Merseyside Dennis Dart Website

• Arriva have begun a mass reallocated of vehicles following the completion of track laying work on the Metrolink, thus bringing an end to the Tram Replacement services. Amongst the changes to have taken place, most of the buses that were on loan from Merseyside depots have returned to their original depots, whilst the 07 reg Commanders that had been in use are now mainly at Chester, with two, 2626 & 2627 at Green Lane. All of the 756x Darts that were at Speke have now returned to Wales, but the three Cadets 2517 - 2519 have moved to Bootle, so in their place are Darts 2109 R609 MHN, 2123 S627 KHN & 2127 S627 KHN. Many of the Speke B10Bs are now at Birkenhead too, whilst the DAF DB250RS/Northern Counties Palatine II from Birkenhead (that were at Speke previously anyway) are now back at Speke!

• Eazibus had Alexander Dennis Enviro200Dart demo SN56 AYA [photo] on loan at the start of September, for a two week evaluation, during which is operated mainly on the 167 (Garston Circular). Apparently although the owners of Eazibus did like this vehicle, its main problem was the lack of low floor seats at the very front of the bus, when compared to the usual Optare Solo that operates this route, but they may consider them should they ever need longer vehicles. This is a fair point really, as with the Solo as its front wheels are ahead of the front door, so proper forward facing seats at floor level begin at the very front. On the Plaxton Primo demo they used, the wheelarch seats are at a low level (as the wheels are tiny!) so perhaps if ADL were to use some of what is in the Primo (or improve the Primo) in a shorter bus, (an Enviro100 for example!), they might have a better bus to compete with shorter Optare Solos. Eazibus do however have two more Optare Solos on order, one rumoured to be a MAN engined example, the first on Merseyside, possibly for the newly awarded contract for the 201 (Royal Liverpool Hospital - Speke).

• HTL Buses have acquired yet more Dennis Dart SLFs, this time two with ELC Spryte bodywork from Bluebird, Middleton, P13 BLU & P14 BLU [photo], of which P14 BLU is reported numbered 63 by HTL. Both are repainted into HTL Buses livery and were replaced at Bluebird by two new Alexander Dennis Enviro300s, one of which is MX57 KXR [photo:Mark Haldon]

• A2B Travel are due to start stage bus services again soon, having won a few Merseytravel contracts over in the Wirral, the most recent information I have suggests that six as yet unidentified Optare Solos are to be used, mainly 04 reg though possibly an 02 and/or 05 reg example. All most likely to have been sourced from Mistral Coach & Bus.

• Stagecoach Merseyside have revealed another two buses in one-off liveries this month, the first being Volvo B10M/Alexander PS 20744 K744 DAO [photo:Andy Rigby] which is in a pseudo Liverpool Corporation livery, so celebration 100 years since the first motorbus services in Liverpool and is seen displayed at Liverpool South Parkway for the MTT Running Day. The second vehicle, Dennis Dart SLF 10.7M/Alexander Dennis Pointer 2 34770 PX55 EFC [photo:Karl Sutton] is in an Everton Football Club based livery (similar to the Liverpool one done in the summer) but with a nice matching registration plate, even if the bus did have this in the first place!

• Stagecoach North West also have some new buses operating

into Merseyside now, noted on the X2 (Preston - Liverpool) last week by Mark Haldon was Alexander Dennis Enviro400 19040 SN56 AWM [photo:Mark Haldon], despite being branded for the 2 (Southport - Longridge). The X2 is set to double in frequency too in mid October so I dare say the likelihood of getting these Enviros on the route will also increase. Ironically, on the same day Mark also noted brand new MAN engined Optare Solo 47485 PX07 HBG [photo:Mark Haldon] on the 2 (Southport - Longridge). Still I guess this was more logical than keeping the Enviro on the route it was branded for and putting the Solo on the X2, seeing as most X2s seem to leave Liverpool fairly well loaded!

• PrestonBus are now also operating the 2 (Southport - Longridge)

and going from this photo by Andy Rigby of Leyland Lynx 228 H28 YBV [photo:Andy Rigby] the service isn't doing too badly! PrestonBus are suffering from delays of its new buses being delivered from East Lancs (due to the company falling into administration, then being bought out hours later by The Darwen Group), so have had to hire a few extra buses, including Dennis Dart SLF 10.7M/MCV Evolution 230 PL06 TFZ [photo:Mark Haldon] from Blue Bus Bus Hire and Alexander Dennis Enviro300 12M demonstrator 237 SK07 DYA [photo:Mark Haldon] from Alexander Dennis.

