We had only recently been purchased by BRS at the time, so we kept loading the poor little beasts as we had when we were a private limited company. I believe all the various AECs at our place were equipped with the Park Royal cab and they were quite decent workplaces for the time, even if they did get a tad chilly in the winter! I don’t think I ever had an injector pipe blow on mine, although the first time that low air “STOP” sign appeared it frightened me half to death! Loaded with anything less than fifteen tons it was a flyer, no problem getting the needle off the clock on the A40 toward London early in the morning.
Just delivered direct from the AEC factory to Scott’s of Oldham in1962 is a brand new AEC Mercury 4x2 tractor unit.
Seen here in the extensive Scott’s workshops at Pine Mill Oldham it is undergoing a pre registration vehicles inspection.
All of Scott’s vehicles were hand painted and sign written at the depot by Frank Wright who only had one arm.
Frank worked in the paint shop for over 20 years and and in the early years all the gold lettering on Scott’s vehicles was made up of real gold leaf something that would be unheard of today.
This particular tractor unit was allocated fleet No C16, the letter C defining that it had to be used solely on the United Glass Bottles contact in St Helens, and once registered it bore Reg No 770 BBU pictured below.
Seen here in the extensive Scott’s workshops at Pine Mill Oldham it is undergoing a pre registration vehicles inspection.
All of Scott’s vehicles were hand painted and sign written at the depot by Frank Wright who only had one arm.
Frank worked in the paint shop for over 20 years and and in the early years all the gold lettering on Scott’s vehicles was made up of real gold leaf something that would be unheard of today.
This particular tractor unit was allocated fleet No C16, the letter C defining that it had to be used solely on the United Glass Bottles contact in St Helens, and once registered it bore Reg No 770 BBU pictured below.
A number of big firms from years ago employed their own Painter/Signwriter. IIRC Brady’s in Barrow had their own paint shop on the end of the workshop building and from memory the painters name was Wilf ? Leyland 680 would be able to give us the full SP as I believe he used to hide in the paint shop if there was 'owt going on in the yard ! used to leave it all to Willy Dixon !! 
Cheers Dennis.
Registered sometime between Jan to April 1962 if anyone wants to know, BU being an Oldham (B) allocated registration as Moomooland’s text refers to. I could watch Alfie the signwriter/coachpainter employed by Newcastle based AW Ellis for a lot longer than I was supposed to, the paint just seemed to glide on, yet old Alfie always seemed to have permanent shaky hands, some said it was his penchant for a certain locally brewed Brown Ale but he certainly done a neat job. My one regret was I never got into the Signwriting trade as a youngster. Franky.
moomooland:
Yes i agree W & J Riding up the road in Longridge were exactly the same regarding Atkinson in fact Tom Riding only ever ran one AEC an account of which he recalls below…“AEC Mercury 4x2 tractor unit Reg No 470 OTB Fleet No 54 was a brand new addition to our fleet in 1960.
Nicknamed ‘Our Tom’s Baby’ it was bought in preference to a Super-Comet and was in fact the only AEC vehicle to enter service with Riding’s.
Fitted with a 5 speed gearbox and 2 speed axle it had excellent brakes and was very nice to drive.
Unfortunately, in my experience, the AEC engine could not take the same pain as the Gardner engines and engine life was always it’s problem which resulted in us only ever having this single AEC in our fleet”.
Similarly, Bowker had only a single Mercury in the early 60s, and also a solitary Ergo Mandator, neither of which lasted long on the predominantly Atkinson fleet. Having said that, the first Vabis units were acquired in 1967, and that was the start of the progression away from British motors, albeit, one that took 10 years to cement.
