Great Western Livery

[Peter Mugridge]

Three green power cars? I thought there were four (five if you count 'Harry Patch', not sure if that power car is black or green) and two full green rakes (only one is internally refreshed though).

I'm pretty sure the Harry Patch power car is black - it's certainly heavily vinyled and probably counts as a livery all by itself.

Had forgotten there was a second rake of green trailers now!

 

[pdeaves]

Correct, 'Harry Patch' is predominantly black (fading to blue at the blunt end).

There are 4 green power cars.

 

[fgwrich]

Maybe both sets are internally refreshed, I've not been on either. I seem to recall reading however a post that said the second set still had blue seats.

Correct. One set has the new interior, other one is FGW standard.

Nearly FGW Standard. Most of the sets have had some minor changes during their recent overhauls and repaints, predominantly around the vestibles. FGWs were light blue (Light Olympia), the recent returnees from Overhaul have had it repainted along with the toilets into the GWR Grey. Some sets / vehicles haven't been refreshed though so you can see which has and which hasn't - the biggest give away are the inside of the doors. FGWs were Pink / Rubine Red, GWRs are Grey.

But I knew what you meant!

As noted on this forum and others and as seen yesterday through Reading, the Green Set is complete with Green PCs, There is one Green PC on a FGW Blue Set though with FGW PC on the other end.

 

[BestWestern]

Currently one a green power car on a blue rake and with a Building a Greater West (I think; either that or Plymouth!) on the other end. This week has seen all four 'greens' working blue rakes also. Colourful indeed!

 

[leomartin125]

Currently one a green power car on a blue rake and with a Building a Greater West (I think; either that or Plymouth!) on the other end. This week has seen all four 'greens' working blue rakes also. Colourful indeed!

This week 43187 and 43188 are both back with their Green MK3 set.

 

[superalbs]

Considering the first Class 150/0 came back with its 2+3 seating, is it a possibility that 150202 and 150216 will also keep the original seating layout too? D:

 

[FGW_DID]

Wolverton swap today:

165102 returns to Reading, 165103 goes to join the Green Team.

 

[Melancholia]

And here's 165 102 passing Burnham station.

 

[leomartin125]

Wolverton swap today:

165102 returns to Reading, 165103 goes to join the Green Team.

These refurbishments are taking awfully long considering I have recently been in 165101 and nowt all has changed on the inside practically what. Three weeks to repaint a three car set is ridiculous...

 

[JN114]

These refurbishments are taking awfully long considering I have recently been in 165101 and nowt all has changed on the inside practically what. Three weeks to repaint a three car set is ridiculous...

Three weeks to externally paint a 3 car set sounds about right... There's also door mods and UAT fitment. Not sure why you think that's ridiculous considering the amount of work involved...

 

[jimm]

These refurbishments are taking awfully long considering I have recently been in 165101 and nowt all has changed on the inside practically what. Three weeks to repaint a three car set is ridiculous...

Painting trains is a rather different process from slapping some Dulux on the living room walls.

And installing the accessible toilet, retention tank and associated equipment isn't exactly a five-minute job.

 

[43096]

These refurbishments are taking awfully long considering I have recently been in 165101 and nowt all has changed on the inside practically what. Three weeks to repaint a three car set is ridiculous...

Of course, you are an expert on this?

Or not, as is obvious as it isn't "just" paint, it is a full C6 overhaul (of which paint is only one part) and PRM modifications. I'd say 3 weeks is good going for that.

 

[spark001uk]

You only get 2+7 sets when a vehicle has been removed for maintenance - the "booked" formation for all GW HST sets is 8 vehicles.

Example 1L48 I've just got on.
(see PIS)

 

[pdeaves]

I saw 165101 yesterday with all (I think) the body side stickers in place. What was noticeable was that the nose end numbers were to one side in the black bit (like with the blue livery) rather than central on the yellow and there was no GWR on the end.

 

[XCTurbostar]

Reported on the Retro HST thread that 43185 is now in Intercity Swallow Livery.

Thanks,
Ross

 

[reddragon]

I travelled on the class 166 with the new 2+2 green interior.

The seats were filthy, so bad that nobody sat on some of them.

Are these to be the new standard or is this why they are not fitting them widely?

 

[leomartin125]

Reported on the Retro HST thread that 43185 is now in Intercity Swallow Livery.

Thanks,
Ross

I knew this was always a rumour, but had no knowledge of GWR actually doing it. Not sure whether this is true or not, will have to see.

 

[Darandio]

So because you have no knowledge about it, it might not be true?

 

[59CosG95]

Lot of talk about it on this thread: http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=128034&page=16

 

[pdeaves]

I knew this was always a rumour, but had no knowledge of GWR actually doing it. Not sure whether this is true or not, will have to see.

According to GWR communications, it is true (and they should know!)

 

[LordCreed]

I knew this was always a rumour, but had no knowledge of GWR actually doing it. Not sure whether this is true or not, will have to see.

