They looked alright in Provincial I think, but I've never ridden one to this day. I wonder if I should for posterity!
Oh most definitely, otherwise you'll always wonder what you missed
Yes they did. A couple of 144s also wore RR for a spell, one of which was now-unique 144012. My personal favourite livery would be Valley Lines though.Oh most definitely, otherwise you'll always wonder what you missed
Didn't a handful receive Regional Railways livery also, I thought they looked quite ok wearing that and the original Chocolate & Cream livery first worn by the Skipper Fleet down in the south west.
Significantly more than a handful: All of the later batch of then-Neville Hill based units, 142072 - 096, received Regional Railways livery, as well as 142015/016, 142023/024 and 142071. 142023, a Newton Heath based unit, was in fact the first unit to carry Regional Railways livery upon its launch in 1991.
Provincial was the livery with a light blue base colour with a wide dark blue waistband and white borders, while Regional Railways had a dark blue windowband, a light blue stripe and light grey lower panels (and cantrail, in most cases).
144011 - 013, I believe.
A bouncy castle on rails?
I'm now wondering whether I actually meant Provincial or RR now.
Yeah to be fair the standard Regional Railways livery would have been in the minority on Pacers in the North West in the nineties, it was mainly applied to Regional Railways North East units.
Getting away from Pacers a little but the WYPTE 158s weren't owned by the PTE by the time privatisation came around, nor were the 144 driving vehicles. Just the 7 155s and the 10 MS vehicles of class 144.
Yes I always found that the Hornby models were very true to the prototype for the reasons you state.I have a soft spot for the original provincial blue. Mostly because I once got a Hornby Class 142 in that very livery for Christmas. In hindsight the model was quite an accurate representation of the real trains given it was slow, noisy and didn't like going around corners...
Given that the Provincial 'Railbus' livery was essentially designed around the Pacers units (There was a variant applied to the 150/1s), I've always thought that there's never been a livery better suited to them than that. The light blue was quite cheery and striking at a time when drab BR blue/grey was still commonplace.
Who did own the WYPTE 158s at privatisation, then, as they are now owned by Eversholt, but were bought by them around the same time as Porterbrook bought the 155s and 144 MS cars.
).
They do. I thought it looked old...
I don't think they do, given that there are examples of Northern liveried units sporting blue roofs, like 142009, that weren't delivered in Provincial livery to begin with.