ECB 661D AEC Mandator by Chris Gardner, on Flickr
I think that one aspect of driving lorries from an earlier era compared with those of today is that different engines required different driving styles. You couldn’t drive a Gardner powered lorry in the same way as driving an AEC and vice versa. The higher revving AEC engines (and Leylands) couldn’t slog in the same way a Gardner could, so putting an AEC into a Gardner fleet was probably a disaster waiting to happen. Uncle employed a former Atki driver who was used to Gardners and on his first trip he blew the head gasket on a AV505 Mercury going up Windy Hill on the M62. Previously that engine had done over 300,000 miles and never been touched. The first time I drove an ERF with a Gardner 6LXB 180 I absolutely hated the thing; my driving style with AEC and Leyland engines was totally unsuited to the Gardner. So I had to change my style to suit the engine. I have always had the greatest respect for the Gardner engine and its well known attributes. As an operator I would have used them; as a driver no thank you.
moomooland:
0
Grindrods were a regular subcontractor for Markland Scowcroft at Bromley Cross, Bolton in the 1970s,
and occasionally seen at England Tubes, Higher Ince, Wigan, when work was extremely busy. Ray Smyth.
Gingerfold is so right about different driver styles for different engines,Eric Vick bought some Rolls powered units and they had a fair few problems.I had just changed yet another injector pump on one when the driver turned up.We went on a road test and shock/horror he was changing up every 200 revs!!! We swopped seats and I showed him how it should be driven. His previous lorry was Gardner powered. 
I had spent some time with a Rolls engineer trying to sort out a customers complaint about low mpg on his unit.We took it to Gloucester from Richard Reads and back and he told me to give it stick.
I totally agree with Leylandlover: I had a 265L Roller for about 2 years and found it gave best fuel consumption when the throttle was either flat out or coasting, nothing in between. Despite the “rattly” sound of the engine it proved mostly reliable except that the roll pin on the oil pump idler had a tendency to shear off every few thousand miles. It happened to me on two occasions, both times I was lucky enough to spot the oil pressure dropping and saved the engine. Curiously the other 265L that we ran, twelve months older than mine, never suffered from the problem, leading “sir” to hold me to blame!
Ray Smyth:
Grindrods were a regular subcontractor for Markland Scowcroft at Bromley Cross, Bolton in the 1970s,
and occasionally seen at England Tubes, Higher Ince, Wigan, when work was extremely busy. Ray Smyth.
Thanks for the info Ray here’s a few more AEC’s from the archives…
AEC Mandator works motor. 1965 AEC Ergomatic Mandator operated by Distillers Plastics of Barry Glamorgan. AEC Mandator, 1964 Commercial Motor Show.
moomooland:
3Ray Smyth:
Grindrods were a regular subcontractor for Markland Scowcroft at Bromley Cross, Bolton in the 1970s,
and occasionally seen at England Tubes, Higher Ince, Wigan, when work was extremely busy. Ray Smyth.Thanks for the info Ray here’s a few more AEC’s from the archives…
2AEC Mandator works motor.
11965 AEC Ergomatic operated by Distillers Plastics of Barry Glamorgan.
0AEC Mandator, 1964 Commercial Motor Show.
The Distillers Plastics Mandator was one of the very first Ergo cabbed models to go into service. It ended up with Spiers of Melksham. No doubt Bewick will agree with me that the sheeting and roping leaves a lot to be desired.
Double Post
moomooland:
AEC publicity shot from 1966 taken on Uxbridge Road Southall, note the AEC advert on the bridge.
It was one of the main routes often used to/from the North in the day through Greenford and Harrow on the Hill to avoid the traffic on the North Circular.
moomooland:
0
2444 W was the regular MK5 Mandator of Jack Turton. He later had a tilt cab Mercury on nights late 60s,running down to the Smoke for f and v and back up again to Sheffield.Trowbridge Transport belonged to Lodestar Ltd., Sheffield, who were engineers and also AEC agents,that’s why Jack’s Mercury would cruise past mine when I was on nights on an Abbey Wood changeover. 
I hope Dennis does not spot the sheeting on that Trowbridge AEC 