• FirstGroup have begun to replace the vehicles it is leasing from Chester City Council for ChesterBus with vehicles from its own fleets. Many of the former ChesterBus vehicles have now moved to new homes, including Dennis Dart/Plaxton Pointers 65 M165 XMA, 66 M165 XMA & 67 N459 EEY at Aintree Coachline, for use at their Helms depot, to cover services previously operated by ChesterBus! This again marks another operator to go back into operating stage services, having operated only private hire and schools for some time. The above three Darts have yet to be reported in service, however another Dart at Aintree Coachline is former GTL K585 MGT [photo:Mark Haldon] still in GTL livery, though likely to be repainted into ACL livery shortly, is now operating in Chester.

• The vehicles that are replacing the ChesterBus fleet are

a mix of Scania L113CRL/Wright Axcess Ultralows, such as 61553 R168 GSF [photo:Mark Haldon] from First Glasgow and Scania L94UB/Wright Floline, such as 60208 Y347 XBN [photo:Mark Haldon] from First Manchester. It is quite interesting to see that First have retained the ChesterBus branding and logo and added it to these buses, though this is probably to distinguish them from the Chester Citybus branded Arriva vehicles, operating the same routes in Chester, such as newly acquired VDL SB200CS/Wright Commander 2621 CX07 COU [photo:Dave Root] having moved to Chester following the end of the Metrolink Tram Replacement work in Manchester.

• The former ChesterBus depot is expected to close shortly, at which point assumedly all services will move into the existing First Chester depot, although there was talk at one point to suggest that the depot wasn't big enough to cope with the influx of vehicles at present, but we shall wait and see! Neil Hilton recently obtained permission to get many photos of the former Chester City Transport depot a few weeks back which he has kindly allowed use on this site, these can be view in the September 2007 • 5 photo gallery.

• Protours Wirral usually has a very uneventful existence, but recently two rather odd workings have cropped up! During the summer on the (Heswall Bus Station - Tesco Heswall) free bus service, they had a Mercedes Vario/Plaxton Beaver 2 operating on

it, but most strangely, it was an Isle of Man registered bus, MAN-111-L which originally had been registered R936 AMB when it was with Protours Wirral, but was sent to the Isle of Man last year and duly re-registered. It is especially notable as usually you can't travel on Isle of Man registered buses in the UK on stage services, but as this is a free bus it seems to be exempt from that rule. Another odd working to crop up was earlier this month when on the 272 (Hooton Station - Arrowe Park) which is normally a Dart MPD operated service, BMC 850 Club PT7 DK04 UMW [photo:Mark Haldon] managed to crop up! A distinctly high floor coach and quite a rare type too!

• This month has been quite a quiet month in the local bus

scene, but just in case you thought I hadn't updated the site in two months, I've just realised I incorrectly dated the last update 27/06/2007, when of course it went online in July!

• Avon Buses have purchased another three Alexander Dennis Dart SLF/MCV Evolutions, of which 307 AE07 NYS [photo:Dave Root] is 10.7M long and has the Euro3 engine, while 407 AE07 NYT [photo:Dave Root] & 507 AE07 NYU [photo:Dave Root] are 9.2M long and have the Euro4 engine! These are all intended for use on the new route 22 (Caldy Crossroads - Chester) though appear to be working on any Avon route! Assumedly the split in vehicle lengths being due to what was available, as I believe these were purchased from stock at Southdown PSV.

• First Cheshire & Wirral Rock Ferry depot have acquired some newer buses, cascaded from other parts of FirstGroup for use on cross river services, those reported so far are as follows:

Scania L113CRL/Wright Axcess Ultralow

60076 R439 ALS, 60077 R440 ALS, 60080 S443 BSG, 61157 S682 BFS [photo:Dave Root], 61234 R174 GSX & 61536 R125 GSX

Scania L94UB/Wright Axcess Ultralow

60190 V138 DND [photo:Dave Root]

Volvo Olympian/Alexander Royale

30802 R622 JUB - 30807 R627 JUB

• Of the above, all the Scanias are believed to be ex First

Glasgow, whilst the six Volvo Olympians [photo:Dave Root] are all ex First Bradford. So far the Scanias have seen use on new 'low floor' route 32/33 and it is thought that the Volvos will replace older deckers on the 71/72. So far almost no new buses have been brought into the former ChesterBus fleet, as although some Volvo Citybus deckers did arrive, it was "discovered" that there are many lower bridges in Chester that require low height deckers and the Citybuses were full height, so went back from whence they came! Other acquisitions recently at Rock Ferry too have been Dennis Lance/Plaxton Verde 60100 N866 CEH [photo:Dave Root] transferred from the Potteries & Volvo B10B/Wright Endurance 60316 N521 WVR ex First Manchester both as driver trainers.

