Trivia: Lost modern "classic" liveries

[83G/84D]

Personally I was not a fan of the "skunkline" liveries as shown on post #55, preferred "Birds Eye" to be honest.

 

[Statto]

I didn't remember that. I thought they went from verona green and cream to the maroon and cream. Do we also have those two liveries in this shot?

If it weren't for the bus and the fleetname/ticket machine, the rest of this scene looks like it could be 10 years earlier!!!

I do remember that livery, was only an experimental livery, but scrapped as it was still too close to the PTE green, so Merseybus chose Maroon & Cream, Merseybus Atlantean 1955 was painted in darker green & cream livery more akin to Crosville

 

[tbtc]

A few posts ago, the GRT liveries were mentioned, I also thought the GRT Advance livery was nice as well, even Manchester had a version at one point immediately before barbie was introduced

I liked the GRT liveries - each area having its own local version but recognisable as part of the same corporate group - in the way that National Express's "Coventry" operations evolved to be similar to the rest of the West Midlands fleet but with a pale blue (so you'd identify it as part of the same company but it looked local) - it'd have been nice if other groups had done something similar - e.g. if Stagecoach kept stripes but with the three stripes distinct to each local company that they'd taken over

A few people have mentioned Merseybus' maroon and cream, but who remembers their first try at a post-deregulation livery - two shades of green, very reminiscent of Leeds Corporation

Nice - not one I'd seen before - I think that the "predominantly dark version of one colour but with a lighter version of the same colour as a relief" works quite well on buses. Tends to be two tone blue (rather than green) but generally works pretty well.

 

[ClydeCoaster]

I'm going to go out on a limb and out forward one of the shortest lived SBG dereg liveries and one that's often described as dull... The black, white and grey Western Scottish livery. I think it sat well on the Y-types and deckers, with coaches and the Dodge S56s getting a jazzier diagonal application. There are not many black and white based liveries out there so I think it still looks quite bold and I far preferred it to the black, white and red 'hockey sticks application that replaced it within a couple of years. Do I prefer it to the red and cream...? It was pre-dereg haha!

(Photos credited to Andrew Simmonds, Western SMT/Scottish Facebook group)

 

[GusB]

I'm going to go out on a limb and out forward one of the shortest lived SBG dereg liveries and one that's often described as dull... The black, white and grey Western Scottish livery. I think it sat well on the Y-types and deckers, with coaches and the Dodge S56s getting a jazzier diagonal application. There are not many black and white based liveries out there so I think it still looks quite bold and I far preferred it to the black, white and red 'hockey sticks application that replaced it within a couple of years. Do I prefer it to the red and cream...? It was pre-dereg haha!

(Photos credited to Andrew Simmonds, Western SMT/Scottish Facebook group)

I quite liked the black/white Western liveries too, although I preferred the later variants which had the additional red. This coach livery was quite attractive, IMHO:

WESTERN SCOTTISH KN409 TSD159Y

TSD159Y was a Dennis Dorchester SDA801 / Plaxton Paramount Express 3200 C49F body purchased new by Western Scottish in March 1983 as fleetnumber N159. It passed to Clydeside Scottish in June 1985, but later returned to Western as WLT444 and lasted into Stagecoach days.

flic.kr

(Photo by David Devoy)

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

I'm going to go out on a limb and out forward one of the shortest lived SBG dereg liveries and one that's often described as dull... The black, white and grey Western Scottish livery. I think it sat well on the Y-types and deckers, with coaches and the Dodge S56s getting a jazzier diagonal application. There are not many black and white based liveries out there so I think it still looks quite bold and I far preferred it to the black, white and red 'hockey sticks application that replaced it within a couple of years. Do I prefer it to the red and cream...? It was pre-dereg haha!

(Photos credited to Andrew Simmonds, Western SMT/Scottish Facebook group)

The SBG liveries were either quite conservative (Eastern or original Kelvin) or full on bonkers (Clydeside, Strathtay, Lowland).

The middle ground was perhaps Highland but I think Northern was quite pleasing

 

[GusB]

The SBG liveries were either quite conservative (Eastern or original Kelvin) or full on bonkers (Clydeside, Strathtay, Lowland).

The middle ground was perhaps Highland but I think Northern was quite pleasing

Northern, despite being my local and favourite of the SBG companies, did have quite a pleasing livery post de-reg, but it was a little bit boring in the way it was applied. You mentioned Lowland - I thought their coach livery with the cream base and green/yellow flashes was quite attractive, and a little more imaginative.

Highland was a strange case. Their grey-based coach livery looked quite good, but they seemed to apply it differently, even on vehicles of the same type. An example was their batch of coach-seated Olympians, some of which were all-over grey while others had a dark blue lower half. Then they started painting their coaches all-over red...

 

[ClydeCoaster]

The SBG were definitely colourful. Strathtay hurt my eyes. Especially the unreleived blue and orange, the white toned it down a bit but the coach application (which became their last standard lovery before Stagecoach) was just horrific.

Kelvin was case in point in being full on bonkers. The original two tone blue lasted how long, less than a year before yellow fronts were randomly slapped on? There was also the mid-blue and diagonal yellow front separated by a thin dark blue band, and then of course it all went crazy with KCB.

Highland and Northern were my favourites of the more "restrained" liveries, and the de-reg Bluebird application was very attractive.

