Opinions: Liveries that you like?

507021 · 2 Aug 2018

Past: British Rail "Jaffa Cakes", British Rail "Toothpaste", Intercity 125 "Swallow", Regional Railways.
Present: GWR, Northern, TransPennine Express.

I think the livery on the artist impressions of the Class 777s looks good too.

RailUK Forums

ShwervinMervin · 2 Aug 2018

ld0595 said:
I thinking Scotrail’s new intercity livery for the HSTs looks great.

I find it looks more like peeling paint than anything else :rolleyes:

Paul L said:
Freightliner Class 70 Powerhaul. Still not sure about G&W orange and black.
p.s. thank you for posting a topic about railways not politics☺

I saw a photo of it somewhere, actually looks very tidy, the new livery!

fgwrich · 2 Aug 2018

In order and of the last decade.
3. London Midland / London Midland:City (designed by Best Impressions)
2. First Great Western's Dynamic Lines / Local Lines (designed by the former Lambie-Nairn)
1. Secro's Caledonian Sleeper (designed by Weber-Shandwick Design)

It's a shame to see the London Midland livery gradually disappear for the over complicated, confusing and overtly fussy schemes on the WCML, while Dynamic lines even to this day looks good, and it's a shame First has turned against it for the dismal and over complicated green livery for the great western. But the simplicity of Caledonian Sleeper really does it for me, beautiful shade of Teal, simple and very clever logo. Best since BR in my opinion!

You can read about each of the liveries on the designers websites here:
London Midland / Best Impressions:
http://www.best-impressions.co.uk

First Great Western / Lambie-Nairn
http://www.lambie-nairn.staging.athlonproduction.com/case-study/first-great-western/

Caledonian Sleeper / Weber Shandwick Design
http://webershandwickdesign.com/portfolio/caledonian-sleeper-branding/

route101 · 2 Aug 2018

Do like the green colour on the sleepers and GWR .
I think the Scotrail saltaire has aged well for now 10 years

dorsetdesiro · 3 Aug 2018

I really like the SWT & EMT livery by Stagecoach which I hope we may see something like this in the future:

bussnapperwm · 3 Aug 2018

London Midland 170 livery
Wrexham and Shropshire
Great Western Railway.
South Eastern 395 livery

I just love them

Doctor Fegg · 3 Aug 2018

GWT Merlin and NX-era Caledonian Sleeper.

Agent_Squash · 3 Aug 2018

fgwrich said:
In order and of the last decade.
3. London Midland / London Midland:City (designed by Best Impressions)
2. First Great Western's Dynamic Lines / Local Lines (designed by the former Lambie-Nairn)
1. Secro's Caledonian Sleeper (designed by Weber-Shandwick Design)

It's a shame to see the London Midland livery gradually disappear for the over complicated, confusing and overtly fussy schemes on the WCML, while Dynamic lines even to this day looks good, and it's a shame First has turned against it for the dismal and over complicated green livery for the great western. But the simplicity of Caledonian Sleeper really does it for me, beautiful shade of Teal, simple and very clever logo. Best since BR in my opinion!

You can read about each of the liveries on the designers websites here:
London Midland / Best Impressions:
http://www.best-impressions.co.uk

First Great Western / Lambie-Nairn
http://www.lambie-nairn.staging.athlonproduction.com/case-study/first-great-western/

Caledonian Sleeper / Weber Shandwick Design
http://webershandwickdesign.com/portfolio/caledonian-sleeper-branding/

How is replacing the complicated Dynamic Lines with what is effectively just a green train more complicated?

nlogax · 3 Aug 2018

London+South Eastern Jaffa Cake. Loved that.

Fearless · 3 Aug 2018

Re Scotrail new HST livery:

ShwervinMervin said:
I find it looks more like peeling paint than anything else

I haven't seen this one yet so I googled it, and am amused to see that one of the Edinburgh landmarks it depicts is (unless I'm mistaken, and I'm open to correction here) the Royal Scots Greys monument in Princes Street Gardens. Maybe the designer was a Deltic buff. Good old English Electric.

tbtc · 3 Aug 2018

J@ke said:
I thought the FGE 321s were good, especially when 2 units coupled together

It was a great colour scheme - nice to see someone else appreciate the livery of a less obvious TOC - most of the votes on threads like this go for either "my favourite TOC" (so the likes of GNER tend to do very well because people have other positive associations with them) or the final BR liveries (when everything was in exciting colour schemes after years of plain blue), since a lot of enthusiasts have a huge amount of nostalgia for the early '90s period.

