Realised we don't have a one of these threads for Arriva!

This one is no longer living on, but 7392 nevertheless...
And slightly more recently is this one.

The presentation of the "Local Bus Scene" forums has really been irritating me as of late, and I've been conjuring up various ideas to make the forums more presentable. I've finally had a chance to get round to doing a few updates, and these are outlined below:

Arriva, Go North East and Stagecoach North East forums

• These forums have been massively 'cleaned up'. Several threads within these forums have been merged into the main "Latest" thread for each operator. There were a number of threads with minimal discussion after the original post, and the posts within some were complaints that the member had started a new thread when it could have easily fit into one of the main categorised threads.
  
• All "Latest" threads merged. Last year, we decided to split each of the main "Latest" threads by month to ease strain on our servers which was making the forum run slowly. We were not consistent in doing this, meaning that threads up until mid-2013 had been split with the rest left in one massive thread. We have encountered no major problems with the speed of the forum since we upgraded to paid hosting, so I have decided to merge all of these threads back into one again.
  
• All forums have been standardised. The threads in each forum have been replicated and re-named accordingly so that they are all the same. "Read Me" threads have been created explaining this in each forum.
  
• "Fleet News" thread from each of the forums removed. Instead, a new announcement system will be used. After the news is published, a small announcement bar will appear on the main forum index screen for 24 hours. When the news feature was first implemented in late 2013, there were concerns that these posts were somewhat obtrusive and unnecessary. My main gripe with these posts as of late has been the fact that they are quite time-consuming, and I'm often rather pushed for time when writing up the news, so this will save a few minutes for me whilst (hopefully) combating the concerns which were made some 12+ months ago.
  

That's all... for now!

Rather surprised we don't have a thread for these yet!

Recent arrivals to the fleet are Mercedes Vario YJ04GYU (from Coatham Coaches) and Bova Futura E8OVA (from Cumbria Coaches) - both wear the new style livery

Based at Margrove Park near Guisborough.

News to start us off is Mercedes Vario YJ04GYU sold to Rothbury Motors

I'll admit - I'm a huge James Bond fan! Anyone else?

Just looking for people's thoughts and opinions on Spectre. I'm quite concerned about all of this leaked stuff, hopefully it doesn't have any effect on the movie itself.

My top three movies would be;

1) Skyfall (2012)
2) For Your Eyes Only (1981)
3) Diamonds are Forever (1971)

I would also have those 3 movie's theme songs as my top 3 Bond songs. My top 3 actors would be Roger Moore (007), Dame Judi Dench (M - about the 4th one I think! ) and Daniel Craig (007), in that order.

The only thing I'm not really looking forward to with Spectre is Ralph Fiennes as M. Would much rather have Judi Dench's straight face for some reason!

Click here a link to the 23 best Bond moments - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNLLPbMThGM

What would your top 3 movies, actors and songs be?

Okay, so the aim of the game is the following;

One person will say one word (and one word only! ), and the next response must be a bus-related word starting with the end letter of the previous poster's word. 

Should be pretty simple - but just to give an example, I might say 'Bus', the next person may say 'Station', and the person after that could use 'Network'.

Your response must be clear and in bold, and just the single word. 

I'll start with a post below!

EDIT: Just to make it a bit easier once we're quite far in, words can be recycled, but not too much!

We have a Nexus thread, so thought it prudent to have one for DCC.
No harm in creating one for other authorities either.

Noticed last weekend, that the Northbound stop on Durham Road, just north of Blind Lane/Park Road North is being reconstructed, now the works have finished in the area.
It is of a stone/concrete roof design.

Also, I believe a stop is being planned for the stretch of road on the site of the old firestation at Fencehouses (northbound).
The new houses seem to have been fully constructed and with a stop being on the other side for Chester/Houghton services, it made sense putting a northbound stop there, filling the big void that exists currently.
A layby type facility has been built already.

Maybe this is one for younger members, but what is anyone hoping to get for Christmas this year?

A new camera? A PS4? Money? A Key Card top up?

Personally I'd like my Grandad back! First year without him and it'll be quite strange without him. Fortunately, he left all four of us quite a bit of money to sort of 'compensate' (as he would put it!) the loss this year! Generous guy.

Liam has had a bit more time to work on updating features of the site as of late, and we thought that one of our main priorities should be to update the fleetlists.

We've had some suggestions for the fleetlists in the past; arguably, these features could have been some of the most difficult to code.

So, without further ado, the updates are given below:

• Updated fleet list homepage (Work in Progress)*
  
• New, cleaner look for the fleet lists.
  
• New 'titles' for the fleet lists added, additionally showing when the fleet lists were last updated.
  
• Searchable 'Euro Classification' column added, giving details of the level of emissions produced by the engine of that vehicle.
  
• Icons added to show whether a vehicle is equipped with Wi-Fi, Power Sockets and Next Stop Announcements
  
• Minor changes to the styling of each fleet item record (Work In Progress)**
  

* This is far from complete at the moment but is continuously being worked on until Liam and I agree on a style - he has to get it past me before you guys see it! It's the third anniversary of tyresmoke's own website today; it feels somewhat appropriate to mention this, as his website laid the foundation for what we have on this website today. As most of you will know, Scott made the decision to close his website earlier this year and merge all of the content onto this website. The fleet news for each individual independent operator is discussed within the forums now, and the content for each individual fleet list is still in the process of being brought across. Between the administration/moderation team, we all have educational, social and work priorities which have to become before the hobby, meaning that we try to get things done in whatever limited free time we have, but this means progress is often slow. We are growing ever-closer to the fleet lists being complete though, so we've decided to include the independent fleet lists on the main 'Fleet List' homepage when we roll the update out. On a related note, updates to the Tyne & Wear Metro fleet list are few and far between. The views on this fleet list are incredibly dire, and the Metrocar refurbishment project is almost at completion, meaning that updates will be even less frequent. I'd like to gather your views on this first, but I don't think a fleet list can be justified, and something within the forums itself would perhaps be more suitable...

** We're obviously going to include the additions to the fleet lists (Euro status, Wi-Fi, etc) to the revised pages, but we also intend on making these pages a bit more mobile-friendly. We haven't decided on the styling yet, but it takes a lot of time and effort for Liam to get it past me first, so I'll update you when this has been completed.

I still need to go through and alter the fleet lists to update the Euro status and on-board features for every vehicle in the Arriva, Go North East and Stagecoach fleets (hopefully with the assistance of NEB's trusty moderation team! ) but this should be finished before next week.

If you have any further suggestions or comments to make - now is the time to make them! It's unlikely Liam will continue working on updating things for a good few months after he's finished, so best to speak up now.

19153 has broken down outside Heaton Cemetry. Of all places for an engine to die