AEC Regent III - 2338

After World War II, a total of 845 double decker bus chassis were ordered by the Department of Road Transport & Tramways, from manufacturers in the United Kingdom.

These deliveries enabled the withdrawal of buses that had been running since the 1930s, restarted the tramway replacement program in Sydney and Newcastle and enabled the expansion of Government bus services in both cities.

The Associated Equipment Company (AEC) supplied 359 Regent III buses. All were delivered with the then new and revolutionary pre-selector semi-automatic gearbox.

The first 309 were built by Commonwealth Engineering of Granville and fitted with canvas front doors, as demonstrated by Museum buses 792 and 2087. These were later removed and panelled over in later overhauls. The last 50, bodied by Clyde Engineering, had air operated jack-knife front doors.

2338 was bodied by Commonwealth Engineering and entered service on December 2nd 1949. Initially allocated to Randwick depot, it spent time at Pagewood, Enfield, Willoughby and North Sydney depots before settling at Ryde depot. Early in 1973 the bus was sent to Burwood depot before being withdrawn in November 1973.

Hunter Valley Coaches of Maitland purchased the vehicle and registered it MO 5203. It was deregistered by Hunter Valley in 1977 and sold to a member for preservation. 2338 was brought to Sydney in 1986 where Iit was restored to 1970s condition.

2338 was taken out of Museum service in 2012 to undergo a thorough overhaul, including the replacement of the metal frame and aluminium panels by our dedicated volunteers and a repaint of the bus was carried out by Custom Coaches in early 2015.