Trying to separate these and appreciate a good livery on a TOC that made less of an impact can be harder, but I'd certainly vote for the FGE scheme. Dark window surrounds, a swoosh at the front/rear of the train, bright white front, it ticked a lot of boxes for me.

As a contrast, I thought Midland Mainline were a great TOC but had a poor livery - the "green" was far too bright.

Parallel said:
I did like the silver and maroon Wessex Trains livery too, especially on the 158s.

The London Midland greens and black livery made the stock look more modern than it was, especially the 150s and 153s.

Considering it finished over a decade ago, the Wessex livery looks very modern - a few TOCs have copied the idea of the silver body with colourful doors - good shout.

London Midland is one of the top ten for me - it's one of the few liveries that looks like it was designed to suit the trains (rather than designed to look good first and was retrofitted onto the awkward shapes of trains, given the need to accommodate contrasting doors etc). Just the right blend of dark (windows) and colourful (doors).

dorsetdesiro said:
I really like the SWT & EMT livery by Stagecoach

Stagecoach do great/ simple liveries. They don't need to plaster their logo all over the train because it's instantly recognisable as their brand (much like there's not much on a Virgin train that actually says "Virgin", compared to the number of "f"s on old First liveries). Plus the Stagecoach brand can work on different types of train, so the red/ white/ blue bodied carriages look like part of one family but are distinctive enough that passengers will know which one is for them. Much more thought has gone into it than the average TOC (e.g. First painting HSTs in the same livery as 153s).

prod_pep · 3 Aug 2018

NSE
Strathclyde Transport orange and black
InterCity 'swallow'
First Great Western 'fag packet'
First Great Eastern grey, white and green (I think the best livery the 315s ever carried)
Silverlink
Old Virgin (red and black)
SWT red (as on the 455s)
ScotRail 'Saltire'
Southern (Coastway version especially)

Even though it was once so ubiquitous, I also have to nominate BR blue and grey for fond memories as a kid as it gave way to the Merseytravel yellow. 313201 looks fantastic in its compliant version too.

JordyWM · 3 Aug 2018

GWR, Virgin WC (old and new), London Midland, West Midlands Railway (latest), TPE.

dorsetdesiro · 3 Aug 2018

Anyone notice the slight changes in the EMT & SWT photos above (the photos should enlarge once your username is logged in)?

If Stagecoach retains the next EM franchise, then it may be certain the TOC will be named as EMR that I think all the livery needs is just a name change while still appearing unmistakably Stagecoach.

As with the trouble SWR is experiencing at the moment, it would be good if Stagecoach wins back the next SW franchise then the above photo is what I like to think it may look like if SWR passes into Stagecoach hands.

greyman42 · 3 Aug 2018

delt1c said:
B/R Blue Grey
Scotrail HST
Current Scot Rail Saltire
Jafa Cake

I like your first three and would include Grand Central. What is Jafa Cake?

vlad · 3 Aug 2018

Masboroughlad said:
Midland Mainline teal and orange - just appealed to me.

That's one of my favourites as well.

Others I liked include Intercity (swallow), Anglia and London Midland. I'd say Great Western is my current favourite but I could change my mind.

jayiscupid · 4 Aug 2018

61653 HTAFC said:
Thanks, never seen that before but it looks pretty good. If anyone else was unaware, here's the unique "Midline" livery I mentioned. Note the logo is identical to the 310 example. Midline was a bit of a clunky name, glad it wasn't widely used!
https://www.railcar.co.uk/images/3144

Wow, that takes me back! I was at Uni in Birmingham 1997-2000 and this used to be a regular into New Street.

Kneedown · 4 Aug 2018

dorsetdesiro said:
If Stagecoach retains the next EM franchise, then it may be certain the TOC will be named as EMR that I think all the livery needs is just a name change while still appearing unmistakably Stagecoach.

Alas, and I stand to be corrected, I believe it is a franchise requirement that the new livery is to be non corporate, so whoever wins I think we'll see something different, and maybe plainer.

delt1c · 4 Aug 2018

greyman42 said:
I like your first three and would include Grand Central. What is Jafa Cake?

Jafa cake preceeded NSE livery, applied to some refurb 4CEP,s and s few 309's

Arriva Fan · 4 Aug 2018

I personally like Isle Of Man Railways Indian Red for a Loco and Red and Cream (or Blood and Custard) Coaches.

I also like Manx Electric Railway Red, White and Teak and think the Prussian Blue and Ivory Heritage Livery is very nice. Looking forward to seeing it applied to MER 59.

