First Eastern Counties Buses 493 (JDZ 2376) in Bury St. Edmunds – Nov/Dec 1998

November/December 1998 - First Eastern Counties Buses 493 (JDZ 2376) seen in Bury St. Edmunds bus station. It is a Wright Handybus bodied Dennis Dart that had been new to the Centrebus operation of London Buses in May 1991 as their DW76.

There were 170 of the DW class in the Centrebus fleet which, like Eastern Counties, later became part of First Group. As a result Eastern Counties inherited quite a number of different types of vehicles transferred from other First Group affiliates. A feature of the Handybus model when new, whether in split screen or single screen format, was the use of black paint in the indented area surrounding the destination display and below the windscreen. This made for quite a different visual effect from that seen on this bus.