PRV30
AEC Regent V / Park Royal
(30ft, front-entrance)
as East Kent Road Car

Canterbury-based East Kent Road Car Company standardised from 1958 to 1968 on the 30 foot long AEC Regent V for its double deck bus requirements. The first forty of these were the stylish full-fronted PFN 'Puffins', for which a kit was produced some years ago by Fanfare Models. The remaining 121, delivered between 1961 and 1968, as represented by this kit, featured a somewhat boxy 72-seat half-cab body with many features inspired by Park Royal's body for the Bridgemaster. These were delivered in six batches, of which details are annotated below. The 1967/1968 MFNs were the last 30 foot Regent Vs delivered to a UK operator, after which East Kent at last followed the national trend to rear engined 'deckers'.

Suitable sources of reference photographs are 'Glory Days, East Kent', recently published by Ian Allan, 'The Best of British Buses No.10, Post-war Regents', published by TPC in 1986, and 'Park Royal Vehicles, Part Two', published by TPC in 1980.

Regent Vs with similar bodies, which could be converted from this kit, were:

• Thirteen 73-seat forward-entrance buses, delivered in 1962 to the Atomic Energy Research Establishment (AERE) at Harwell, near Didcot, Berkshire (I know that it's in Oxfordshire but it wasn't then), for staff transport. These were painted mid-blue with a light grey roof and round the upper deck windows.
• One forward-entrance 55-seat bus, 220CXK, with large rear lower deck luggage compartment, delivered in 1961 to British European Airways (BEA).
• Three rear platform 73-seat buses, delivered in 1961 to Mayne's of Droylesden, Manchester.

42 Park Royal rear platform bodies with similar styling were supplied on 27 foot AEC Regent and Leyland PD2 chassis to Southampton Corporation between 1961 and 1963. These could be cobbled from this kit, but with much difficulty.

Several East Kent vehicles and at least one AERE vehicle, 243AJB, are preserved. Credit is acknowledged to the owner of the latter vehicle for assistance in creating this model.

The kit includes 'generic' upper deck floor and chassis castings for 30 foot double deck buses. The Regent V bonnet casting will need the foot step filed smooth and filled in for East Kent buses, and the 'square' offside mudguard will need filing to a curve, as on the nearside, for East Kent buses as delivered, and for the other operators' buses. The asymmetrical arrangement of the front mudguards was an East Kent quirk adopted later in these buses' life, which I have included for ease of conversion.

The model is based on the third 1963 'FN' version.

Principal differences between the various vehicle deliveries were:

Operator	Registration	Year	Details
East Kent Road Car H40/32F	WFN827-842 (16)	1961	Single-piece metal-framed opening windscreen. Illuminated advert panel on offside upper deck.
East Kent Road Car H40/32F	YJG810-216 (17)	1962	Split metal-framed windscreen. Illuminated advert panel on offside upper deck.
East Kent Road Car H40/32F	6783-6805FN (23)	1963	Split metal-framed windscreen. No advert panel.
East Kent Road Car H40/32F	AFN763-782B (20)	1964	Rubber-mounted fixed windscreen. One-piece lower deck rear window. Bottom hinged rear emergency door.
East Kent Road Car H40/32F	GJG733-762D (30)	1966	Rubber-mounted fixed windscreen. One-piece lower deck rear window. Bottom hinged rear emergency door. Front upper deck windows have square profile. Fewer opening windows of hopper type.
East Kent Road Car H40/32F	MFN938-952F (15)	1967-68	Rubber-mounted fixed windscreen. One-piece lower deck rear window. Bottom hinged rear emergency door. Front upper deck windows have square profile. Fewer opening windows of hopper type. Window in offside staircase panel. Stated to be 8ft 2½" wide. Needs some lateral thinking.
AERE H41/32F	101-113 235-247AJB (13)	1062	Generally similar to the WFNs with one-piece windscreen. Footstep on radiator cowl. Between decks beading will need to be removed on all but the front and first side panels. Poster moulding also to be removed. Rectangular number plate in rear offside bottom corner. Larger rear light clusters incorporating trafficators. Double seat replaces single on upper deck next to the stairs.
BEA 55-seat	220CXK (1)	1961	Split windscreen as per the YJGs and FNs. LT-type front trafficator ears. Lower deck windows will need filling in to create luggage area with half-length window above rear wheelarch. Check with photographs.
Mayne H41/32R	6972-6974ND (3)	1961	Body pillar spacing is correct for this model, but significant conversion is required to produce rear platform version. One-piece opening windscreen is slightly shallower than on the East Kent buses.