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Trivia: Most number of liveries in the same train

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SeanG

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Whilst browsing through online photographs, I have seen a number where different carriages, multiple units or locos in the same train are in different liveries.

I was wondering what the most number of liveries in a single train that people have seen are. Variety is the spice of life!
 
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dosxuk

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The EMT 158's carrying Northern Spirit, Transpennine Express, Central and EMT branding all at once on a single carriage have got to be up there.
 

SeanG

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Apologies, the question may have been misinterpreted, I meant where a train has, say, 4 carriages and 1 is in one livery, one a second, and 1 a third. Such as this that I found on the internet:

Screenshot_20200506_115813.jpg
 

London Trains

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I'm not sure about any with 3 liveries, but there were some TPE 350s being transferred to LNWR recently that were in service with TPE just before leaving them with some carriages in TPE livery and some in LNWR.
 

F Great Eastern

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There was a fair few 'rainbow' rakes running for 'one' at one point.

I think at one point they had all of the following liveries represented on their coaching stock at the same time - Wasn't uncommon to see 4-5 liveries on a single rake.
- Anglia Railways Green (86s)
- Virgin Trains West Coast
- Intercity Swallow
- Intercity Swallow debranded.
- 'one' original dark blue without stripes
- 'one' Anglia original dark blue with stripes but no fade (mostly only locos)
- 'one' Anglia original dark blue with stripes and fade effect (mostly coaching stock)
- 'one' lighter blue without stripes
- 'one' lighter blue with stripes'
- Various hired in class 90s in various liveries.

Think there were a couple of shades of the original 'one' livery as well and quite a few variations on it on units, for example some had the rainbow painted onto the doors and others didn't. Some had sub-branding.

Unit 90003 had the honour of being changed a fair bit. It wore no less than 4 variations of the 'One' Livery during it's life under that brand. Firstly the dark blue with Anglia at the front and One towards the rear. Then it was swapped around with One at the front and Anglia at the rear, it then got repainted into the lighter version with Anglia at the front and One at the rear, before finally getting One at the front again and losing the Anglia for good.

90019 "Penny Black" seemed to operate on hire to 'one' for a while as well and I can remember that wearing a few different liveries during it's time with them.

I remember at the time that NX didn't paint that many trains or stations with new branding very quickly, but there were some stations that got things changed multiple times and the same with some units whilst others were in dire need.

WAGN was also good for a large number of variations.
 
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fgwrich

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The HST Fleet has to be up there too in it's various forms. Particually the Great Western Franchise incarnations, where GW seems to settle on one livery for a while before awkwardly throwing it off again (Dynamic Lines has to be the most longest lasting?)

We've had ECS moves like this one:

And on the GW Fleet mixed rakes such as:
Intercity Swallow / GWT
GWT/ FGW Green Gold
FGW Green Gold / Barbie
Barbie / Dynamic Lines
Midland Mainline / Barbie
Midland Mainline / Dynamic Lines
Barbie / Midland Mainline / Dynamic Lines
Dynamic Lines / Harry Patch PC
Dynamic Lines / 43185 PC
Dynamic lines / HP PC
Dynamic Lines / Sir Ken
Dynamic Lines / fGWR Green.
Dynamic Lines / fGWR Green / Harry Patch / 43185
Dynamic Lines / fGWR Green / 43002 / 43185
Dynamic Lines / fGWR Green / Harry Patch
fGWR Green / Harry Patch
fGWR Green / 43185
fGWR Green / 43002


 

sd0733

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A couple of the Cardiff-Manchester diagrams are currently 3x153 or 2x153 and a 150 in the covid timetable which regularly throws up 3 different liveries.
I've seen ATW+EMT+TFW and an Anglia+ATW+TFW livery on it. Getting less variety as more are repainted though.
 

