Most missed livery

[TheGrandWazoo]

I was having a discussion with a colleague (prompted by the firms that I've worked for changing logos and colour schemes etc) and it prompted the following question....

Which lost livery would you like to see return?

Ordinarily, I would go for the second Badgerline livery (though both First have repainted an example to mark the 30th anniversary and Crosville appear to be using it on one of their competitive services in Weston super Mare).

Therefore, my choice would be the Western National "Badgers and Flags" livery of the 90s. A smart livery even on the oldest of fleet.

What would you go for and why?

 

[Robertj21a]

Southdown's traditional livery. Just so very appropriate to the operating area. Even the green was exactly the right shade.

 

[overthewater]

Strathclyde orange: Its just so good for Glasgow.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Strathclyde orange: Its just so good for Glasgow.

I think it was officially called red so as not to offend the sensibilities of a certain demographic though that might be apocryphal.

It certainly stood out though!

 

[overthewater]

The Glasgow Red was just nice on the eye: https://www.flickr.com/photos/77000628@N02/sets/72157634838219374/

Then First come along and made it dark red: yuck:

I would not dare talk about Edinburgh, since the livery keeps on changing...

 

[Hophead]

Maidstone & District had a green and cream livery post-privatisation 25-odd years ago which I remember as being rather classy (considerably more than the standard Arriva livery which followed)

 

[jp4712]

Goodness me, where do I start? Greater Manchester buses should be orange, Tyneside should be yellow. Then there's Ribble cherry red, Birmingham Corporation blackberry blue and cream, Rochdale's amazing streamline blue and cream, Manchester's 'Mancunian' livery, Halifax orange, green and cream, Alexander Northern's Yellow and cream, East Kent crimson and cream, Aldershot and District two-tone green, Southdown as already mentioned, Oxford red, maroon and duck-egg blue, Sheffield cream and blue with red wheels... the list is very long.

Bus museums are full of buses in utterly beautiful liveries that make most of today's marketing-led schemes look what they are - transitory, meaningless. I was at Showbus this year and I saw a modern Wright double decker of First Potteries in the traditional red and cream with 'PMT' fleetnames - it looked so much better than the First corporate scheme that I don't know how the people of that area don't rebel and insist that the whole fleet thus benefits.

I'm not an old reactionary - it's just that design agencies are brought in who have no idea of heritage and more importantly see fleet colours as just the same as a retail shop or similar. Such a shame. Compare the two photos below - which one would you prefer at your bus stop?

First Potteries 37146 and 32634, Showbus, September 2016 by Paul Williams, on Flickr

Keele again by Kevin Lane, on Flickr

 

[Bletchleyite]

While I like the new "Palladium" livery, I miss the old Blackpool Transport logo:

So much more timeless than:

...that looks like one of the managers' 5 year old kid did it in Paint.

Other than that I like (and miss) classic, understated liveries particularly those with city crests on them. Though I equally have time for some of the very modern liveries, particularly ones with added photo montage type vinyls, or route branding with a clear, structured underlying theme. Not a fan of the 1980s ones at all - brash, ugly, cheap and typical of the "competition above all else" attitude at the time, one that in my book did a huge amount of damage to the credibility of public transport in the UK.

 

[freetoview33]

I'd love to see a new bristol e400mmc in cityline livery

 

[Busaholic]

I liked the original Metrobus livery. The Roundabout livery in Orpington also managed to make a breadvan look appealing (I'm excluding the Optares from that description).

 

[KendalKing]

Goodness me, where do I start? Greater Manchester buses should be orange

The liveries which preferred, and would like to see return are the White, Orange & Brown livery of GMPTE, and the Cream, Green & Brown of Merseyside PTE.

I was at Showbus this year and I saw a modern Wright double decker of First Potteries in the traditional red and cream with 'PMT' fleetnames

First Potteries 37146 and 32634, Showbus, September 2016 by Paul Williams, on Flickr

I totally agree, many of the traditional liveries do indeed like smart on modern buses.

I miss the old Blackpool Transport logo:

I too like this, after all I did live and work in Blackpool in the late 1980's and early 1990's.

 

[mic]

mine would have to be Yorkshire rider green/cream along with Gold Rider for the coaches

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I totally agree, many of the traditional liveries do indeed like smart on modern buses.

Yes... Epsom Buses have a small single decker, SD42, running around in what looks like the old London Country two tone green livery at the moment and it's the most distinctive vehicle in the area as a result.

 

[507021]

I miss the old MTL maroon and cream livery the most, but it's nice that there's some preserved buses in that livery still on Merseyside. I really like the old Stagecoach stripes livery, too.

 

[carlberry]

I miss the old MTL maroon and cream livery the most, but it's nice that there's some preserved buses in that livery still on Merseyside. I really like the old Stagecoach stripes livery, too.

NBC Green (Grabs coat, tin hat and runs for door!!!)

 

[Robertj21a]

NBC Green (Grabs coat, tin hat and runs for door!!!)

.....and so you should !!

 

[Colly405]

Western National blue and cream with red lining and logo. The one before badgers and flags. Fab livery.

 

[sprinterguy]

Greater Manchester buses should be orange, Tyneside should be yellow.

