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Triva: Old franchise holder's merchandise...

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najaB

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I was just put in mind of a recent thread about old signs hanging around after franchises end. The guard on my VTEC service to London is carrying his odds and ends around in a GNER satchel. So the bag has outlasted National Express and DOR - and it doesn't look in bad nick so it may well last through the VTEC days. :)

Any other examples you've come across of paraphernalia hanging around for years after a franchise change?
 
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ainsworth74

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There is a wheelchair ramp at Hull which still says 'Regional Railways' on the side. There was also a 91 running around for a while which you could clearly see the outline of the letters GNER, with a National Express white stripe whilst operating as part of East Coast.
 

MidnightFlyer

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Scotrail timetables have VTEC services marked as 'GR', not 'EC'.

Northern and the NRT also use it; the code has never been officially changed I believe, even when it was in NatEx and DOR hands it was still labelled GR. Similarly, Abellio Greater Anglia, and One / NXEA before them, is uniformly abbreviated to LE...
 

najaB

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There was also a 91 running around for a while which you could clearly see the outline of the letters GNER, with a National Express white stripe whilst operating as part of East Coast.
That'll probably be one of the first into the paint shop. Though if it hasn't yet then it may also be wearing Virgin Trains vinyl as well, it's enough to give a loco a personality complex! :D
 

LowLevel

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I was just put in mind of a recent thread about old signs hanging around after franchises end. The guard on my VTEC service to London is carrying his odds and ends around in a GNER satchel. So the bag has outlasted National Express and DOR - and it doesn't look in bad nick so it may well last through the VTEC days. :)

Any other examples you've come across of paraphernalia hanging around for years after a franchise change?

Loads - there's plenty of Regional Railways signboards and things hanging about. A colleague still uses his RR t key holder, plenty have Central bags and coats, a few of the on train wheelchair ramps have 'property of Wales and West Cardiff Canton' on. Lots of my colleagues still have Midland Mainline and even BR uniform in their lockers (particularly peaked hats). I have a couple of Regional Railways Central guard journals. My 'out of use' stickers are still issued as Central Trains ones. The list goes on!
 

ainsworth74

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That'll probably be one of the first into the paint shop. Though if it hasn't yet then it may also be wearing Virgin Trains vinyl as well, it's enough to give a loco a personality complex! :D

Unfortunately it went a couple of years ago when it was repainted into East Coast grey ;)
 

MrPIC

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Stansted Airport Station has a lot of "Property of British Rail" stuff dotted about
 

najaB

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I'm not surprised that there's NSE / BR legacy stuff around, but it's a bit more surprising that Brand identity managers aren't hotter on eradicating 'the other guy's' logo, seeing that a lot of money goes into getting the franchise in the first place.
 

Flamingo

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A few Wessex Trains kitbags are still in use, not to mention platform benches with both BR and GWR on them in numerous stations...
 

Railsigns

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I saw a 'Northern Spirit' car stop marker at York station last weekend.
 

skyhigh

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The last time I was at Stevenage, I spotted a luggage trolley hiding that said "Property of British Rail. If found, return to Paddington station."

No idea how that got there!
 

IanD

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The last time I was at Stevenage, I spotted a luggage trolley hiding that said "Property of British Rail. If found, return to Paddington station."

No idea how that got there!

Presumably Circle or H&C (or perhaps Metropolitan depending on how long ago!) to King's Cross St Pancras then main line to Stevenage.
 

GatwickDepress

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During disruption, I've seen the portable whiteboards at stations along the Hastings line with Connex South Eastern and South Eastern Trains headers.
 

Blindtraveler

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Nowhere near enough to a Pacer :(
I'm not surprised that there's NSE / BR legacy stuff around, but it's a bit more surprising that Brand identity managers aren't hotter on eradicating 'the other guy's' logo, seeing that a lot of money goes into getting the franchise in the first place.

Thats just it, theres no money left once they've won it!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
A few Wessex Trains kitbags are still in use, not to mention platform benches with both BR and GWR on them in numerous stations...

The GWR ones will be coming into there own again now I'd have thought.
 

glbotu

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I think, (though I haven't been in a while), that Hammersmith H&C Station still has some GWR benches.

Also, all of the Voyager car-stop markers at Newcastle Central still say VT 4/5 car stop.

I guess one can assume that stands for "Voyager Train".
 

TheNewNo2

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I was on the Abbey Line last year and the LM 321 (which had been nicely painted) clearly hadn't seen any interior attention for a while, as, beyond being pretty grotty, it still had Silverlink posters.


The last time I was at Stevenage, I spotted a luggage trolley hiding that said "Property of British Rail. If found, return to Paddington station."

No idea how that got there!

I have made a minor hobby from photographing out-of-place luggage trolleys, though usually it's just Euston ones at King's Cross!

There's Firstgroup's mucky fingerprints all over Grand Central's 180s...

I had the reverse once, a FHT 180 which had "Grand Central" plastered all over the end wall picture.
 

fgwrich

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Not so much in term of a long lost franchise but this still appears in Bold in one of the ends of 150002 amongst many others of the ex LM Exiles within the fleet. Looks like they've just stolen it!

There's little bits of Wessex Trains still visible across the FGW Network too - a lot of the station post boards were and still are painted in a nice Maroon colour, while some of the station name boards try to reveal Wessex Trains when the sticky back plastic has peeled off. Except Truro. Because there's one in my room!

ScotRail has a few RR & NX Survivors as well, you've just got to look out for them!
 

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fairysdad

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I have a bright yellow Wales & West baseball cap (actually, think I might have two).

glbotu said:
I think, (though I haven't been in a while), that Hammersmith H&C Station still has some GWR benches.
There are also some GWR benches at other stations along that bit between Hammersmith and Paddington - Westbourne Park springs to mind.
 

gnolife

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I came across a trolley last year that had on it that it was property of NSE and was not to be removed from Bishops Stortford.


This was in Ely.
 

TUC

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Scotrail timetables have VTEC services marked as 'GR', not 'EC'.

Northern and the NRT also use it; the code has never been officially changed I believe, even when it was in NatEx and DOR hands it was still labelled GR. Similarly, Abellio Greater Anglia, and One / NXEA before them, is uniformly abbreviated to LE...
Abbreviations from former TOCs look to be used extensively across timetables, which is really unhelpful in terms of the abbreviations being readily understandable by the public. Unfortunately, it's another example of the rail industry being far too inward looking.
 

ainsworth74

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Abbreviations from former TOCs look to be used extensively across timetables, which is really unhelpful in terms of the abbreviations being readily understandable by the public. Unfortunately, it's another example of the rail industry being far too inward looking.

But I wonder if there is more to it than that. For example when GTR took over FCC their code was immediately changed to TL and GN (depending on which bit of GTR the service runs on). So clearly it is possible to do without much difficulty. Yet we still have the likes of LE for GA and GR for VTEC (VT logically but it appears Virgin/Stagecoach are keen to keep them separate from West Coast so perhaps VE instead?).
 

HLE

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Seen a few LM drivers still wearing the central trains fleeces occasionally.

In the grand scheme of things I can't see it mattering all that much
 

TheNewNo2

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Several people at work are still seen wearing Tube Lines fleeces, hi-vis, etc, as well as flaunting Tube Lines Oyster card wallets.

Unfortunately they changed our desktop so that's not Tube Lines anymore.
 

herschell

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Until recently Montrose still had a Scotrail is operated by First, I posted a thread about it
 
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