businesses and its own manufacturing firm, which was renamed AEC Limited. The initials AEC remained on its vehicles, with the exception of some badge-engineered versions, such as the Crossley Regent bus. In 1949 ACV acquired the bus coachbuilding company Park Royal Vehicles, along with its subsidiary Charles H Roe. Park Royal designed a new cab for the AEC Mercury in the mid-1950s, which appeared on all models across the range about this time. In 1961 ACV acquired Thornycroft. The Thornycroft name disappeared from all the vehicles except the specialist airport crash tenders, such as the Nubian, and the Antar off-road tractor unit. Production of the AEC Dumptruk was transferred to Basingstoke, and the Thornycroft six-speed constant-mesh gearbox and later nine and ten-speed range-change versions were fitted to AEC, Albion and Leyland buses and lorries. The AEC engines were used in Finnish Vanaja lorries and buses in the 1960s. Leyland takeover Leyland Motors acquired ACV in 1962. AEC lorries were given the same "Ergomatic" cabs used across several Leyland marques (including Albion). In 1968, all AEC double-decker buses ceased production with the completion of the last Routemasters, and its last buses, motorcoaches and lorries were built in 1979. The AEC name actually disappeared from commercial vehicles in 1977, but the Leyland Marathon was built at the Southall plant until British Leyland closed it in 1979. In 1979, the production of Leyland (AEC) vehicles was transferred to remaining Leyland Truck and Bus plants. Foreign operations ACLO ACLO (supposed to be the acronym of Associated Company Lorries and Omnibuses) was the brand name used by AEC in Latin America and in Spain to sell all their products. ACLOs were principally found in Argentina, Brazil, and particularly in Uruguay, where there were two ACLO fleets (150 buses in total) built by Verheul in the Netherlands on the Regal Mark IV chassis. They were interesting buses, faster than Leyland Tiger in use by other fleets. It was said at the time (early '60s) that the main reason was inter-urban gearing instead of purely urban gearing present in Leylands. An interesting feature was the preselector gear-change, similar to those in Leyland buses, controlled by a small gated lever installed by the steering wheel, with a reversed gate, with first gear to the right and up, and fourth gear to the bottom and left. In Argentina, 25 Verheul buses also built on the Regal Mark IV chassis