• Cumfybus have this week acquired some rather surprising buses for its new school contracts, those being a reported eight former London Central DAF SB220/ELC Myllenniums which were built for services at the Millennium Dome. Those reported so far being V3 GMT, V6 GMT & V15 GMT [photo:Andy Rigby] all noted at Cumfybus's Southport depot at the weekend by Andy Rigby, whilst at the NW Bus and Coach factory in Blackburn V1 GMT, V2 GMT, V16 GMT & V17 GMT were all noted, presumably 4 of the remaining 5 due for Cumfybus. At the moment they all have the GMT registrations though it is expected they will lose these in lieu of Cxxx MFY registrations or similar. Of those at NW Bus and Coach, at least one has had its centre doors removed but from the photos I cannot tell if those at Cumfybus have had this work done yet. V1 GMT does remain interesting though as its was the very first ELC Myllennium built!

• Halton Transport have recently has of an Alexander Dennis Enviro200Dart demonstrator, SN56 AXJ, which saw use on route 62 during early August. This is the second Enviro200Dart demo that Halton Transport have used recently, as in June they reportedly used SN56 AYB. Other than the minor differences in the seats and windows in these (SN56 AYB has bonded windows and Lazzerini seats, SN56 AXJ has gasket windows and Urban 90 seats) the main difference is the engine, as SN56 AYB is fitted with the 6 cylinder engine, whilst SN56 AXJ is fitted with the 4 cylinder engine. As a result, even though both have the same wheelbase length, SN56 AYB has a longer rear overhang to fit in the bigger engine, thus this is a 10.9M model, were as SN56 AXJ is 10.7M.

• Yet more Optare Solos are now on the streets of Merseyside, with four more second hand examples since the last update! First to acquire one was Raddoneur, who now have Solo M850 X941 NUB [photo:Dave Root] which was acquired late July and is their first Optare Solo, whilst North West Travel acquired Solo M850 KX51 UCT which replaced W84 NDW on the 245/6/7 Huyton Circulars in the last week of July. This was however short lived on this route, as they lost the contract to ACE Travel who took over from 06/08/2007 operating it with Solo M850 MX54 KXN which initially ran in overall white with Mistral branding, but the branding has since been removed and fleetnumber 708 added. Since then ACE Travel also acquired Solo M920 709 MX55 WCV as seen by Kevin Duggan earlier this week on the Maghull Circulars. All four of the Solos noted all operated in overall white! Interestingly, ACE Travel haven't reused fleetnumber 707, as this number was allocated to the Plaxton Primo demonstrator that they operated for a short time earlier this year. Meanwhile ACE Travel have sold air-conditioned Volvo B6/Alexander Dash M343 NOD, but have acquired K107 XHG, though this may have been some time ago and I missed it!

• Maghull Coaches have a new vehicle for its "City Explorer and your ticket to Liverpool" tour, this being ex Arriva Presenting London MCW Metroliner B121 ORU [photo:Dave Root], which compared to the Metrobus has a much larger open upper deck area, hopefully ideal for next years increased tourism in Liverpool!

• Previously noted Dennis Trident/Alexander ALX400 T649 KPU [photo:Karl Sutton] which is with Napier Point is confirmed being in overall white by Karl Sutton, still showing signs of were its Stagecoach London fleetnumber 17049 was removed above the cab window!

Another former First Cheshire & Wirral Tecnobus Gulliver now with Selwyns is 50010 S254 AFA [photo:Tom Harrison], noted in St Helens during late July, alongside 50007 S251 AFA and a few of the Tecnobus Pantheons, which I guess are having some sort of problems at the moment, though the exact reason for their apparent poor availability remains unknown.

