1944 AEC Matador

This is one of the participants in the Emergency & Specialised Vehicles class at the Greater Manchester Transport Society's Trans Lancs Historic Vehicle Rally in Heaton Park, Manchester in September 1995.

It's the 1944 AEC Matador from the Society's own Museum of Transport in Manchester and is a former military vehicle that was converted to a recovery vehicle for Lancashire United which was based in Atherton and was swallowed up by the Greater Manchester Transport Executive in 1976. A note in the programme of the event says this:

AEC Matador, 1945                                                                                                                                   LSU282

Entered by                    Greater Manchester Transport Society

Used for many years by Lancashire United Transport as their recovery vehicle at Atherton garage, it

was presented  to the  Museum of Transport in 1985 and has  given excellent service  in the recovery

of exhibits for the collection since that date.

Strangely, though the programme says it's a 1945 vehicle the Museum's own website says that it dates from 1943, and the DVLA record shows the year of manufacture as 1944.