British United Traction
British United Traction was a joint venture between Leyland and AEC, set up after the war to produce road vehicles. With the imminent modernisation of the railways they set up a rail section inn 1953 and eventually supplied around 75% of all the DMU engines and control equipment in the UK, and also had extensive sales abroad.
They were not so succesful with their complete rail vehicles in this country. Some were built under its associated companies — Park Royal was a sibling company to AEC, both being part of the Associated Commercial Vehicles (ACV) group.
- 4-wheeled railcars (11) - some as ACV
- Class 103 (40) (built under the Park Royal brand by Crossley)
- Railbuses (5) (built under the Park Royal brand)
Both companies had previous railcar experience, AEC most noticably with the GWR railcars and Leyland with three it built for the LMS. A detailed history of the company can be found in the publicity booklet "Diesel Rail Power". It is dated circa late 1959 / early 1960.
This is an earlier Brochure, circa 1953. The cover is 8¼" x 13½", it acted as a binder with the contents held in by a string. The pages were smaller at 8" x 13", some were a 4 page item (1 piece folded). The last page was very light paper, and was no doubt meant to be completed and submitted to the company.
The company offered training for railway staff, the British United Traction certificate pictured is noted as being for a "B.U.T.—A.E.C. Diesel engine course at Southall".
There was also a British United Traction training school at Leyland, for which British Railways had booked for a considerable period.