156443 · 9 Aug 2018

Historical liveries

Intercity
GNER

Current Liveries

Northern (New One)
Virgin Trains WC (new one)
ScotRail
Grand Central

mushroomchow · 9 Aug 2018

Red / Silver VTWC livery is one of the best privatisation liveries. Classy and simple - and most importantly it still looks good 20 years since it was first used. Contrary to others, I just can't get behind the new one, it's dull and the red sash on the cabs looks shoehorned in.

ShwervinMervin said:
(re - G&W Livery) - I saw a photo of it somewhere, actually looks very tidy, the new livery!

I'm just looking forward to hopefully seeing the 86s in it. They looked good in the older green Freightliner livery, but the Powerhaul redesign didn't suit them at all.

mlambeuk · 9 Aug 2018

Historical
IC swallow
RR express livery 158's
BR provincial liver as per 142/ 143's
I also liked the green and cream livery on the 141's
current
EMT stagecoach livery

HumberSprinter · 9 Aug 2018

I liked Intercity ivery the best (still exists on some stock).
On my local Barton Line the train is using a Green Great Western 15e unit recently, that's nice.
The new TPE is good, only like Stagecoach with mostly white not blue.
I did love the Virgin now LNER colour scheme.

virgintrain1 · 9 Aug 2018

Favourite being the Virgin Voyager. I also thought that livery used for when Northern hired the Adelantes was quite clever.

61653 HTAFC · 9 Aug 2018

virgintrain1 said:
Favourite being the Virgin Voyager. I also thought that livery used for when Northern hired the Adelantes was quite clever.

Agree about the Northern 180 livery. A simple change that turned the hideous FirstGroup livery into something quite pleasant.

Northern Spirit standard green livery wasn't great, but it did look good on the 142s. The black window surround on the front end made them look less dated, though the updated interior helped there too. A shame they collapsed and were absorbed into Arriva before it got more widespread, as I think it'd have suited other 1980s units well. It wasn't great on the 156s (the only other units that got it), mind.

The less said about the Trans-Pennine variant, the better (the interior refurbishment was fantastic though)... even before First took over and made it even worse! The muted red and silver version that a couple of the West Yorkshire 158s got was decent*, as was the original 333 NS/WYPTE livery... clearly they weren't big on painting everything exactly the same!

*= the original with the big silver 'N', not the later WYPTE semi-circles that the 144s got after refurbishment.

mallard · 9 Aug 2018

Stagecoach liveries were quite nice when they first came around, but they're now about 15 years old and don't have the lasting appeal of "standard" liveries used elsewhere. I doubt that even if Stagecoach retain the East Midlands franchise that they'll keep the same liveries. The class 153/156 livery with its convex "swooshes" never really looked right; why wasn't the livery closer to the blue applied to SWT 450s?

I quite like the new silver-based Transpennine colours; certainly a lot better than the old FirstGroup corporate colours; although there are still traces of their sickly mauve on the interior.

The GWR green is quite visually appealing; although having dark green multiple units running around on GWR metals is very "wrong" from a historical point of view (also, far too much remaining mauve on the older trains).

Arriva Northern's blue and white colours are also quite nice and seem much more modern than the Serco-Abellio livery which always looked "dated" to me (and can you tell? I'm not a big fan off mauve/purple colours).

JohnMcL7 · 9 Aug 2018

I think the Europhoenix livery on their 37's looks good and feels well suited given it's older 37's that have been refitted for hauling the EMU's.

Harbornite · 10 Aug 2018

Quite a lot really: for locos, you can't go wrong with BR two tone green, BR blue, IC Swallow, the old virgin livery, DB Red, freightliner powerhaul, I could go on.

SteveyBee131 · 10 Aug 2018

At great risk of being controversial, I rather liked Northern Spirit Turquoise and Green. I thought it was bright and refreshing, and gave needed emphasis to the North with the bold italic N. As for the Transpennine version of Northern Spirit, I thought it was very impressive. I loved how it looked almost iridescent, in certain lighting conditions and at certain angles. Again, the emphasis on the North was good.

I also liked Northern's picture liveries, they were a nice way to publicize some of the scenic lines and tourist attractions served by the company.

I always find myself impressed by a rake of BR blue & grey coaches, especially with a large-logo locomotive, simple, effective and timeless!

Opinions: Liveries that you like?

Established Member

RailUK Forums

Member

Established Member

Established Member

Member

Established Member

Established Member

Established Member

Established Member

Member

Veteran Member

Established Member

Member

Member

Established Member

Member

Member

Established Member

Established Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Veteran Member

Established Member

Member

Established Member

Member