(03 May 2014, 1:59 pm)Robert wrote It got fixed! I rode on it one week and it was slow up banks (used to be the worst as it was slower than 3814) and then the next week I rode on it on the same route and it was fine! I was so shocked
When 3821, 3822 and 3825 were at Chester following the withdrawal of the Palatine 1's, they were amongst the most reliable vehicles in the depot in my opinion. The problem was, time was catching up with them (some driver's thought they were from the mid 80s depsite me trying to tell them that the builder's plate right next to the door clearly stated 1998). The SDM for the 56 and 20 at the minute is Cath Bell, and she used to drive my scholars service before she moved to Deptford just over a year ago. She would do the 844 in the morning with the contracted 3983 (thats why it rarely does any non-scholars work unless on weekends, because it is always allocated to the 844), and then the 887 on the evening, normally with 3821, 3822 or 3825 or a Northern decker. Cath and me got on really well, but from time to time when we had one of those 3 Pally 2s a couple of incidents happened;
In about early March a couple of weeks before she left, an elderly woman got onboard. The vehicle if I recall was 3822, and as soon as she closed the doors, she found the bus could not move. Everybody blamed the unexpected passenger
Less than a week later, we had 3821. She told me it had been on the pits all day because it had a problem with it's hand brake, so she had to have her hand down on it every second of the journey otherwise it would give way. As we soared up Front Street, a kid jumped over the railing and down the stairs. He was unharmed, but she was worried and briefly stopped to check he was okay. Suddenly, the bus couldn't move at all. We were all stranded on the bank going up Front Street, and about half a dozen buses in each direction were queueing because both sides of the road was blocked (we had just swerved to go around a Gregg's van
). From what I gathered, (I was fine because I was about to get off anyway) they were there for about an hour with several engineers desperatley trying to get 3821 moving again. 3825 was fine, and I think it was suited to the 887. I was quite dissappointed when it got sent up to Stanley, but at least you get to benefit from it