SELNEC NORTHERN COUNTIES BODIED LEYLAND ATLANTEAN STANDARDS 7146-7150

When the first 500 production SELNEC Standards were ordered, they were split into four body/chassis combinations. Park Royal was to body 145 AN68 Atlanteans, which they did in the Batch 7001-714 and they also bodied 55 Daimler Fleetlines in the Batch 7151-7205, and that was the end of their involvement as an overspill bodybuilder as the definitive SELNEC, and later GMT Standard was to be built by Northern Counties, who built the 21 prototypes, EX1-EX21.

It later transpired that Park Royal did again act as an overspill facility between 1978 and 1979, when they built a further 160 Park Royal bodied Atlanteans 7801-7960.

The remainder of the first 500 production Standards were to be built by Northern Counties with 300 bodies with 295 on Daimler Fleetline chassis 7206-7500, of which it turned out that only 48 were dual door variations, the remainder being single door, and just five Northern Counties bodied Leyland Atlanteans were ordered at that time - these being the odd batch 7146-7150.

These vehicles were unique as they did not replicate the prototype Northern Counties bodied Atlanteans as they had been PDR1A/I' s and these were AN68's. Consequently, there was a large difference between EX1-EX6 and 7146-7150, unlike the Fleetline prototypes and production vehicles which looked very similar bodywise as the Fleetline chassis was the same on both.

At the time, these five Northern Counties production Atlanteans were the rarest chassis/body combination, as one took the view then, that Atlanteans tended to be bodied by Park Royal, and Fleetlines by Northern Counties.

However, the Northern Counties bodied Leyland Atlantean was to become the most prolific chassis/body combination of all time - 300 being delivered in the batch 7501-7800. These differed from the odd five as they had the Mark 1A bodywork with wrap-round windscreen and most of them from 7560 onwards were fully automatic. Thereafter, another 650 Northern Counties bodied Leyland Atlanteans were ordered in the batch 8151-8765 with another 240 Fleetlines joining the Standards, being 8001-8150 and 6901-6990.

Of the odd five, most of then were destroyed as scrap at or not long after de-regulation in October 1986, except for one vehicle, 7147 (VNB 173L) which was left in the ownership of the PTE and passed to IMPACT who undertook some work on it at Birchfields in 1987. It was offered to The SELNEC Preservation Society for �500 to swap with Father O'Leary in order to obtain EX1 in 1988, but because at the time it did not contain any seats, we declined and purchased 7110 instead.

Eventually, it passed to Finglands from IMPACT, and now runs for Edwards Coaches in Pontypridd, who incidentally, also run two Park Royal bodied Atlanteans,  7057 and 7103 and have 7208 as a site office.

From this batch of five vehicles, there is only one survivor:

7147 - SELNEC Preservation Society

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