETCU also acquired another ACLO that is trying to restore. If you want contact CETCU: e-mail: mpienovi@adinet.com.uy.

Hugo Duque has provided some additional information in 2006. There is another one (left hand driven) and again with the livery of CUTCSA, internal # 1 which is fully rebuilt by ERHITRAN, dedicated to museum purposes. There are two more awaiting for their reconstruction, in a bus company site, recovered from their abandon in the middle of the country. All of them are ACLO's, as you know. The bodies were bult by Uruguayan body makers in the thirties and the forties (in the case of the left hand driven) I presume that all of them were used by CUTCSA. The other three coaches built in the late thirties are right hand driven, as traffic in Uruguay drove on the left until 2nd September 1945, when conditions imposed by American car manufacturers caused a change to the right. British influence in those days was very heavy. British Companies managed tramways since early last century. Railway services, waterworks, gas company, etc.