Train liveries: When Paint + Rail = Epic Fail

[Sun Chariot]

Intended as a light hearted thread to find those liveries or brandings which missed the "hmmm, are you sure?" sense check. Here's my starter:

47163 and 47164: when Stratford depot's Silver Jubilee gesture involved a Union Flag with completely the wrong dimensions.

Maroon 47, 97561: when initially shown off at Crewe, its BR logo under the secondman's window was very skinny, with directional arrows facing the wrong way and at the wrong angle.

London & Southeast's cl.309 "Essex Express" coach branding. I recall seeing one where a local wag had removed the "Es-" bit...

Which other howlers and epic fails do you know of?

 

[The Barlow Boy]

Well I could suggest your use of the American failure to use the correct word which is "failure".
During the seventies the mark 1 coaching stock on the Eastern region used to have the word toilet applied in white sticky backed individual letters to the toilet door.
It didn't take much effort to remove the letter i leaving it as "to let".

 

[A0wen]

WAGN wasn't the best bit of branding - even the staff were known to refer to it as 'We ain't going nowhere'.

On dodgy liveries - how about the WMPTE canary / banana yellow liveried Cl 310 (or 312) that was around in the late 80s. Only ever saw pictures of it, but thought it look hideous.

 

[CyrusWuff]

Surely the top "prize" has to go to National Express for the (mercifully short-lived) "one" branding for the first "Greater Anglia" franchise back in 2004.

For those who'd forgotten, here's 315833 resplendent in "one" vinyls at Liverpool Street.

 

[rebmcr]

Well I could suggest your use of the American failure to use the correct word which is "failure".

"Fail" as a noun isn't an Americanism, it's internet/gaming slang popularised fairly recently (the past year or two).

 

[12CSVT]

What about that hideous red, white and blue colour scheme inflicted on 50023 in 1986. Unfortunately, just about every item of rolling stock in South East England would get this awful 'toothpaste' livery during the following few years, made worse by a tongue twister of a brand name 'Network South East'.

Mind you, liveries such as Loadhaul and Colas are just as bad.

 

[CarltonA]

I agree about the Colas logo, some peculiar Italian police helmet perhaps?

 

[hairyhandedfool]

Well I could suggest your use of the American failure to use the correct word which is "failure".
During the seventies the mark 1 coaching stock on the Eastern region used to have the word toilet applied in white sticky backed individual letters to the toilet door.
It didn't take much effort to remove the letter i leaving it as "to let".

In much the same way, many Connex South Eastern and Connex South Central brandings had the second 'n' removed.

 

[OuterDistant]

I think I once saw a photo of a unit bearing the legend "Notwork SouthEast", possibly during the "wrong type of snow" era.

 

[yorksrob]

What about that hideous red, white and blue colour scheme inflicted on 50023 in 1986. Unfortunately, just about every item of rolling stock in South East England would get this awful 'toothpaste' livery during the following few years, made worse by a tongue twister of a brand name 'Network South East'.

Mind you, liveries such as Loadhaul and Colas are just as bad.

Toothpaste livery was superb. Crisp, attractive and eyecatching. What didn‘t work was vomit inducing connex grey and yellow - invariably filth encrusted.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Surely the top "prize" has to go to National Express for the (mercifully short-lived) "one" branding for the first "Greater Anglia" franchise back in 2004.

For those who'd forgotten, here's 315833 resplendent in "one" vinyls at Liverpool Street.

NX's "c2c" is still around (possibly for a lot longer).
The livery is fine, but the TOC's name isn't.

Around 1980, when the Western Region had more HSTs than it knew what to do with, they were used on some Thames Valley stopping services.
I remember the announcer at Oxford describing one cheerfully as the "Inter-Village High Speed Train now at Platform 1", to general amusement.

 

[prod_pep]

WAGN's plain white 313s and 315s were always going to be a disaster from day one considering how much graffiti these trains suffer from. Might have worked if the plan to add a livery on top happened a bit quicker. Some of them stayed white for eight years and didn't look great.

Definitely another nomination for the 'One' rainbow stripes. Poor operator, even worse livery.

 

[gordonthemoron]

DB ICE-TD, proof that white is not a good colour for diesel trains, as in practice the trains are usually grey

 

[delt1c]

Surely the top "prize" has to go to National Express for the (mercifully short-lived) "one" branding for the first "Greater Anglia" franchise back in 2004.

For those who'd forgotten, here's 315833 resplendent in "one" vinyls at Liverpool Street.

The branding may not have been the best but the livery brightened up the 315 and 317's

Worst had to be the Purple Pauper livery Nat ex appied to the 317's drab and dark

 

[D6975]

You would have thought that the experience with the original refurbished DMU white with a blue stripe would have steered people away from white liveries, but no..

 

[gordonthemoron]

I seem to remember a brown and orange colour scheme in Kent (at least) during the 80s prior to NSE toothpaste livery. Is that correct?

 

[sprinterguy]

I seem to remember a brown and orange colour scheme in Kent (at least) during the 80s prior to NSE toothpaste livery. Is that correct?

Yep, the London & South East sector of British Rail initially adopted the "Jaffa Cake" orange and brown livery in the early eighties, prior to the launch of Network South East.

 

[delt1c]

You would have thought that the experience with the original refurbished DMU white with a blue stripe would have steered people away from white liveries, but no..

