Make no mistake, this isn't a question about what train operator has the best livery. At least not in the sense of your personal favourite. But rather this thread raises the question as to what makes a good livery for a train operator and why some liveries are better than others. For me personally, a good livery is one that is simple (as in design and pattern), distinctive, appropriately branded, and enhances the look and design of the train. Additionally, a good livery also uses the appropriate amount of colours and mixture of colours so that it's striking enough to be noticeable and distinctive but also simple enough that it's not a total eyesore. I would argue that three is generally the magic number for a train livery with maybe a fourth colour at a push if used correctly. All of these considered, I would personally consider the following liveries to be the best:
- CrossCountry: It's dark burgundy/brown roof and cab sides with silver bodyshell and grey and black window bands gives it a very sleek and distinctive modern look. I would argue that it's quite overbranded though unfortunately and could do with less text on the side of the trains themselves.
- Grand Central: The black base colour combined with a modestly applied orange stripe and white doors (except gold for first class) make this livery stand out for it's sheer uniqueness and really gives a grand feel true to the operator's name. It gives them a really premier feel without looking like an outdated steam-era livery that would otherwise look bad in a lot of other colours in my opinion.
- GNER: One of the old ones that no longer exists on the rail network, but I still believe it's a prime example of how a minimal use of colour variety can play to a livery's strength. The dark blue base colour and red stripes/doors made this livery look very smart back in the days of GNER, and some would even argue it's the best that's ever been on the East Coast Main Line since privatisation.
- Great Western Railway: A prime example of a rail operator paying tribute to it's heritage while maintaining a modern look. The shades of green and white make the rolling stock look very smart in my opinion, and it's also a fine example as to how minimal use of different colours isn't necessarily a bad thing. That said, the mixture of lime green and grey kind of ruins the interior for me.
- ScotRail Saltire: This livery is naturally distinctive being that it's very much decorated in the flag of it's area of operations. That said, I still think it's still a striking livery that doesn't even need much branding to begin with. I think the light blue dots near the door areas might be a bit much, but they don't hurt the livery too much in my opinion.
- Virgin Trains: Another old one that no longer exists on the network, but still a distinctive livery that gave the Pendolino fleet a sleek modern look in line with the West Coast Main Line modernisation with it's red roof and cab sides and silver bodyshell separated by a swooshing white band, black window bands, and even a distinctive yellow smile that was well incorporated into the livery itself.
- Avanti West Coast: Non-LMS colours on the WCML aside (which is a personal preference for me anyway), the varying patterns on the white coaches combined with door colours changing makes this livery a little messy in my opinion. The cab cars look fine, but the white coaches could really do better than just having one side decorated while the other side remains largely bland and untouched. The Avanti triangles between the windows and doors don't help either and should be left solely at the side of the cab areas.
- Great Northern: This livery isn't really bad, but it's very indistinctive with it's mixture of a mostly light grey and white bodyshell with only the branding and blue doors to stand out. I feel like even a simple inclusion of black window bands might help give this livery a bit more of a flavour to it because otherwise it's very uninspiring and not so different than other operator liveries.
- London North Eastern Railway: LMS colours on the wrong railway aside, the Class 800/801s really don't look that much better than their base livery of plain white when they first arrived. The mixtures of red across the window bands don't really suit the train in my opinion, and the grey doors do not exactly compliment the rolling stock either. Really not the look I'd personally want for an intercity operator.
- Northern: The blue and white isn't really that bad, but the branding of various N stickers across the bodyshell along with a lack of black window bands to contrast with the plain whiteness really doesn't do any favours to this livery in my opinion. The N branding in particular doesn't help when it almost makes the operators name into "N-Northern".
- South Western Railway: Another livery that suffers from a messy looking colour scheme with diagonal white and grey line patterns on the sides and lacking window bands with only a blue stripe along the bottom of the sides that don't transition well onto a larger blue area on the end coaches, and also from being obnoxiously overbranded with it's logo and company name slapped on the side of each coach.
