1945 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 1945 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

Previously a towing vehicle for Wigan Corporation, this vehicle was originally a gun tractor for the army. It was rebodied by Seddon and shows little resemblance with its previous appearance.

Strangely, though the programme says it's a 1945 vehicle the Museum's own website says that it dates from 1941, and the DVLA record shows the year of manufacture as 1944.