When the 1st refurbished DMU emerged in the mid 70's it needed a dynamic livery to catch the publics attention. And the following refurbs did that, that the bright exterior made the public think it was a new train even though internally the refurb was actualy a retrim.
On the network they did look good however soon became grime stained and shaby, but if you look at other stock in the 70,s there wasnt much clean and shiny

 

[gordonthemoron]

Yep, the London & South East sector of British Rail initially adopted the "Jaffa Cake" orange and brown livery in the early eighties, prior to the launch of Network South East.

it was hideous

 

[fgwrich]

London & Southeast's cl.309 "Essex Express" coach branding. I recall seeing one where a local wag had removed the "Es-" bit...

Equally in the same vein for a fairly average Western region interregional operator. WESSEX Rains? or was it WE SEX Trains? Usually a common feature on the ex Alphaline 158s.

 

[Oswyntail]

The "Desert Sand" Western livery just looked like s**t.:roll:

 

[starrymarkb]

DB ICE-TD, proof that white is not a good colour for diesel trains, as in practice the trains are usually grey

SWT learnt pretty quickly with the 159s. The first set to be repainted in 2000 had a white roof and the problem with exhaust was spotted, the rest had grey roofs

Saying that though - the roofs were white under NSE!

 

[Mikey C]

I quite liked the Jaffa Cake livery, but giving the units on the newly electrified Hastings Line the name "1066 Electrics" perhaps wasn't wise, bearing in mind the age of the rolling stock

 

[rebmcr]

gray

Now that's an Americanism! :¬D

 

[starrymarkb]

Now that's an Americanism! :¬D

Joy of Autocorrect...

*goes to investigate why it's gone merkin*

 

[BestWestern]

Awful liveries:

FGW 'fag packet'; just looked plain nasty, like an 80's bottle of cheap champagne. Earlier 'Merlin' livery far nicer, gold embellishments and too much green turned it bad.

FGW 'barbie'; arguably even worse, more clashing gold bits and swoops on the power cars which completely failed to respect the styling of the train. Experimental variant with white power cars almost too stupid to deserve comment.

GatEx scheme on the 442's; another good example of why it's important to consider the lines of the train before designing the livery. Looked great in SWT, look awful now.

SWT 455 red; certainly not awful but a little brash, particularly the extended blue across the cab fronts. White and blue schemes much nicer.

 

[Muzer]

Intended as a light hearted thread to find those liveries or brandings which missed the "hmmm, are you sure?" sense check. Here's my starter:

47163 and 47164: when Stratford depot's Silver Jubilee gesture involved a Union Flag with completely the wrong dimensions.

Maroon 47, 97561: when initially shown off at Crewe, its BR logo under the secondman's window was very skinny, with directional arrows facing the wrong way and at the wrong angle.

London & Southeast's cl.309 "Essex Express" coach branding. I recall seeing one where a local wag had removed the "Es-" bit...

Which other howlers and epic fails do you know of?

Hmm, I saw shortly after takeover by First of the franchise, a "Wessex Trains" liveried train where only the first three letters of the vinyl had been removed...

 

[Helvellyn]

Okay, so some linked examples, some of which already talked about: -

• Class 312 EMU 312204 in West Midlands PTE yellow and blue. (http://martynhilbert.railpic.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/IMG_0015_28800x53829.jpg)
• Class 114 in South Yorkshire PTE brown and cream. (http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3075/2832054701_5db2330bec_z.jpg)
  
• Class 104 in ScotRail 'Mexican Bean' livery. (http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4016/4659604705_3ab510a606_z.jpg)
• Class 118 DMU in British Telecom advertising livery. (http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5257/5459192427_3ed2650583_z.jpg)
• Class 141 DMU in original West Yorkshire PTE green and cream. (http://www.therailwaycentre.com/DMU photo file/141_green_orig)
• Class 142 DMU in chocolate and cream (and white). (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/142017_Leaving_Edale.jpg)
• Class 37/5 37501 in British Steel blue. (http://www.phantasrail.co.uk/HH/Phantasrail HH054u.jpg)
• Class 47/4 47522 in LNER apple green. (http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5171/5448422221_7cdb264c3f_z.jpg)
• Class 47/4 47973 in Midland red. (http://table158photography.weebly.com/uploads/8/2/1/2/8212554/dpp_1645.jpg)
• NIR DEMU in Sealink livery (also used on BR Mk 1 LHCS). (http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8337/8233571538_5bc36e2a41_z.jpg)
• Mk 1s in Pilkington 'K' glass advertising livery. (http://www.petertandy.co.uk/20031_069_warton_11890.jpg)
• Class 87/0 87006 in trial grey livery. (http://www.therailwaycentre.com/Main photo file/87_grey)
• Class 55 55022 in Porterbrook purple. (http://www.therailwaycentre.com/Main photo file/Deltic_Porter)
  

 

[Peter Mugridge]

That large logo 87 006 looks quite good actually ( apart from the lack of rail blue, of course! )

Regarding the Pilkington K Mark 1 set, it was several months before I realised it was that and not a DFDS Seaways advertising......

Yep, the London & South East sector of British Rail initially adopted the "Jaffa Cake" orange and brown livery in the early eighties, prior to the launch of Network South East.

I preferred that to the NSE livery...




*takes cover*

 

[yorksrob]

I preferred that to the NSE livery...




*takes cover*

I liked both. Certainly the mixture of a Jaffa Cake CEP and a toothpase VEP coupled together could be quite colourful !