DW317 - Home

Welcome Aboard !!

Dennis Dart J317XVX was acquired on 16th October 2010 from a private seller in Weymouth, Dorset, and
entered preservation proper from that date. It will be rallied for the first time during the 2011 season.

The bus has Wright Handybus bodywork and was new to County Bus at Grays garage in February 1992.
The bus carried the fleet number DW317 and survived at Grays into the Arriva era where she gained
the fleet number 3350. The bus mainly worked on route 383 between Lakeside shopping centre and
Chadwell St Mary though she almost certainly worked every route at Grays garage at some time or other -
in fact I have seen photographic proof that she operated on routes 256, 346, 370, 377 & 378 as well as
her more usual 352, 353 & 383. Unfortunately the relevant images were hard copies and accidentally
found their way into a rubbish bin before I had a chance to scan them.

As far as I’m aware, DW317 is the only former County Bus vehicle in preservation.

As purchased, 317 was in a bit of state with almost all of the seats and grab rails removed - the previous
owner had been intending to turn the bus into a mobile IT training suite!! Although damaged, thankfully
the previous owner had held on to most of the seats and grab rails so hopefully I’ll be able to put her
back together again - well that was the plan when I wrote this home page text; as you’ll see when you
look around the website, it hasn’t been as plain sailing as I’d hoped.....

The plan for the future is to fully restore the bus to it’s original livery and show her off at bus rallies and
such like in the south of England. The bus is also insured to carry passengers on free services at bus
rallies & road running days (I have a PCV driving licence), so once the seats are all back in, you could
be in with a chance of having a free ride if you’re very lucky!! (keep an eye on the rally page -
Clacton & Canvey rallies may prove to be of interest as DW317 will be made available for service...)

Cost and time will tell on how successful I am but it’s an opportunity I just couldn’t pass up - especially
as I worked and Grays garage and actually drove this very bus in service!

The idea of this website is to give the bus a presence on web whereby you can follow her return to 1992,
browse her previous history at your own leisure, and perhaps see which rallies I’m planning to take her to.

I hope this website proves of use to anyone that stops by to have a look...

If you wish to contact me, there are two ways to do so:

My other website’s email address, which is: ihavesomeinfo@thurrocktransport.co.uk

The discussion forum: www.dw317.proboards.com

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If an image on this website is copyright owned by you, then I’d be happy to acknowledge you
where appropriate. Much of the stuff on here has been passed onto me without mention of the
source, so I have not set out to rip anyone off intentionally.