7960 (BNC 960T)

We had already acquired a vehicle with a Mark 1A Northern Counties body, with the preservation of Fleetline 8001, and the purchase of 7960 allowed us to obtain a vehicle with a Mark 1A Park Royal body, which is on an Atlantean chassis as there were no Fleetlines so bodied.

In looking at the batch 7801-7960, it was felt appropriate to choose either the first of this batch, which by 1996 had been sold to Western Scottish, and was running in service as D808, or to obtain the last of the batch, 7960. It was decided to choose the last of the batch which was withdrawn from service in the summer of 1995, as this represented a 'book-end' with 7001, being the last Park Royal bodied Standard compared with the first, (7001) as well as the last of the batch of 160 of the second delivery. It is also the last vehicle in the 7000 fleet number series, as after 7960, the next vehicle was 8001, since there was no batch 7961-8000.

Furthermore, it is understood to be one of the last, if not the actual last, free standing chassis bodied by Park Royal before concentrating exclusively on integral Titan development. Hence, 7960 has some historical significance outside the realms of SELNEC and GMT.

A large batch of Park Royal bodied Atlanteans was taken out of service by GM Buses South Ltd during 1995 and as 7960 was owned by them, negotiations commenced in September 1995. 7960 was originally on a list of these vehicles to go for scrap, and during the period when negotiations were taking place, most of them were stripped and sent for scrap. However, 7960 was eventually separated from the rest of the vehicles although it had lost several of its parts. It was subsequently collected from Bennett Street by the SELNEC Preservation Society on 10th February 1996, and the purchase of the vehicle was finalised on 5th April 1996. Most of the missing parts on 7960 were replaced from parts taken from similar vehicles marked to go for scrap at the same time.

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