Great Western Trains 'Merlin' livery

[devon_belle]

I have been wondering when this livery started to appear, how prevalent it was, and how long it lasted before 'fag packet' totally replaced it?

Additionally, did any stock other than HST/47/Mk3 sleepers receive the livery?

Finally, I have seen Merlin-liveried HST trailers with 'INTERCITY' text on them as well as ones with 'GREAT WESTERN'. Was this a design change during the GWT period?

Many thanks in advance!

 

[JonathanH]

Additionally, did any stock other than HST/47/Mk3 sleepers receive the livery?

Great Western didn't really have any other stock at the time.

 

[pdeaves]

I have been wondering when this livery started to appear, how prevalent it was, and how long it lasted before 'fag packet' totally replaced it?

Additionally, did any stock other than HST/47/Mk3 sleepers receive the livery?

Finally, I have seen Merlin-liveried HST trailers with 'INTERCITY' text on them as well as ones with 'GREAT WESTERN'. Was this a design change during the GWT period?

Many thanks in advance!

GWT was the only TOC to attempt to keep the InterCity name. It didn't really work out and was phased out, not a 'design change' as such.

 

[Sad Sprinter]

Alas I was born in '95, but have used the Great Western several times every year of my life to visit family. Sadly, I don't ever remember using the Merlin livered trains, I can barely remember the fag pack livery. But I know I must have travelled on Merlin livered HSTs, because I had, until my Mum threw it away, one of those cardboard cut outs out HST power cars and coaches FGW gave out in the buffet cars for many years. I think I have one memory of being in Paddington station when I was very young, I must have been 3, maybe 4. Why I was there I'm not quite sure, but I remember being in what I think was a telephone booth with my Dad, and seeing the Merlin livered power cars in platforms 1 and 2. We must have been waiting for said family to arrive off the train, but I can definitely remember seeing them.

As for the Swallow livery, sadly I have no memories of ever seeing a Swallow livered HST, although I must have been on them when I was about three.

 

[irish_rail]

Merlin launched in 1996 i think with the intercity lettering on coaches but within a year or so replaced it with Great Western.

 

[devon_belle]

Merlin launched in 1996 i think with the intercity lettering on coaches but within a year or so replaced it with Great Western.

Thanks for this info.

Since FGW became a thing in 1998, does that mean 'Fag Packet' started that year? I know Great Western had fewer HST sets than later on, but is it possible that some were reliveried from ICS to 'Fag Packet' straight away?

 

[The exile]

Great Western didn't really have any other stock at the time.

There was the hauled stock as well, wasn’t there?

 

[JonathanH]

There was the hauled stock as well, wasn’t there?

Only to the extent it was needed for the sleeper, including day coaches. There was a short gap in daytime hauled operation at the time of privatisation.

 

[devon_belle]

There was the hauled stock as well, wasn’t there?

Don't think any Mk2s made it into Merlin. Some MK3 sleepers did, though. Unsure if the Mk2s were debranded or just remained in Intercity livery.

 

[irish_rail]

Thanks for this info.

Since FGW became a thing in 1998, does that mean 'Fag Packet' started that year? I know Great Western had fewer HST sets than later on, but is it possible that some were reliveried from ICS to 'Fag Packet' straight away?

Fag packet was either 1998 or 1999 (43096 is probably the best poster to confirm for sure). To my knowledge, nothing went Swallow to Fag packet, although I'm not entirely sure on 43029 as this was in swallow I think until 2001 ish and not sure if it then went fag packet or barbie.... again 43096 can probably confirm or deny.

 

[43096]

Fag packet was either 1998 or 1999 (43096 is probably the best poster to confirm for sure). To my knowledge, nothing went Swallow to Fag packet, although I'm not entirely sure on 43029 as this was in swallow I think until 2001 ish and not sure if it then went fag packet or barbie.... again 43096 can probably confirm or deny.

Nothing went from IC Swallow to fag pack - all the long-term lease GWT fleet got Merlin before fag-pack was started. 43029 came over from Virgin in Swallow livery and was the first recipient of Barbie. It was a later addition to the fleet (in 2001 as you say): 43104 had been resurrected from long-term store as an insurance replacement for 43011 (written off at Ladbroke Grove) but was reinstated as a Virgin power car with 43029 transferring to FGW as it was already ATP fitted.

 

[Irascible]

I remember turning up at Padd & finding a full Merlin HST set for my south-west trip not massively long after privatisation, but I never really paid attention to how many of them there were. FGW's initial livery was just a mod of it & that seemed to happen quite quickly.

 

[sprinterguy]

Fag packet was either 1998 or 1999 (43096 is probably the best poster to confirm for sure). To my knowledge, nothing went Swallow to Fag packet, although I'm not entirely sure on 43029 as this was in swallow I think until 2001 ish and not sure if it then went fag packet or barbie.... again 43096 can probably confirm or deny.

43029 - as the final HST power car to carry Intercity livery - went straight from Swallow livery to 'Barbie' as the launch vehicle for the new livery in 2001 after it transferred from Virgin XC.

As for the introduction of 'Merlin' livery, 43185 “Great Western” and 43183 launched the livery with a short mark 3 set on 30th September 1996. First service trains, with a complete set, were 1A27 05:15 Penzance to Paddington 'Golden Hind' and 1C34 12:15 Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads on 1st October 1996.

 

[Devonian]

I seem to recall that Merlin was rolled out gradually 1996 to 1998 (or even 1999), and by contrast the fader vinyls of 'fag packet' were applied in a short period of time in 1999: the September 1998 timetable booklet was the first to be branded as First Great Western on the cover (but not inside, where it remained plain "Great Western") and featured a Merlin-liveried train on the cover with the Merlin logo Photoshopped out. The September 1999 timetable is the first to include a train in 'fag packet'.

As an aside, the new website that launched - I think - in 1999 featured an animation of a train in 'fag packet', which was actually a file called "merlin.gif". The interior refurbishments continued in Great Western Trains spec until 1999, with the sleepers refurbished in the winter of 1998-99, just a year before the Adelantes were revealed with First Group corporate livery and interiors.