• Peoplebus have now acquired an ex Lothian Volvo Olympian/Alexander RH L971 MSC, now re-registered L90 BUS with fleetnumber 0806, whilst the first coach for Peoplesbus is Volvo B10M/Plaxton Paramount 3500 VIL 1195 fleetnumber 0901. All Leyland Atlanteans, Leyland Titans and MCW Metrobus are confirmed as sold, whilst DAF SB220/Ikarus Citibus 0702 J51 GCX is now in reserve, the two Volvo Olympian/Northern Counties Palatine II are now reported to have really ben re-registered, such that 0803 R374 LGH is now R70 BUS and due a repaint soon whilst 0804 R386 LGH is now R90 BUS and has just been repainted! Finally Optare Excel 0703 S163 UAL is undergoing a full body overhaul including new exterior panels, retrim, repaint etc. The Peoplesbus fleetlist will be updated in the coming days to reflect these changes! Thanks again to Andrew Cawley at Peoplesbus for this information!

• Much like last year, this August Bank Holiday Monday was

the final day of the season for the Open Top Tours in Southport and also like year is very possibly the final day for Leyland Atlantean/Alexander 3980 GKA 449L [photo:Andy Rigby]. This is apparently going to be replaced by a Leyland Olympian soon, possibly 3101 H101 GEV, though is is reported its open top conversion may not be complete for the start of the 2008 season, thus the Atlantean may get one final year yet! Ironically, the previous day, Sunday 26/08/2007 the Atlantean was in St Helens being used on a victory tour by the St Helens Rugby Team, thus the Southport Open Top Tour was operated by decidedly closed top Volvo B10BLE/Wright Renown,

2728 Y728 KNF! Another 'rare' working for a Volvo B10BLE at the weekend too was on Bank Holiday Monday when Stagecoach sent out 21112 S453 KCW [photo:Karl Sutton] on the 14 (Croxteth - Liverpool), very unusual as these former CMT buses rarely work routes other than those previously operated by Aintree depot.

• The Enviro200 bodywork is due to get a rather surprising change of home too shortly, as due to booming production of the Enviro400 bodywork at the Alexander factory in Falkirk (mainly as only the Alexander Dennis Trident and Scania 230UD chassis currently pass TfL regulations for noise apparently) the Enviro200 body production is to move 'back' to the Plaxton factory at Scarborough, which was acquired by ADL earlier this year. Plaxton is expected to continue as a separate brand name, still building all its coaches and Plaxton Primo and Plaxton Centro buses, though any Enviro200s built at Scarborough will be Alexander Dennis branded, though they apparently haven't ruled out also putting some Plaxton branding on these! Although almost all Enviro200s are on the Dart4 chassis (this is the official name for the chassis use on the Enviro200Dart apparently), Stagecoach have also ordered some MAN 14.240 with Enviro200 bodywork. What is unusual though is that the Plaxton Centro which has already been built on VDL SB120/180/200 and Volvo B7RLE chassis is also to be built on the MAN 14.240, thus resulting in a rare case of two different bodies being built on one chassis at one factory! The Plaxton Centro is also to be available on the longer MAN 18.240, but the revised Enviro300 body, which should be in production shortly, for both the ADL Enivro300 chassis (I don't think this has any other name yet!) and MAN 18.240 will all still be built at Falkirk.

• More photographs taken recently can be seen in the August 2007 • 1, August 2007 • 2, August 2007 • 3, August 2007 • 4 & August 2007 • 5 galleries, whilst I presently have many more pics to add to the Themed Galleries section shortly, including quite a good number of photos of Liverpool area buses from the early 1990s, along with many from other areas around the country, so please do check the Photographs section, which is regularly updated, thanks to all the excellent photographs sent in!

• The very big news this month is of the saga with Chesterbus. Arriva won the court case that was set up by Chesterbus in response to Arriva registering copies of the entire Chesterbus network last year, with an aim to have started operating the routes from January. Due to the court case the services were not able to start on the expected date, though when the announcement of the court case came through, Arriva began running some of the services it registered within weeks, helped by the fact they'd already purchased sufficient buses to operate them, which clearly is why the Commanders and Cadets remained in store for so long. Meanwhile, also within days of the court case announcement, FirstGroup made an offer for ChesterBus which was accepted, though it would appear (though I could be incorrect) that this didn't include any of the buses or the depot used by ChesterBus, though for now these are still being used as before, but "on loan" as such!