It's not just a rumour, it has been confirmed internally.

 

[leomartin125]

It's not just a rumour, it has been confirmed internally.

I see. Sounds promising! They really need to do a rake up now in either Intercity Swallow livery or the original Intercity livery to go with either 187 or 002, would look superb.

 

[59CosG95]

I see. Sounds promising! They really need to do a rake up now in either Intercity Swallow livery or the original Intercity livery to go with either 187 or 002, would look superb.

Unlikely to happen, what with all the DDA regulations forcing operators to have contrasting door colours for commercial passenger operators. This was discussed at length, both on here (can't remember which thread though) and on Facebook to mind-boggling levels of detail. The final word came when a GWR employee who emailed Mark Hopwood directly about the "matching rake" was told in the reply that a blue/grey rake would not go ahead for the reasons outlined above.

As much as it pains me to say it, the railway isn't run for enthusiasts. Hell, most operators haven't done much to emphasise the importance of the HST in the role of train travel *cough* *cough* XC *cough*-the fact that GWR have revinyled 2 powercars (one definitely) is significant enough.

 

[43096]

Unlikely to happen, what with all the DDA regulations forcing operators to have contrasting door colours for commercial passenger operators. This was discussed at length, both on here (can't remember which thread though) and on Facebook to mind-boggling levels of detail. The final word came when a GWR employee who emailed Mark Hopwood directly about the "matching rake" was told in the reply that a blue/grey rake would not go ahead for the reasons outlined above.

And as I said on the other thread, that excuse is just that. There is nothing in the PRM regulations that mean you cannot re-apply original blue/grey or swallow livery if you so wish. GWR are just using it as an excuse, when the real reason is cost. I really don't know why they just don't come out and say that.

If anyone has the PRM regs perhaps they can confirm the need for contrasting doors? The reason I ask is because DB are able to turn out brand new ICE sets in Germany with no sign of a different coloured door, and I assume the PRM regs apply across the EU (as they are a TSI).

 

[leomartin125]

Unlikely to happen, what with all the DDA regulations forcing operators to have contrasting door colours for commercial passenger operators. This was discussed at length, both on here (can't remember which thread though) and on Facebook to mind-boggling levels of detail. The final word came when a GWR employee who emailed Mark Hopwood directly about the "matching rake" was told in the reply that a blue/grey rake would not go ahead for the reasons outlined above.

As much as it pains me to say it, the railway isn't run for enthusiasts. Hell, most operators haven't done much to emphasise the importance of the HST in the role of train travel *cough* *cough* XC *cough*-the fact that GWR have revinyled 2 powercars (one definitely) is significant enough.

Okay, then how come FGW HST MK3 42353 went around in the old Intericty livery then?

Here is a video of it running, don't think they worried too much back then!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7ksPaw5EVI

 

[MatthewRead]

I travelled on the class 166 with the new 2+2 green interior.

The seats were filthy, so bad that nobody sat on some of them.

Are these to be the new standard or is this why they are not fitting them widely?

I had a look at that interior it wasn't that bad the seats were clean

 

[fgwrich]

Okay, then how come FGW HST MK3 42353 went around in the old Intericty livery then?

Here is a video of it running, don't think they worried too much back then!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7ksPaw5EVI

"They didn't worry too much about them back then" because it wasn't being used in service. FGW / GWR regularly uses HST sets to shift around single coaches from Depot to Depot locked out of used. The only time they will run a 2+9 (in the case of that day 2+8) with the extra coach in service is on the summer Saturday services to Newquay. In this instance, the coach was specially vinyled up for RailFest - it went up not in service, it came back to Laira not in service and was shunted into the HST formation to ship it back to Old Oak Common for debranding and returning back to Dynamic Lines. Not once did it run back in service in BR Reverse Blue / Grey. The stickers on the stoplight windows also show this.

 

[Rhydgaled]

And as I said on the other thread, that excuse is just that. There is nothing in the PRM regulations that mean you cannot re-apply original blue/grey or swallow livery if you so wish. GWR are just using it as an excuse, when the real reason is cost. I really don't know why they just don't come out and say that.

Although I would have liked to have seen a full rake in blue & grey or swallow I think it is perfectly reasonable if GWR and/or FirstGroup don't want to do it (either due to cost, or because they want the majority of each set to retain FirstGroup and/or GWR branding, even though they are happy for one or two vehicles to have a special livery).

What I cannot understand is the claim that the PRM regulations prevent a full set being done in BR livery, since Chiltern did it and it isn't 2020 yet.

 

[pdeaves]

I saw 165101 yesterday with all (I think) the body side stickers in place. What was noticeable was that the nose end numbers were to one side in the black bit (like with the blue livery) rather than central on the yellow and there was no GWR on the end.

Today (28 September) 165101 was fully liveried, but with the nose end numbers in the old place.

 

[co-tr-paul]

The last Sleeper in blue,10589 is due to leave us for repaint AND interior refurb this week.