 

[delt1c]

I always thought the LT Leaside on the metros with the narrow white band looked good

 

[tbtc]

Since we are talking about a few Scottish liveries, what about the "Coastliner" that Fife Scottish had on the X57 (Edinburgh - Anstruther)?

914. C794 USG: Fife Scottish Omnibuses

Fife Scottish 914 is leaving Edinburgh on the Fife Scottish Coastliner service to Leven. It is a Volvo Citybus B10M-50 with Alexander RV bodywork, new as no. FRA94 in 1986. It would pass to West Coast Motors, Campbeltown in 2004.

www.flickr.com

The SBG liveries were either quite conservative (Eastern or original Kelvin) or full on bonkers (Clydeside, Strathtay, Lowland).

The middle ground was perhaps Highland but I think Northern was quite pleasing

Until Kelvin came along, they were all fairly simple horizontal bands (possibly based on the body line of a Leyland Leopard, since that was what made up a large chunk of the single decker fleet!):

• Highland: Red with grey
• Northern: Yellow with white
• Strathtay: Blue with orange
• Fife: Red with white (revised to have more white around de-regulation)
• Midland: Blue with white (revised to have more white around de-regulation)
• Eastern: Green with white (revised to have more white around de-regulation)
• Lowland: Green with yellow
• Western: White with black
• Clydeside: Red with yellow
• Central: Dark red with white
• Kelvin: Two tone blue

Strathtay, Kelvin and Lowland were "created" in the 1980s, so I guess the idea was to have a livery based mainly upon the fleet that they inherited (painting a yellow band on the buses that Lowland got from Eastern, an orange band on the ones that Strathtay got from Midland's Perth operations, some light blue on the ones that Kelvin got from Midland).

Then in the late '80s. Kelvin went a bit crazy, Strathtay started painting Routemasters diagonally (!), the combined Kelvin Central went back to "local liveries" (Monklands Bus, EK Chieftan) at the same time as trying to squeeze the small number of roadworthy vehicles further by running through services like Cumbernauld - East Kilbride and Strathtay introduced a red "Perth City Transport" livery to deal with the competition from Stagecoach.

I think that Northern introduced blue to their livery as they rebranded as "Bluebird", Eastern became "SMT", Midland added "Bluebird" to their name... I think that everyone gave up on the "Scottish" other than Fife (which remained an identity even in Stagecoach colours).

Kelvin was case in point in being full on bonkers. The original two tone blue lasted how long, less than a year before yellow fronts were randomly slapped on? There was also the mid-blue and diagonal yellow front separated by a thin dark blue band, and then of course it all went crazy with KCB

I think Kelvin must have had more than one livery per year - maybe they've inspired the current mishmash of yellow/blue liveries that Stagecoach are inflicting on the country?

 

[MB162435]

I also loved the Truronian livery on their buses before they were bought by First, Red and Grey simple but still very stylish and effective

Also really liked the Western National livery as well

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Also really liked the Western National livery as well

Which one?

 

[MB162435]

Which one?

Sorry the 'Badgers and flag' livery, forgot to say which one

 

[John Hunt]

My favourite Leicester City Transport livery was from the sixties - the photo of the 1964 AEC Renown shows this well.

First Leicester - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[ClydeCoaster]

Just as the Ugliest Liveries is being discussed just now, I saw these brilliant digitally altered images on Flickr (not mine, credit to KM_Edinburgh) and reminded me there was some love for the Northumbria livery on this thread. If you want to know what it would look like today applied to a Gemini 3 or Enviro MMC, the answer is ... surprisingly well!

Wright Gemini: Northumbria

(THIS IMAGE IS COMPUTER GENERATED) This image is © KM Edinburgh. It would be an offence for you to remove the copyright mark, or post the image elsewhere without my written permission.

flic.kr

ADL Enviro400XLB: Northumbria

(THIS IMAGE IS COMPUTER GENERATED) This image is © KM Edinburgh. It would be an offence for you to remove the copyright mark, or post the image elsewhere without my written permission.

flic.kr

 

[CBlue]

I always liked the Cambus "Dual Purpose" livery that was clearly inspired by old NBC stuff elsewhere.

E500 LFL Cambus, Cambridge

Revised dual-purpose livery which looked very nice. Just out of the paint shop.

www.flickr.com

The livery used just before the Stagecoach takeover was quite pleasant, too.

N519 XER

Seen when quite new, one of the last vehicles to been purchased before the Stagecoach take-over.

www.flickr.com

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Just as the Ugliest Liveries is being discussed just now, I saw these brilliant digitally altered images on Flickr (not mine, credit to KM_Edinburgh) and reminded me there was some love for the Northumbria livery on this thread. If you want to know what it would look like today applied to a Gemini 3 or Enviro MMC, the answer is ... surprisingly well!

Wright Gemini: Northumbria

(THIS IMAGE IS COMPUTER GENERATED) This image is © KM Edinburgh. It would be an offence for you to remove the copyright mark, or post the image elsewhere without my written permission.

flic.kr

ADL Enviro400XLB: Northumbria

(THIS IMAGE IS COMPUTER GENERATED) This image is © KM Edinburgh. It would be an offence for you to remove the copyright mark, or post the image elsewhere without my written permission.

flic.kr

The Northumbria livery sat better on more modern designs like the Delta rather than an LH. I always liked it