• Arriva were able to very quickly get onto the scene in Chester and branded some of the Cadets with 'Chester Citybus' branding 2629 CX07 CPY [photo:Andy Rigby] seen the weekend before the official launch, also showing the low fares Arriva have on offer. First have yet to bring any new/cascaded buses in at Chester, though a number of Scanias from Glasgow and Darts from Manchester have been mentioned, though some of these may also be used on services in the Wirral that First registered to start from August in retaliation to Arriva!

• Each of the two groups though has had demonstrators in Chester, from the first day Arriva had its seemingly rather shy VDL SB200/Wright Puslar 2620 CX07 COJ [photo:Mark Haldon], though this didn't stay too long at Chester and has now joined the other similar batch at Llandudno and Rhyl. First then brought in a rather impressive Wright StreetCar 'ftr' from First Leeds YJ07 LVX though this was just used to check clearances on routes and at the depot, but with that in mind, perhaps they are thinking of using them on the Chester Park & Ride - In quality terms they would be just a tad ahead of the BMC Falcons! The third demo to hit the streets of Chester, again with Arriva, is Alexander Dennis Enviro200Dart 800 SN56 AWZ [photo:Tom Harrison], this not only being the first Enviro200Dart with Arriva NW&W, but also the first vehicle in Arriva Express livery, though a rather odd choice of livery for what is an MPD! It is interesting that this has been given fleetnumber 800, as previous loan vehicles in the fleet have been given 768x fleetnumbers, so perhaps this is going to stay for quite some time? We'll have to see!

• As a result of all the above, for the first time in over 6 months, Arriva North West & Wales don't have any new stored buses, as the Cadets are all now in Chester, the Commanders in Bolton and the Puslars at Rhyl & Llandudno!

• Arriva Speke depot celebrated its 50th anniversary on the

weekend of 8th July with a small show being put on at the depot, which resulted in a small line up of vehicles past and present from Speke, aided by the help of the MTT and Arriva Speke management. A nice touch too was that someone was able to set the LED destination screen on the ALX400 to read "50 Years Of Speke Garage", something that would have been far more difficult using blinds!

• Due to the work on the refurbishment Metrolink being extended at the beginning of July to include both the Bury and now Altrincham branches, further vehicles from Merseyside have been on loan to the depots in Manchester, including a number of VDL SB200/Wright Commander from both Speke and Green Lane, along with some Volvo B10BLE/Wright Renown from St Helens. As a result, a number of Dennis Dart SLFs from Wales have been brought in to replace these on Merseyside, the Darts themselves having just been replaced by new VDL SB200/Wright Pulsar in Wales. At Speke so far noted have been former MTL Dart SLF/Plaxton Pointer 2s, 7558 R558 ABA [photo:Mark Haldon], 7562 R562 ABA, 7563 R563 ABA, 7564 R564 ABA & 7565 R565 ABA [photo:Mark Haldon], these all having been new to Speke in 1998 with MTL, with the exception of 7558 which was new to Birkenhead. I traveled on 7564 last week, and it is notable that this one at least still retains its Welsh "Smart Timechecker" with a scrolling message for Bangor Weekly Tickets, although the driver can't be faulted, the route number was set to 79 on it, though without route details!

• Green Lane depot has two Dennis Dart SLF/Plaxton Pointer 2 from Wales that were new to Arriva North East, those being 2123 S623 KHN [photo:Mark Haldon] & 2127 S627 KHN [photo:Mark Haldon], along with ex MTL 7540 P540 MBU [photo:Mark Haldon] this one being notable as it was one time fire damaged, so all its seats were retrimmed with Arriva moquette and the panel behind the rear seats is blue rather than grey.

• The two Darts that were new to Arriva NE are notable too due to their interiors, as even though they are part of the same batch, 2123 has a the generic grey with 'Smartie' spotty seats, whilst 2127 has standard Arriva interior, apparently as they were delivered to Arriva NE during the time when Cowie rebranded to Arriva, and what is now 2127 was the first Dart in this batch with the full Arriva interior!

• St Helens too has gained a number of Dart SLFs, including 7531 N531 DWM (MTL's first new Dart purchase and only the 9th Dart SLF built!), 7532 N532 DWM [photo:Andy Rigby] & 7539 P539 MBU [photo:Andy Rigby]. It it expected that all the loaned Darts will leave their present depots when the vehicles on Metrolink Rail Replacements return, though when exactly this will be is unconfirmed as due to the very poor weather of late, they are rumoured to be at least three weeks behind on the refurbishment work!

