Great Western Livery

[davetheguard]

I saw 166204 in the flesh yesterday sitting at Reading, looks quite smart in green compared to the blue of the other 166s.

Although I can imagine the confusion in a few years time when 166s are on the Car-Port services when passengers board a GWR 166 confusing it for a Southern as "I was told to board the green train".

Rather than the current confusion at Cardiff with passengers boarding the "blue train", and getting on ATW?

 

[NotATrainspott]

Hopefully, there will be enough Class 800's on board to free the HST's going to Scotland between now and 2018.

Although, forgive me being cynical I do not see the wires getting to Cardiff or Swansea until 2020, which I believe may mean that you might for a short period see the class 442's being loco hauled on the routes that the HSTs where meant to be going too in Scotland before they are scrapped. But that is possibly me just being cynical as I have said and it is possibly not going to happen.

No. Abellio ScotRail has signed a contract for the 27 HST sets, and they're obliged to make all trains they take on completely accessible (etc) before they're allowed in service. They will not use hauled 442s. Hitachi are building the new GWML fleet on time and since the diesel trains come first, it will be feasible to use them in revenue service even if the wires aren't up all the way just yet.

 

[jimm]

Hopefully, there will be enough Class 800's on board to free the HST's going to Scotland between now and 2018.

Although, forgive me being cynical I do not see the wires getting to Cardiff or Swansea until 2020, which I believe may mean that you might for a short period see the class 442's being loco hauled on the routes that the HSTs where meant to be going too in Scotland before they are scrapped. But that is possibly me just being cynical as I have said and it is possibly not going to happen.

The whole reason for them talking about prioritising wiring out to Swindon then using diesel west of there for the time being is to allow Class 800s to start replacing HSTs, so that the release of sets to Scotrail is not delayed.

And back on topic, 166204 had a trip up the Cotswold Line last week to have its air conditioning attended to at Long Marston

http://www.hondawanderer.com/166204_Long_Marston_2015.htm

 

[TheNewNo2]

I saw 166204 at Paddington yesterday. I can't say I thought much of the livery one way or the other - it certainly wasn't awful, but it really is more black than green.

 

[Michael.Y]

I saw 166204 at Paddington yesterday. I can't say I thought much of the livery one way or the other - it certainly wasn't awful, but it really is more black than green.

Weather probably didn't help. In bright sunlight it really is bottle green.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I saw 166204 in the flesh yesterday sitting at Reading, looks quite smart in green compared to the blue of the other 166s.

Although I can imagine the confusion in a few years time when 166s are on the Car-Port services when passengers board a GWR 166 confusing it for a Southern as "I was told to board the green train".

Hopefully by then GTR will have completed their rebranding, so they'll be white/grey*.

*=Or more likely, muck!

 

[swt_passenger]

Hopefully by then GTR will have completed their rebranding, so they'll be white/grey*.

'Southern' will still be mainly green.

 

[agerj001]

Hopefully by then GTR will have completed their rebranding, so they'll be white/grey*.

*=Or more likely, muck!

So are GTR painting all units from southern in the TSGN colour scheme? or something similar? I thought southern was staying the same?

 

[swt_passenger]

So are GTR painting all units from southern in the TSGN colour scheme? or something similar? I thought southern was staying the same?

It (and GatEx) are staying the same as now, according to GoVia's previous PR. I couldn't begin to count the number of previous posts to this effect...

 

[61653 HTAFC]

'Southern' will still be mainly green.

It (and GatEx) are staying the same as now, according to GoVia's previous PR. I couldn't begin to count the number of previous posts to this effect...

Oh, okay. I'd assumed otherwise but admittedly hadn't been paying quite so much attention to threads about the South, as it isn't my area.

 

[455driver]

So are GTR painting all units from southern in the TSGN colour scheme? or something similar? I thought southern was staying the same?

It (and GatEx) are staying the same as now, according to GoVia's previous PR. I couldn't begin to count the number of previous posts to this effect...

What has this got to do with FGW?

 

[BestWestern]

Is it just me who finds it thoroughly and utterly depressing to read through conversation about yet more oceans of money being thrown at the endless rebranding of our railway?! :-/

Are those in charge of the whole system really so completely detached that they can't appreciate how abjectly wasteful and confusing this perpetual merry-go-round is?!

Bah.

