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.
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 which had a flatter windscreen, and the Palatine II which had a curved windscreen with an arched top resembling that of the single-decker Northern Counties Paladin.
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 It was superseded by the Plaxton President in 1999.Variants