• Another rather unusual Dart SLF noted in St Helens recently

too is operated by A1 Minibus, on the services they acquired from Ogdensbus, this being ex Centra London Dennis Dart SLF 10.7M/Plaxton Pointer 2 V540 JBH [photo:Andy Rigby], which on the face of it may not be appear unusual, but it is still dual door! This vehicle can be usually found on the 152 (St Helens - Rainford) route, and is confirmed as being B31D though I'm assured that they aren't actually using the second set of doors sadly, but I think this is the first dual door Dart to operate on Merseyside? Just to top that for odd buses in St Helens too, Selwyns have ex First Cheshire & Wirral Tecnobus Gulliver S251 AFA [photo:Mark Haldon] in use at present on the St Helens E2x Smart services (now complete with an orange light on top, possibly after use at Liverpool John Lennon Airport), assumedly due to the unavailability of at least one of their own Techobus Pantheons.

• HTL Buses have acquired yet another Dennis Dart SLF 10.7M/Plaxton Pointer 2, the latest being S540 RKL [photo:Mark Haldon], the fleetnumber for this remains unknown, but unusually on the front only it has green LED destination displays! On the side is hasn't got any number display, and the rear has conventional blinds. 40 S253 XUY [photo:Mark Haldon] the one that initially entered service in overall white has now been repainted too into standard HTL Buses livery, though it would appear that they may have painted this with the doors open, as they remain white, in a similar vein to the black doors on MAN 11.190/Optare Vecta 50 P445 SWX [photo:Mark Haldon] which incidentally has been noted on the 10B on two separate occasions recently!

• Supertravel now have no buses in Smart Eco livery in its fleet, following the repaint of Dart MPD 031 V331 CVV [photo:Mark Haldon] which I believe to be the final diesel bus in Smart Eco livery at all, the only others vehicles that remain in Smart Eco livery are the electric Tecnobus at St Helens! Question is though with the Tecnobus at Birkenhead now withdrawn, how long will the St Helens services last?

• Stagecoach have recently vinyled two buses into promotional

liveries for the LFC Museum & Tour Centre, those with the livery applied being Stagecoach Merseyside Alexander Dennis Dart SLF 34815 PX06 DVZ [photo:Karl Sutton] and Stagecoach North West Volvo Olympian 16335 VLT 255 [photo:Karl Sutton]. It is intended that the Dart SLF will be mainly used on route 17 (Kirkby - Liverpool) whilst the Olympian which is based at Preston depot is for use on the X2 (Preston - Liverpool) and is one of four (I think!) to be refurbished for the route, including a full new interior with high backed Lazzerini Practico seats [photo:Karl Sutton]. Stagecoach North West are also now competing with Preston Bus in services to Southport, with Stagecoach now operating the 2 (Longridge - Southport) with 6 month old Alexander Dennis Trident/Alexander Dennis Enviro400s and Preston Bus running the 2 with repainted Leyland Lynx, though apparently they have some new single deck Scania N230UB/ELC Esteem on order for the route!

• GHA Coaches are now operating services into the Runcorn, as they have begun operating route 36 (Runcorn - Ellesmere Port), with brand new Plaxton Centros. One of these is a VDL SB120/Plaxton Centro DK07 NLF (though it was due to get a GHA registration shortly, but the second is the much rarer Volvo B7RLE/Plaxton Centro CA07 GHA [photo:Mark Haldon] which is notable from the VDL one, as the Volvo has a centre emergency exit door. The central emergency exit doors which now feature on some vehicles are due to a new European directive that the emergency exit door should be within the low floor area on a bus, so far only buses chassis built on mainland Europe have had to have bodies to this layout, I'm not sure if Alexander Dennis and Optare vehicles will have this alteration made at some point.

• Thanks also to everyone who has used the forum since I set it up a few weeks back as a way of stopping spam messages on the guestbook. Although you can still post to the guestbook, all posts require me to authorise them to go online, thus any of the spam (which still does get posted) never actually gets online! The forum is better than the guestbook though for posting as once any users registers once and I activate their account, they can then post messages and long as they wish, as often as they wish and with proper formatting, unlike the guestbook! Anyone can still read the forum, but you do need to register (just a user name, name, password and email address are required, no personal info) so you can then post to the forum - If any regular readers have yet to register for the forum, feel free to register!