SUMMARY

SELNEC existed between 1st September 1969 and 31st March 1974, followed by Greater Manchester Transport 1st April 1974 - 25th October 1986. After de-regulation on 26th October 1986, the Operating Company was Greater Manchester Buses until it was split into two Divisions, North and South on 1st April 1994. Since then, the North Company has been sold to First Group and the South Company to Stagecoach.

From the original prototype Standard design on EX1 (PNF 941J) in 1970, Northern Counties has continued to develop the Standard body, not only for first and second generation rear engined chassis delivered to SELNEC/GMT and its subsequent organisations, such as GM Buses, but also used it as their Standard double-deck bus for orders placed with them from other organisations up and down the country and became named the Northern Counties Palatine 1 body. This was still being manufactured up to December 1998 when the last Palatine 1 body was manufactured, being body No. 6497, which was one of two vehicles supplied to J.J. Kavanagh & Sons in County Kildaire, Ireland.

Consequently, this design had been in production for a total of 28 years, which is a testament to the forward looking designers at SELNEC and Northern Counties in 1970 and the practicality of the way the body had been designed for easy maintenance and repair. Even today, in 2001, the Northern Counties bodied Atlanteans look particularly modern, despite them being in some cases over 20 years old.

Northern Counties did produce a more modern design, the Palatine 2, which was in production for a few years before this and the Palatine 1 were discontinued to make way for their new style body, the President.

We have been keen to reflect the quorum of different body and chassis styles of the main Atlantean/Fleetline SELNEC/GMT Standards, the nine variations of the four Types being:

Leyland Atlantean/Northern Counties prototype	-	EX1	(Type iii)
Daimler Fleetline/Northern Counties prototype (dual-door)	-	EX19	(Type iv)
Leyland Atlantean/Park Royal Mk1	-	7077/7143	(Type i)
Leyland Atlantean/Northern Counties Mk1	-	7147	(Type iii)
Daimler Fleetline/Park Royal Mk1	-	7185	(Type ii)
Daimler Fleetline/Northern Counties Mk1 (dual-door)	-	7206/7232	(Type iv)
Leyland Atlantean/Northern Counties Mk1A	-	7501	(Type iii(R))
Leyland Atlantean/Park Royal Mk1A	-	7960	(Type i(R))
Leyland Fleetline/Northern Counties Mk1A (single-door) GMT	-	8001/8141	(Type iv(R))
Leyland Fleetline/Northern Counties Mk1A (single-door) LUT	-	6901/6990	(Type iv(R))
Leyland Atlantean/Northern Counties Alloy	-	8460/8765	(Type iiiA)

Other Standards Preserved

7001 - Museum of Transport

7719 - Matthew Dixon (might be 8160)

6927 - R Johnson and D J Hilla

6931 - Barry Edwards

8151 - GM Buses Group

8551 - GM Buses Group

8573 - Andrew McKeown

8697 - GM Buses Group

8706 - Museum of Transport (Manchester)

8758 - Scott Pendleton

8763 - Simon Flower

There have been over 2,000 SELNEC/GMT Standard double deck buses built for operation, and our preservation efforts have concentrated on preserving the rarer and more unique of this significantly relevant group of vehicles, the majority of which were built on Atlantean/Fleetline chassis, and fall into the four basic body/chassis combinations described earlier.

The Museum of Transport has custody of 7001 on behalf of the PTE, which represents Type i of the 305 Park Royal bodied Leyland Atlanteans, reflected also in The SELNEC Preservation Society's preservation of 7143 and 7960. However, the efforts of The SELNEC Preservation Society have concentrated on the minor groups, and has three vehicles representing not only the other three Types, but also three rare classes of Standard, as below:

-           EX1 representing Type iii, and a group of only (6) Northern Counties/Leyland Atlantean prototype Standards which formed the basis of a total of (21) prototypes and is the smallest group of all - EX1 was also the first Standard of all.

-           7206 which represents Type iv, but is also the first of a group of only (48) dual door production Standards (53 with the prototypes), and the first 'production' Fleetline put into service.

-           7185 which represents Type ii, the rarest type of body/chassis combination of only (55) Daimler Fleetlines bodied by Park Royal.

Hence, amongst nearly 2,000 Standard vehicles, The SELNEC Preservation Society now had one vehicle that represents each of these three rare groups of 6/21 prototypes, 48/53 dual door Standards and 55 Fleetline Standards bodied by Park Royal.

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