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Best livery on a Class 47

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43096

43096

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sprinterguy said:
Personally I can't think of a worse livery than West Coast Railway's drab brown. If they wanted a livery to suit maroon coaching stock then BR-two tone green would have been much more aesthetically pleasing.
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Although the maroon/brown does suit the 47, as it weathers quickly to be turd coloured.
 
xotGD

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43096 said:
Although the maroon/brown does suit the 47, as it weathers quickly to be turd coloured.
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WCRC can paint their locos any colour they feel like as long as they keep sending pairs of 37s down Airedale!

Personally, I don't mind their livery.
 
WL113

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I'm probably going to get stick for this but the few 47s that wore EWS livery looked great. It really suited them. The best livery by far though was rail express systems.
 
hexagon789

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WL113 said:
I'm probably going to get stick for this but the few 47s that wore EWS livery looked great. It really suited them. The best livery by far though was rail express systems.
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EWS isn't bad as a livery but it only reminds me of the sorry state many of the 47s were in by this point.
 
sprinterguy

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43096 said:
Although the maroon/brown does suit the 47, as it weathers quickly to be turd coloured.
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Yes, the WCRC scheme quickly weathers to mud brown and rarely matches the maroon of the carriages in my experience. The unrelieved expanse of it on the blank canvas of a class 47's flat bodysides doesn't help, either - Similar in that regard to standard BR blue.
WL113 said:
I'm probably going to get stick for this but the few 47s that wore EWS livery looked great. It really suited them. The best livery by far though was rail express systems.
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Ah yes I somehow forgot about Rail Express Systems - stunning livery. I also agree that EWS livery sat well on the few 47s that received it.
 
D1537

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As someone who spent far too much of their lives travelling around behind the class (504 different ones in the end) I'm going to go for Scottish large logo, as a few others have mentioned in the thread. I also always had a soft spot for the Stratford silver roof variant.
 

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xotGD

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D1537 said:
As someone who spent far too much of their lives travelling around behind the class (504 different ones in the end) I'm going to go for Scottish large logo, as a few others have mentioned in the thread. I also always had a soft spot for the Stratford silver roof variant.
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Out of interest, which are the ones you missed out on for haulage?
 
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Res by a country mile, one other that looked very interesting in the flesh was the Victa Westlink carried for a short time by 47832
 
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I love the original green with full yellow ends, corporate blue and the Network Southeast liveries and for some strange reason I liked the porterbrook purple and white livery too.
 
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Does anyone remember which 47 carried the awful, but thankfully short lived, 'Celebrations' livery?

I hauled it and its stock into Waterloo one evening but fortunately didn't have the dubious honour of being seen driving it
 
D1537

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xotGD said:
Out of interest, which are the ones you missed out on for haulage?
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D1562, D1671, D1734, D1908, 47208, 47282, 47291, 47325.

The first five were withdrawn before I even started bashing (although I spotted 208 about a month before its crash).

282 was an early withdrawal, though I had a chance at it - I had the choice of 282 or 371 one day in the early 80s, and you couldn't have both. Obviously the "big" Eastern 47/3 was the one to go for. I never had another chance at 282 and, of course, ended up having 371 five more times.

When I gave up bashing (due to moving abroad) I just needed 291 and 325. By the time I returned to the UK, even if I'd regained an interest, they'd both been withdrawn.
 
Cowley

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D1537 said:
D1562, D1671, D1734, D1908, 47208, 47282, 47291, 47325.

The first five were withdrawn before I even started bashing (although I spotted 208 about a month before its crash).

282 was an early withdrawal, though I had a chance at it - I had the choice of 282 or 371 one day in the early 80s, and you couldn't have both. Obviously the "big" Eastern 47/3 was the one to go for. I never had another chance at 282 and, of course, ended up having 371 five more times.

When I gave up bashing (due to moving abroad) I just needed 291 and 325. By the time I returned to the UK, even if I'd regained an interest, they'd both been withdrawn.
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Fair play mate. I think I had around 230 of them, but nowhere near what you managed.
People knocked them but I absolutely loved them.
 
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Not exactly in the 'best' category, but I believe 829 carried a rather arresting livery in its later years
 
Strathclyder

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Cowley said:
Fair play mate. I think I had around 230 of them, but nowhere near what you managed.
People knocked them but I absolutely loved them.
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Their modern equivalent (at least in terms of sheer numbers built) would have to be the 66 (and yes, I know the 66 is a freight machine while the 47 is mixed-traffic lol). While the 47 didn't have the smoothest entry into service, they overall proved themselves many times over and owed their owners nothing by the end of their lives. I am a self-confessed English Electric boi, but I can appreciate a solid Sulzer product like the 47.

ExRes said:
Not exactly in the 'best' category, but I believe 829 carried a rather arresting livery in its later years
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Took me a second longer to get that than I'm proud to admit lol

hexagon789 said:
Now that truly is an abomination on wheels. Imagining ruining a beautiful 47 with that ;)
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I mean, I like my Celebrations (the Malt-Teasers are the best of that particular brand of selection tin, and I'll duel anyone who disagrees lol), but not enough to decorate a locomotive in such a way. Most charatible thing you can say about it is that it's.... distinctive lol
 
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hexagon789

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Strathclyder said:
I mean, I like my Celebrations (the Malt-Teasers are the best of that particular brand of selection tin, and I'll duel anyone who disagrees lol), but not enough to decorate a locomotive in such a way. Most charatible thing you can say about it is that it's.... distinctive lol
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Quite, distinctively abhorrent! ;)

Sorry to anyone who likes the scheme but I just don't!
 
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