Taunton

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Probably a bit offbeat (though it does answer the "most liveries in a single train" question) but the New York Subway Museum has a range of old cars from different eras in different liveries, all of which can still multiple together and run out on the system (London Underground take note). 10 car set, each one in original, different, livery. It's even known as the "Train of Many Colors". See here:

 

JohnMcL7

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When Scotrail were bringing in the HSTs there was one with the rear car and one carriage in the plain blue colour (with the large bike logo), one carriage in dark green (GWR?), two carriages in purple with the pink doors (FGW?) and the other powercar in the Scotrail livery.
 

hobnobgti

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Quite common to see a LNR 12-car 350 with one set in plain post-refurbishment base livery, one 350/3 or 4 in LNR livery and a 350/1 or 2 in London Midland livery
 

Royston Vasey

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The HST Fleet has to be up there too in it's various forms. Particually the Great Western Franchise incarnations, where GW seems to settle on one livery for a while before awkwardly throwing it off again (Dynamic Lines has to be the most longest lasting?)

We've had ECS moves like this one:
Clever marshalling... follow the buffers and buckeyes!
 

ANDREW_D_WEBB

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An Ely - Eastleigh move on 20 April this year had four liveries:
20311+20314 in HNRC orange
47813 in ROG blue with 'Thank You NHS' branding
Two Mk1 barriers in dark blue
6 HST trailers in FGW Dymanic Lines
 

Islineclear3_1

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In slam door "Southern", it wasn't uncommon for 12-car rakes to run with say, one unit in BR blue/grey; another in Connex and another in early Southern livery - or going back further, blue & grey, jaffa cake (brown/orange) and Network SouthEast "toothpaste" livery. And even green/blue/blue & grey would have been possible in the 1970s. And tag on an MLV to a 12-Cep, it was possible to have the MLV in Post Office red, one Cep in blue/grey, another in jaffa cake and another in NSE, so 4 liveries in one train
 

THC

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GA 321s - perm any 3 from 5 in a 12-car consist:

- GA Renatus
- White with blue doors
- White with red doors
- NX debranded
- First blue debranded

And when 321448, the demo unit, was out and about, that was a sixth variant.

THC
 

Doomotron

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I'm sure I've seen a video of a Wrexham and Shropshire rake in 3/4/5 liveries; I'll try to find the video.
 

Richard Scott

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Many years ago I seem to remember an anglo-scot train at Cheltenham with a Large logo 47 and in the consist there was at least one coach with the following liveries, blue-grey, Network SouthEast, Inter-City, ScotRail and Transpennine. Stuck in my mind; couldn't tell you what year or the consist, guessing late 80s.
 

F Great Eastern

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GA 321s - perm any 3 from 5 in a 12-car consist:

- GA Renatus
- White with blue doors
- White with red doors
- NX debranded
- First blue debranded

And when 321448, the demo unit, was out and about, that was a sixth variant.

THC

I remember at the time that NX won the GA Franchise, there was at least 5 variations on the 31xs as well as another 4 variations for Stansted Express, including the famous one off livery which tried to copy the rainbow livery on One but using orange and blue stripes rather than the rainbow ones. Across the franchise there must have been close to 20 liveries at one point.
 
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ash39

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A couple of shots that sprung to mind

Lead power car - East Coast
Coaches - mix of EMT (with EC branding) and National Express (with EC branding)
Rear power car - East Coast - 3 liveries


43239 Copmanthorpe 05/04/2013
by Flash 3939, on Flickr

Another HST a couple of years later.

Lead power car - East Coast with Virgin branding
Coaches - mix of ex-National Express & Virgin
Rear power car - Virgin - 3 liveries


43320 Heck Ings 29/07/2015
by Flash 3939, on Flickr

However my winner is this effort seen at Ipswich in 2015.


82139 Ipswich 21/03/2015
by Flash 3939, on Flickr

DVT and 1 coach - ex-'One' blue
1 coach - Abellio Greater Anglia white
Majority of coaches - ex-Virgin silver
Loco on the rear - ex-National Express silver - 4 liveries!


