These blue and orange AEC's in Lisbon or Porto remind me of another keen operator of that make called Smiths of Reading which operated about eighty-eight vehicles. However private firms with more than fifty vehicles were nationalised as part of Portugal's orange and cream RN fleet, but there were plenty of small ones left to add to the variety when I visited there in the Eighties. RN buses were even more common in the South such as here at Faro.
I adored the orange and white buses of RN. They still call me 'mister RN' in Portugal. In the south companies had already merged before nationalization. That is why companies like Transul, Belos and EVA were enormous. Only later in life when attending running days in Portugal I got familiar with the small and colourful companies from the north.
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