Different livery Class 376s coupled together?

[frankmoh]

Spotted this at Charing Cross; the new 376 livery that's being rolled out slowly alongside the old South Eastern one that's not been changed since the early 2000s.

I wonder why they didn't keep the new livery train separate. Maybe the other half is going to be painted and refurbished soon.

 

[superalbs]

Spotted this at Charing Cross; the new 376 livery that's being rolled out slowly alongside the old South Eastern one that's not been changed since the early 2000s.

I wonder why they didn't keep the new livery train separate. Maybe the other half is going to be painted and refurbished soon.

Probably because a 10 car train is better than a 5 car train, and it makes no sense to cut the train's capacity in half just because it's a different colour.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Spotted this at Charing Cross; the new 376 livery that's being rolled out slowly alongside the old South Eastern one that's not been changed since the early 2000s.

I wonder why they didn't keep the new livery train separate. Maybe the other half is going to be painted and refurbished soon.

Probably because a 10 car train is better than a 5 car train, and it makes no sense to cut the train's capacity in half just because it's a different colour.

Not really worth the enormous extra train planning hassle just for aesthetic pedantry is it?

 

[frankmoh]

Probably because a 10 car train is better than a 5 car train, and it makes no sense to cut the train's capacity in half just because it's a different colour.

I would've thought they would pair trains with the same livery on them together. Although during the 2000s there was probably a 465 with several NSE, Connex and South Eastern liveried cars all together on one train.

 

[superalbs]

I would've thought they would pair trains with the same livery on them together. Although during the 2000s there was probably a 465 with several NSE, Connex and South Eastern liveried cars all together on one train.

There is only one unit like this, so the unit would have to run as a five car.

Furthermore, this would be an absolute nightmare to guarantee every day, resulting in delays and cancellations while they went and found a carriage with the correct paint.

 

[skyhigh]

I would've thought they would pair trains with the same livery on them together.

...why? A huge amount of additional work, for no benefit other than aesthetics.

 

[Cach17]

The average passenger won't care what colour their train is, nor would any difference in colour between coupled units have any detrimental effect on railway operations. Aesthetics, while nice to have, are not a priority.

On a semi-related tangent, nobody cared when NXEC had power cars and carriages in the same train wearing different liveries. (photo by user Ultra7 on Wikipedia showing a NXEC Mark 3 in dark blue ex-GNER livery coupled to an HST power car in silver National Express livery)

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

There is only one unit like this, so the unit would have to run as a five car.

Furthermore, this would be an absolute nightmare to guarantee every day, resulting in delays and cancellations while they went and found a carriage with the correct paint.

There are three now actually, just for the record, but that’s doesn’t change the pointlessness of the exercise.

 

[superalbs]

There are three now actually, just for the record, but that’s doesn’t change the pointlessness of the exercise.

So one of them would still have to run around on its own.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

So one of them would still have to run around on its own.

Well yes, but the idea was a non-starter anyway

 

[norbitonflyer]

This is very common, and always has been.

(Pictures of
1. a rake of mark 1s at Clapham junction in a mixture of green, maroon, and blue/grey)
2. A class 101 unit with one car in blue and the other in the mainly white "metro" livery
3. two 2HAPs at Aaterloo, 0ne in blue/grey, the other in NSE
4. Mark 3 sleepers - a "Swallow" livery between two blue/grey
5. 4CIG in "Jaffa cake" coupled to a VEP in NSE livery
6. two EMR 222s coupled: one in Stagecoach livery and one in the new livery
7. two 350s coupled, one each in the old pale green and new darker green liveries

 

[Islineclear3_1]

Spotted this at Charing Cross; the new 376 livery that's being rolled out slowly alongside the old South Eastern one that's not been changed since the early 2000s.

I wonder why they didn't keep the new livery train separate. Maybe the other half is going to be painted and refurbished soon.

Class 376's are 5-car trains. They usually run in pairs; i.e., 2 x units to make up a 10-carriage train. This means this can carry more passengers than a 5-car train on busy routes in South East London. If you only run a single 5-car Class 376 unit, this won't be enough to carry all the passengers so they run in pairs

The repaint program has only just started so as time goes by, there'll be more Class 376 units in the new livery and there will come a time when you'll see 2 blue 5-car units coupled together (to make a 10-car train)

Trains have always run with different coloured carriages (the pictures further back in the thread illustrate this perfectly) and they will in the future.

 

[Sun Chariot]

If it's any consolation, @frankmoh the 1980s and early 1990s were full of trains with different coloured carriages: DMUs, EMUs and loco-hauled coaching stock.

In 1988, I took a photo of InterCity liveried 47515 arriving into Paddington with a rake of coaches of alternating liveries:
Network Southeast / InterCity / NSE / IC / NSE / IC / NSE / IC.

 

[D1537]

There was a set of MkIs knocking about in the late 80s which popped up at random locations (often on reliefs) which was mostly blue/grey and with a couple of InterCity first class carriages and a random NSE coach in the middle.