90015 Ipswich 21/03/2015
by Flash 3939, on Flickr
 

Ted172

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(Not my video)
HST move from St Philips Marsh to Etches Park from the St Philips Marsh Open Day in 2016.
  • Virgin Trains East Coast
  • Network Rail
  • Grand Central
  • British Rail HST Prototype
  • East Midlands Trains
 

jopsuk

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DVT and 1 coach - ex-'One' blue
1 coach - Abellio Greater Anglia white
Majority of coaches - ex-Virgin silver
Loco on the rear - ex-National Express silver - 4 liveries!
Outstanding. I think the only way, in that era, it could have been bettered is if one of the coaches instead was in the NXEA white/silver and the loco had been a freightliner hire-in
 

ash39

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Outstanding. I think the only way, in that era, it could have been bettered is if one of the coaches instead was in the NXEA white/silver and the loco had been a freightliner hire-in

I don't think Freightliner were hiring 90's to AGA at this time, but they did hire in 90034 from DRS/DB. I'm not sure if 034 was with AGA when that shot was taken - but it would have been quite a sight.

I was back in Suffolk 18 months later and 034 was working with the ex-Virgin stock, but it had been formed back into one set by this point.


90034 Ipswich 19/08/2016
by Flash 3939, on Flickr
 

F Great Eastern

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I remember reading the following once being seen, but not in passenger service
- Anglia Railways Thunderbird
- Hired in loco (may have been Penny Black, which was did a couple of stints in East Anglia)
- 'One' Metal Blue Coach
- 'One' lighter Blue Coach
- Intercity Swallow coach
- Virgin Trains West Coast MK3 livery

The sheer number of liveries around in the NX/One and early AGA days was huge, must have been around 20 franchise wide at one point if you include all the variations.
 

fgwrich

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I've just remembered another contender for the list: Caledonian Sleeper and it's various Fort William incarnations:

Caledonian Sleeper 73 + IC Swallow Mk2 / Virgin Mk2 RLO / FSR Barbie Mk3 Sleeper / FSR Barbie Mk3 Sleeper
Caledonian Sleeper 73 + Virgin Mk2 / Virgin Mk2 RLO / FSR Barbie Mk3 Sleeper / FSR Barbie Mk3 Sleeper
GBRF 66 + Caledonian Sleeper 73 + IC Swallow Mk2 / Virgin Mk2 RLO / FSR Barbie Mk3 Sleeper / FSR Barbie Mk3 Sleeper
Royal Scotsman 66 + Caledonian Sleeper 73 + FSR Barbie Mk3 Sleeper / FSR Barbie Mk3 Sleeper / FSR Barbie Mk3 Sleeper / Virgin Mk2 RLO / FSR Mk2 BUO.

Im sure there's a few other versions too - They also had one of Riviera's Blue Grey Mk2s on hire for a short period too.

 

Buggleskelly

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GA 321s - perm any 3 from 5 in a 12-car consist:

- GA Renatus
- White with blue doors
- White with red doors
- NX debranded
- First blue debranded

And when 321448, the demo unit, was out and about, that was a sixth variant.

THC

Perhaps a potential 7th if any of the Northern Units come south?
 

SeanG

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This has to be a contender. Five liveries, and bonus points for a Highland Stag at Cockwood Harbour
 

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Murray J

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not sure if this ever happened, but it's certainly a possibility that on the now ended 2019-2020 Rhymney line 37 services that there could have been a colas 37, large logo 37, BR blue mk2s, and anglia railways mk2s in the same train, as i'm fairly sure 1 diagram was TnT. I know for a fact there were at least a few trains which were either colas, BR blue and anglia, or large logo, BR blue, and anglia.
 

GusB

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Going back to the early 90s, there was a period of time when trains on the Inverness - Aberdeen line could sport a number of different liveries.

Locos could be BR Blue, BR large logo, Scotrail (Red-stripe), Scotrail (Blue-stripe) and Mainline. There may have been the odd turn with a railfreight loco, but I don't recall seeing any.

The Mk2s could be a mix of blue/grey, Scotrail (blue-stripe), Network South-East and the green/cream named carriages that were used on the Kyle line for a time.
 
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