AEC Matador (Q142 VOE)
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![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Midland_Red_West_tow_truck%2C_rebodied_AEC_Matador_%28517_DA%29%2C_3_November_1986.jpg/200px-Midland_Red_West_tow_truck%2C_rebodied_AEC_Matador_%28517_DA%29%2C_3_November_1986.jpg)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/86/North_Birmingham_Busways_towing_vehicle_1_%28WDA_956T%29%2C_Wythall_Transport_Museum%2C_21_October_2012_%282%29.jpg/200px-North_Birmingham_Busways_towing_vehicle_1_%28WDA_956T%29%2C_Wythall_Transport_Museum%2C_21_October_2012_%282%29.jpg)
English: Q142 VOE is a modified 7.7 litre AEC Matador tow truck. Originally an Army gun tractor, it was purchased from the Ministry of Supply by the Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company, who at some point rebuilt it using spare bodywork parts from their Carlyle Works (BMMO were a bus operator trading as Midland Red, who also manufactured their own buses under the BMMO name). It was used by the company for many decades at Digbeth depot in Birmingham, latterly in yellow service vehicle livery, being inherited by various successor companies into the 1980s. At some point it passed to another Midlands bus operator, the 1994 established North Birmingham Busways, who numbered it No.1 and painted it in their green and cream livery. It eventually passed to the Wythall Transport Museum, who have preserved it as NBB No. 1.