London Midland Class 170 Seat Colour

[OffThePacer18]

After several years of travelling on Class 170s of London Midland and now WMR, I today came to the realisation that the interiors are not all identical, contrary to what I had always presumed, and there are two different colours/patterns on the seats - one being a slightly darker green than the other. Could anyone fill me in as to why this happened and which units have each example?

 

[Spirit555]

These seating colours has been used on most LMR class of units, 150, 153, 170, 323 and 350/2 and 350/3, and will continue to until the units move onto another operator. I see this everyday on 323's and 350/2 although there are now 14 with new cloth as per 172/0 and 172/2

HTH

Mark

 

[Bletchleyite]

350/2s have 2 colours on the same unit, /3s all the same.

 

[OffThePacer18]

These seating colours has been used on most LMR class of units, 150, 153, 170, 323 and 350/2 and 350/3, and will continue to until the units move onto another operator. I see this everyday on 323's and 350/2 although there are now 14 with new cloth as per 172/0 and 172/2

HTH

Mark

Sorry I'm not sure my post made it clear exactly what I'm asking. All of the class 170s retain London Midland seats, but there are two slightly different variations. One being quite a dark green and the other being lighter. Also the vertical lines in the pattern: one variant has green dots followed by white dots and the other has black dots followed by white dots. It is very subtle and I only noticed for the first time yesterday, but it made me wonder why there are two variations and which units have them.
The difference is visible on the following fantastic website:
https://www.mattypsrailwaypics.com/class-170.html

 

[fireftrm]

On the Siemens units - 350 and 185 and maybe others there are/were two different seat colours whilst in the same basic scheme - 185s had blue with alternate ones looking like they'd been bleached out a bit, first class was purple and same differences. The LNW 350s have the same two different greens

 

[sprinterguy]

I'd never noticed this before so I've looked into it a bit. There's a photo here by Nathan Williamson of the interior of a 350/2 unit that shows the two contrasting designs to good effect side by side:
https://units-library.weebly.com/uploads/6/9/2/9/6929845/350235-interior-16-05-18-2_orig.jpg

Based on my search, I'd suggest that the lighter green fabric with white and dark green dots was the original style of moquette adopted after the franchise commenced, which was superseded by the darker green with white and light green dots.

I say this as the lighter green fabric with white/dark green dots features on class 350/2s (New in 2008) and on images of 170s dated 2008, while the darker green fabric with white/light green dots features on class 172 and 350/3 units from new (Delivered 2010 and 2014 respectively) and is much more prevalent on internally refreshed units in more recent photos (As well as 350/2s which have had individual seat covers replaced).

However a variant of the lighter green white/dark green dots design has continued to be used in first class on 350/2 and 350/3 units, as seen in this photo on Angel Trains' website here:
https://www.angeltrains.co.uk/Products-Services/Regional-Passenger-Trains/50

 

[Bletchleyite]

Both styles feature on 350/2s, they are deliberately mixed up, a bit like Pendolinos have some blue and some red.

 

[sprinterguy]

Both styles feature on 350/2s, they are deliberately mixed up, a bit like Pendolinos have some blue and some red.

Looking at a few photos it seems you are correct that that 'piebald' look is intentional. At least the Virgin scheme is clearly directional at a glance, it took some concentration to realise that the pattern on a 350/2 isn't simply as a result of random seat cover replacements!

You learn some funny stuff on this forum at times.

 

[fireftrm]

The two 'shades' were like that from new, see my post above.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Looking at a few photos it seems you are correct that that 'piebald' look is intentional. At least the Virgin scheme is clearly directional at a glance, it took some concentration to realise that the pattern on a 350/2 isn't simply as a result of random seat cover replacements!

You learn some funny stuff on this forum at times.

There are some now with different coloured seat base and back - that isn't intentional, particularly where you get a blue base on a green seat on a /2 or vice versa on a /1! (The base cushions are all the same, the backs are different so not interchangeable).

 

[JaJaWa]

This isn’t that uncommon: LNER also have two randomly interspersed seat variations: dark red outlined seats (seats light red) and light red outlined seats (seats dark red). Eurostar do it with grey and blue in Standard and shades of brown in Standard Premier. It’s (apparently) meant to make it a bit easier to spot your seat again if you go the loo / onboard shop.

 

[Sprinter107]

The 170s have always had the dark green moqutte. The "bleached green" moquette is used on the 350s, along with the dark green. The only 170 to get the bleached green moquette was 170504 which was the first to go into London Midland colours on the launch day in November 2007, but the seats were very soon changed to the darker green moqutte, as per the other 170s. Maybe the seats appear a slightly different shade due to newer moqutte being mixed with old, when damaged seats come to be recovered.

 

[Bletchleyite]

This isn’t that uncommon: LNER also have two randomly interspersed seat variations: dark red outlined seats (seats light red) and light red outlined seats (seats dark red). Eurostar do it with grey and blue in Standard and shades of brown in Standard Premier. It’s (apparently) meant to make it a bit easier to spot your seat again if you go the loo / onboard shop.

It's also a nice stylistic point, it makes the interior look less drab (yes, you, GWR).

 

[OffThePacer18]

The 170s have always had the dark green moqutte. The "bleached green" moquette is used on the 350s, along with the dark green. The only 170 to get the bleached green moquette was 170504 which was the first to go into London Midland colours on the launch day in November 2007, but the seats were very soon changed to the darker green moqutte, as per the other 170s. Maybe the seats appear a slightly different shade due to newer moqutte being mixed with old, when damaged seats come to be recovered.

Ah that would explain it. Thank you.