Too right. The old PTE liveries used to provide a real sense of place and local identity. They were a part of the urban fabric of the towns and cities that they served: You could tell whether you were home or in a 'foreign' town based on the colour of the buses alone, if you were so minded.

Bus museums are full of buses in utterly beautiful liveries that make most of today's marketing-led schemes look what they are - transitory, meaningless.

I'm not an old reactionary - it's just that design agencies are brought in who have no idea of heritage and more importantly see fleet colours as just the same as a retail shop or similar. Such a shame.

Hear hear. Bus deregulation in 1986, and the resultant break up of the National Bus Company in particular, led to an explosion in the number of new liveries, many of which I feel were among the best designs to have adorned the sides of buses.

I know that in the modern day it is possible to do supposedly wondrous things with vinyls, and I'm undoubtedly biased as it is the post-deregulation era of bus liveries that I grew up with, but I do personally feel that large, square, slab sided vehicles such as buses best suit bold blocks (or linear arrangements as demonstrated by most older, traditional schemes) of colour rather than the swirls, splotches and graduated colour changes more likely to be seen in modern liveries.

In my native North East England we had VFM Buses, Northumbria and Wear Buses which all typified my favoured style of livery. I also liked the 'Busways' schemes which succeeded the PTE livery, retaining the yellow but adding broad bands of colour which denoted the town that they served; red for Newcastle, green for Sunderland and blue for South Shields.

I also miss the dark blue Highland Country livery which used to adorn local buses in the Western Scottish Highlands. It looked classy, and it's vaguely disappointing to now find the homogeneity of corporate Stagecoach livery as far afield as Fort William and Skye.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

mine would have to be Yorkshire rider green/cream along with Gold Rider for the coaches

Good choice, but I'd prefer the WYPTE livery that spawned the YR colours. I was also always fond of County Motors' blue and cream, especially on a Bristol VR!

 

[Robertj21a]

Macbraynes.

 

[PeterC]

For me it has to be the Oxford red, maroon and duck-egg blue.

 

[Statto]

Merseyside PTE Brown-Verona Green-Jonquil Cream livery
GMPTE/GM Buses White-Orange-Brown/Black livery, also GM Buses White-Pink with Brown-Red-Orange stripe livery on there dual purpose buses .

 

[quarella]

NBC Green (Grabs coat, tin hat and runs for door!!!)

Taking the thread title in it's strictest terms NBC Green is probably the most 'missed' livery as it was seen by so many. Be quite interesting to see how it would look on current vehicles. One thing I'll say for it. GWR green makes NBC green good.

 

[gazthomas]

I really liked the Crosville Coastliner livery of the late 80's/early 90's with the red Welsh Dragon

 

[quarella]

Ordinarily, I would go for the second Badgerline livery (though both First have repainted an example to mark the 30th anniversary and Crosville appear to be using it on one of their competitive services in Weston super Mare).
What would you go for and why?

As a Westonian I liked original Mini-link/Swift Link livery which I felt was smarter than the standard Badgerline livery, although on some of the early examples the stripes on the full size vehicles were too narrow.

 

[jp4712]

This one? Not bad I suppose...

Crosville EOG205, Leyland 100 event, May 1986 by Paul Williams, on Flickr

City of Oxford was nicer...

Oxford Motor Services 476, Sandtoft, August 1983 by Paul Williams, on Flickr


...and a few people have mentioned Greater Manchester.

Greater Manchester Transport 8151 and 3065, Museum of Transport, October 2016 by Paul Williams, on Flickr

But personally I think you'll have to go a long way to beat this:

Rochdale Corporation 235 and 280, Manchester Museum of Transport, Sep 2014 - 3/3 by Paul Williams, on Flickr

 

[gazthomas]

This one? Not bad I suppose...

Crosville EOG205, Leyland 100 event, May 1986 by Paul Williams, on Flickr

City of Oxford was nicer...

Oxford Motor Services 476, Sandtoft, August 1983 by Paul Williams, on Flickr


...and a few people have mentioned Greater Manchester.

Greater Manchester Transport 8151 and 3065, Museum of Transport, October 2016 by Paul Williams, on Flickr

But personally I think you'll have to go a long way to beat this:

Rochdale Corporation 235 and 280, Manchester Museum of Transport, Sep 2014 - 3/3 by Paul Williams, on Flickr

Crosville's EOG 205, what a beast, though they were all terrible going up hills

 

[AndrewE]

1960s Devon General, red with a cream stripe - with the reverse colours on the Torbay open toppers. Also the Royal Blue coaches of the period.

I suspect for some of us our choices are influenced by what we were doing in the areas served, like holidays and visits to grandparents!

Mind you a green Country Buses RT always catches my eye - 5 years travelling 3/4 hr each way to & from school on them is bound to have left its mark!

 

[NorthernSpirit]

For me it has to be the yellow, blue and white of Calderline. The two tone green and cream of Kingfisher Huddersfield. The red, orange, yellow and cream of Leeds. The blue and red of Bradford Traveller. The green and cream of Yorkshire Rider. The red, white and blue of Yorkshire Traction and ultimately the green, yellow and white of Lincolnshire Roadcar.

All of which are much missed.

 

[cool110]

John Fishwick & Sons, stuck with the traditional style right until the end