 

[dubscottie]

Is it just me who finds it thoroughly and utterly depressing to read through conversation about yet more oceans of money being thrown at the endless rebranding of our railway?! :-/

Are those in charge of the whole system really so completely detached that they can't appreciate how abjectly wasteful and confusing this perpetual merry-go-round is?!

Bah.

Well hopefully GW are doing what ScotRail have done..

One livery, with only the little "operated by XXX" logo on the doors changing..

And only doing it when the trains need repainted anyway.

 

[fgwrich]

Is it just me who finds it thoroughly and utterly depressing to read through conversation about yet more oceans of money being thrown at the endless rebranding of our railway?! :-/

Are those in charge of the whole system really so completely detached that they can't appreciate how abjectly wasteful and confusing this perpetual merry-go-round is?!

Bah.

That is my other complaint about this whole rebranding exercise. Not only the stock which has only recently been repainted into the smart blue scheme will have to be repainted again, but as will it's stations too - some of which including Bramley, only received a new coat of Paint with the past year. And even then half of the station has been painted, leaving the bizarre sight of ex NSE / FGW Link, and gWR green all in the same small station.

 

[swt_passenger]

What has this got to do with FGW?

It was all written in response to post #266 on the previous page...

 

[Deepgreen]

I've now heard from another source that GW are abandoning the yellow stripe for first class on their new livery, having just got it right on the blue 166 re-paints! Aaargh!

 

[jimm]

That is my other complaint about this whole rebranding exercise. Not only the stock which has only recently been repainted into the smart blue scheme will have to be repainted again, but as will it's stations too - some of which including Bramley, only received a new coat of Paint with the past year. And even then half of the station has been painted, leaving the bizarre sight of ex NSE / FGW Link, and gWR green all in the same small station.

Twas ever thus. There were a fair few 1950s totem signs and regional-coloured running boards around on stations all over the country into the later part of the 1970s, over a decade after the double-arrow BR corporate image was unveiled. Not forgetting locos still in green livery. Chris Green may have signed up every painter and decorator who could hold a brush and tin of red paint for a few days in 1986 to tackle stations for the Network South East launch but there weren't all that many trains in the new livery - a livery that lasted well after the demise of NSE and BR on stock delivered in the early 1990s. If someone else had won a GW franchise in 2013, we might very well have seen another livery anyway.

 

[jon0844]

That is my other complaint about this whole rebranding exercise. Not only the stock which has only recently been repainted into the smart blue scheme will have to be repainted again, but as will it's stations too

I do wish stations weren't branded at all, but were made to look standard so anyone can clearly recognise a train station and all the signs/posters within.

Of course you can have branding on posters and elsewhere, but the stations themselves should be left alone - and just painted and refurbished as and when required.

 

[fgwrich]

I do wish stations weren't branded at all, but were made to look standard so anyone can clearly recognise a train station and all the signs/posters within.

Of course you can have branding on posters and elsewhere, but the stations themselves should be left alone - and just painted and refurbished as and when required.

I'm rather inclined now to agree with you. The whole irony on the GW side is that the of the former Intercity Great Western stations which were then painted green by the TOC. A few years later, First rebrands GW into the Barbie scheme, and starts to repaint a lot of the structures into the Blue based scheme. Of course, 10 years later, here we are again, going about repainting most of those repainted structures - some as a said like Bramley, only done within the past year, are going Green again. At least you could say First are supporting the paint industry though!


As for the livery itself, Two quotes on another forum rather sum up part of my opinions on it.

restrained and purposeful the green might be, but unless you have good light on the side don't bother taking a photo - and don't bother with any long range landscape shots in the countryside during the summer either

From those linked photos, it seems to me that the dark green appears dull in poor light photos and classy in good light photos.

Whereas the multicolour earlier liveries are pretty much fluorescent in-your-face look-at me shiny-shiny at all times

 

[Skimble19]

Everyone seems to forget that the stations will need painting anyway - it is largely irrelevant if the colours stay the same or not as the cost will still be there! The only difference is stations might not all match each other!

 

[TheNewNo2]

I do wish stations weren't branded at all, but were made to look standard so anyone can clearly recognise a train station and all the signs/posters within.

Of course you can have branding on posters and elsewhere, but the stations themselves should be left alone - and just painted and refurbished as and when required.

I don't know who you think it is who will be confused as to whether something is a railway station. The tracks and platforms would give it away you'd think. That said, branding on a station, what does it amount to? A few signs and the colour of paint in the booking office, if one exists at all. It's utterly irrelevant.

