Northern Counties Palatine

The Northern Counties Palatine was a step-entrance 2-axle and 3-axle double-decker bus body built by Northern Counties in Wigan, England.

Northern Counties Palatine
Keighley & District Northern Counties Palatine bodied Leyland Olympian
Overview
ManufacturerNorthern Counties
Production1992 - 1999
AssemblyWigan
Body and chassis
Doors1 or 2
Floor typeStep entrance
ChassisDAF DB250
Dennis Arrow
Dennis Dominator
Leyland Olympian
Scania N113
Volvo Citybus
Volvo Olympian
Chronology
SuccessorPlaxton President

The Palatine was built mainly on Leyland Olympian and Volvo Olympian chassis, although smaller sized orders were also built for customers on DAF DB250, Dennis Arrow, Dennis Dominator, Volvo B10M Citybus and Scania N113DRB chassis.

Two variants existed, the Palatine I (known as "Palatine" before 1992) which had a flatter windscreen, and the Palatine II (launched in 1993) which had a curved windscreen with an arched top resembling that of the single-decker Northern Counties Paladin.[1][2]

MTL were a notable buyer, a batch of high-specification Palatine IIs entered service in 1996 on the 'Cross River' services through the Mersey Tunnels. Another batch of 22, branded as 'The Millennium Fleet' began operating on Merseyside in 1998.

Tri-axle Volvo Olympians with Northern Counties Palatine bodies were exported to Hong Kong. Between 1996 and 1998, Citybus received 55 and Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation received 15.

Some Northern Counties Palatine buses were built as open-top buses for sightseeing purposes. It was superseded by the Plaxton President in 1999.

Variants

References
  1. Buses named Commercial Motor 5 March 1992
  2. Spectra rival from Northern Counties Commercial Motor 3 September 1992

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