SWT Questions

1. Why are 458s painted in the 'Express/Mainline' Livery, when the 450s are in suburban livery and travel on longer routes than the 458s (e.g Poole services)?

2. Why are 455s painted in a completly different livery? (The red, apposed to the suburban blue on 450s)

I'm just curious as it seems wierd.

I thought that for EMT, which have put their 158s in mainline white livery when officially it's a connect route :???:

I've been under the impression that the red livery on the 455s is inner suburban whilst the 450 blue is outer suburban.

BlythPower said:

I've been under the impression that the red livery on the 455s is inner suburban whilst the 450 blue is outer suburban.

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Ok then that makes sense. Thanks

Sulzer25 said:

I thought that for EMT, which have put their 158s in mainline white livery when officially it's a connect route :???:

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Answer:

wikipedia said:

EMT sees this as a mainline route (and want to grow it accordingly), and as such will paint relevant trains in the mainline livery.

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Yeah, but dont EMT want Liverpool-Norwich to be an mainline route. But EMT 158s can end up anywhere. I saw a refurbed one on the Robin Hood Line the other day!

The 458s are painted in the "Express" livery because I believe they were painted before SWT decided to have the three 'sectors'. There'll be repainted into blue whenever the paint warranty runs out/much needed major overhaul happens.

CeliaDrummond said:

The 458s are painted in the "Express" livery because I believe they were painted before SWT decided to have the three 'sectors'. There'll be repainted into blue whenever the paint warranty runs out/much needed major overhaul happens.

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Ah ok then

CeliaDrummond said:

The 458s are painted in the "Express" livery because I believe they were painted before SWT decided to have the three 'sectors'. There'll be repainted into blue whenever the paint warranty runs out/much needed major overhaul happens.

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Yes the 455s are painted in the inner suburban colours and the 450s painted in the outter suburban colours.

Belive it or not the 458s have just had or in the middle of having a refurbishment and all that is really being done is the first class area has been refit at least that is all i have noticed oh and they are having a complete C4 i think as i worked one the other day and i belive when swt first got hold of the 458s they were supposed to be used on services like the portsmouth direct as i know of a couple of guards at our depot (woking) that worked them down to pompey and i belive this is why they have been painted in these colours and they were not very reliable and they due to the disability discrimination act they had to be taken out of service due to the destination boards or customer information screens were too small for passengers that would be hard of seeing and when they were given another chance in life swt proberbly didn't want to spend the money changing the colours on them as they were unsure of their future and at the moment they are still in service and having a small refit and check over or thats what i was lead to belive this may not be the case but its what i belive is why they are in these colours.

i do have a couple of pictures of the new first class area in 458027 that i worked on friday i will try and post them later on once i upload them to my computer.

Alan

They were ordered and delivered before SWT started painting units by "sector". I think they were initially used on Basingstoke and Alton line trains? Possibly Haslemere services as well I don't know. Then they got moved off to the Reading line. I've seen a photo on SEMG somewhere of one working a Portsmouth via Eastleigh service, so who knows.

458s have indeed had an overhaul of sorts at Bournemouth, but its not enough to make them acceptable units in my opinion. Which is a shame, because they could be quite good in theory; would rather have one than a 450 for a long journey.