 

[jon0844]

I don't know who you think it is who will be confused as to whether something is a railway station. The tracks and platforms would give it away you'd think. That said, branding on a station, what does it amount to? A few signs and the colour of paint in the booking office, if one exists at all. It's utterly irrelevant.

Haha (sarcasm).

I am sure most people knew what I meant. As in there's no need to make a station represent the operator (especially when multiple operators serve a station) that may change its branding tomorrow, or another operator takes over the franchise.

Why not simply maintain a standard colour scheme, using standard signs (like airports) using recognised symbols and a standard font? Most operators are now using standardised symbols, but I'd say they all should.

Network Rail does at least seem to manage that at the main stations it manages, although St Pancras seems to have done its own thing. Not too complicated, but only because things have gradually improved over the last 7-8 years. Signage was terrible early on.

Stations will need regular maintenance, including repainting, but that's all.

How do painted seats, lampposts, poster boards and so on benefit the passenger? If one operator manages a station served by lots of train companies, what's the benefit there? To sway someone into buying a ticket for the operator that painted the station? Of course not.

In fact, I do wonder why stations are even put under the control of TOCs, rather than Network Rail. I was quite surprised to learn that AGA is even responsible for maintaining the passenger information screens and so on. Why? Isn't a station infrastructure?

 

[fgwrich]

I don't know who you think it is who will be confused as to whether something is a railway station. The tracks and platforms would give it away you'd think. That said, branding on a station, what does it amount to? A few signs and the colour of paint in the booking office, if one exists at all. It's utterly irrelevant.

Er... Try All the signs at the station, The Lampposts, Station Benches, Station Bins, TVM Machines, Passenger Shelters, Passenger Info Screens (on some TOCs like the awful Yellow from Connex), Buildings doors and Windowframes, station fencing and the Canopies! So there's a little more than just the odd sign (which are mostly vinyl) and the colour of the paint of the ticket office these days!

Would you repaint most of your house, only to decide 6 or so months later that you'll change it all over again? Cost irrelevant? Actually, I'm quite surpruised that First Group can afford all of this rebranding and repainting exercise! And talking of smartness - Bramley, my example and one of my local area stations, now has a bizarre hybrid of gWr Green, FGW Blue, FGW Link and Network South East. Which to me, strikes of a company confused about it's image - it's either not bothered to update certain areas of the station, which hardly shows much care in where your money is going, or can't make up their mind. Some of FGWs stations still contain a mix of IGW, FGW Barbie, FGW Blue & Wessex, as well as GWR Green - all in one station.

 

[cactustwirly]

Twyford was only repainted last year. However the signs are looking a little faded and the ticket office still retains some NSE fixtures and fittings.

Some of the stations up the line still retain their FGW Link signage.

 

[Parallel]

My local station has received an upgrade less than a year ago, and the canopies to the bike shelters are in FGW blue. I'm wondering if they'll just be left, leaving a mixture of FGW blue and new GWR green.

Some stations have the same name boards that Wessex Trains installed but the Wessex Trains part have been taped over - In some cases the tape is coming off.

Also, some stations are in like a light orange/terracotta and beige. I'm not sure which company implemented this?

 

[61653 HTAFC]

The branding of stations once you're on the platforms isn't really an issue as long as it looks neat and tidy. If you're in an unfamiliar area and need to find the station, it will be indicated by the double-arrow symbol as it has been for the last forty years or so. The colour of the lampposts is irrelevant.

 

[hst43009]

All stock will get repainted as and when they are due Majors (C6, F & G exams), regardless if they stay in the franchise post knitting or not, as vehicles would have to be repainted anyway

But not neccessarily in green. There's another set due out of Kilmarnock next week and I've not seen much evidence of green pigment in the paint. Nor for that matter have any of the other repaints which have come out by road each Friday been green.

 

[superalbs]

I wonder if the Class 165s and Class 166s will be keeping their First Class when they are allocated to the Bristol area, no First Class fares for that route currently exist, so maybe that's why the First Class isn't as present on the exterior?

 

[Deepgreen]

I wonder if the Class 165s and Class 166s will be keeping their First Class when they are allocated to the Bristol area, no First Class fares for that route currently exist, so maybe that's why the First Class isn't as present on the exterior?

I understand that they will not have first class, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't have a yellow stripe for the three years or so before that happens. A vinyl is easy to apply and later remove, after all. Still, let's not let passenger information get in the way of re-branding!

 

[Stroud Valleys]

any new pictures of trains in their new paint?