Arriva North West - Bootle Depot

[M113 YKC]

RE: Arriva North West - Bootle Depot
Cadets 2518 and 2638 had unusual days yesterday - the former was on the 52/52A and the latter was on the 58! Also on the 52/52A was "DLA" 4026, with Enviro400 4415 continuing the regular Enviro400 appearances on the services. On the subject of Enviro400s, 4420 was being shunted back into Bootle depot at about 13:30 yesterday. Whilst all of the other ex-Birkenhead 'deckers have had their "crossriver express" branding removed more-or-less tidily, I noticed that the job that's been done to 4420 is poor and it remains as distinctive ghost branding...!

Marshall-wise, it appears that fire-damaged 7674 is still in its resident garage-area in the depot and is missing a bit of its back-end; if I was to make my own judgement, I'd say that it looks like it's had work done to it compared to what it was like when I last seen it! Furthermore, it appears that old-liveried 7662 has had an MOT as it features shiny wheel-trims - I couldn't identify which Marshall it was for sure, however I've seen 7663 and 7667 on the road whilst this ancient-looking Marshall has had a renewed MOT, which leaves the third Bootle-based old-coloured Marshall, 7662 (unless it's a visitor from elsewhere), unaccounted for. I wonder if there aren't plans for Bootle's Marshalls to depart the fleet in the foreseeable future, taking into consideration that Bootle have had a large amount of new buses recently which have replaced older (and, in some cases, better!) buses...

Finally, I rode on ex-Wrexham-based Pulsar 2911 on the 52 yesterday. I must say that, likewise with 2910, it was in a pretty-much tidy condition and it was quite a smooth runner, free of any mad rattles. Overall, I'm impressed with both former Wrexham Pulsars at the moment, although disappointed that those which went to Birkenhead were treated to cosmetic maintenance and Bootle's weren't... I've found that some of Bootle's older Pulsars and Pulsar 2s have really deteriorated in quality recently - 2916 (dreadful differential sounds and noises from underneath) and 2919 (engine sounding like it may be expiring [ticking-over poorly] - like 2918 was, however that seems to have had some maintenance as it sounds less hyperactive at the moment!) being two of the worst that I've been on.