7801 - 7960

The next development was a further order of bodies from Park Royal, as Northern Counties were unable to cope with the demand for the new vehicles, as Fleetline production had improved, following its move to Leyland.

The batch of Park Royal bodies, which were to be 160 Leyland Atlanteans, commenced at 7801 and the first of these was delivered on 23rd June 1977, by which time Northern Counties were still bodying the batch 7501 - 7800, and had reached 7739. By the time Northern Counties 7800 was delivered on 31st December 1977 the Park Royal batch had reached 7860.

At the time that Park Royal was invited to undertake this second batch of bodies, a number of the on-going design improvements with the Northern Counties developing Standard had occurred and these were all incorporated, as follows:

- h shaped rather than single grab rail on entrance.

- Rear two lower deck, near-side and offside windows converted from hoppers to sliders.

- Mark 1A body design with flat windscreen changed to curved windscreen.

- Portion of interior black melamine increased and raised above window level on both decks.

- All entrance and luggage rails covered in black plastic.

- Melamine on entrance/cab ceiling changed from white to black.

- Livery changed from sunglow orange/mancunian white to metropolitan orange/white.

- SELNEC Fleet name changed to Greater Manchester Transport.

- Smooth mid-deck panels for advertisement.

Also by this time Atlanteans were fully automatic rather than semi-automatic as the previous Park Royal Atlanteans had been. In terms of the Park Royal body itself there were a few changes, in that:

- The Driver's window in this latter batch was the standard size used on the Northern Counties Standards, rather than the smaller one exhibited on the earlier 200 Park Royal bodies.

- The staircase surround on the upper deck was higher than previously.

- All the interior window surrounds were plastic covered rather than being exposed aluminium.

- The upper deck seat backs had changed from being smooth PVC to ribbed.

- Rather than having the small metal vents on the lower deck above the front and rear windows, these were replaced by the plastic vents which had been common on Northern Counties Standards.

The SELNEC Preservation Society felt it appropriate to preserve an example of this type of later body design, particularly as it depicted the Mark 1A Standard with curved windscreen with all 15 design changes since 7001/7143.

[ Back ] [ Up ] [ Next ]