East Lancs EL2000

The East Lancs EL2000 is a type of single-decker bus body built on a wide variety of bus chassis by East Lancashire Coachbuilders.

Description
The EL2000 has an aluminium frame. It has bowed sides and a bowed top half of the rear end, with a high-set rear window.

There was some variability in the height and shape of the side windows, and the style of windscreen. One common design of windscreen was square-cornered, tapered in towards the top and curved around to the sides. Another was a two-piece flat windscreen with radiused outer corners. A third design used was a double-curvature windscreen with an arched top.

Many different chassis types, both new and secondhand, were fitted with EL2000 bodywork. These include:


 * Leyland Leopard (rebodies)
 * Leyland Tiger (rebodies)
 * Volvo B58 (rebodies)
 * Volvo B10M (both new and rebodies)
 * Volvo B6
 * Dennis Falcon
 * Dennis Dart
 * Dennis Lance
 * Scania K93
 * Scania N113

History
The EL2000 made its first appearance on rebodied Leyland Tigers at the end of 1989. It was superseded as a step-entrance body by the Flyte, starting in 1996 and stopped production in 2001.

East Lancs first rebodied an accident-damaged Leyland Atlantean with an EL2000 body for Sheffield Omnibus in 1992, with the conversion aimed at increasing its service life. The Atlantean was stripped of its double-deck body and had its chassis lengthened to 36 ft, receiving a new 10-leaf front and rear suspension, a new five-speed transmission and an AN68 Atlantean coach engine as well as its 47-seat single-deck body. Further rebodies and refurbishments were marketed as the 'Atlantean Sprint', with Southampton Citybus making orders for ten of its Atlanteans to be rebodied; only five of these rebodies were completed for Southampton.