LNER Class 91/Mk4 service status/withdrawals/2021 refurbishment

[55002]

37601 and 608 doing the honours

Still haven’t left yet, loco did arrived at 8:40 this morning

 

[DanNCL]

Yes I know, but was the undercoat repainted or has it stayed the same?

Absolutely no idea

As far as I understand the undercoat was repainted.

 

[43102EMR]

As far as I understand the undercoat was repainted.

Many thanks!

 

[TrainTrackJack]

Memories of last May's drag come flooding back - 128 still has her INTERCITY 50 Nameplates attached!

Hopefully Eversholt will have arranged for them to be removed prior to disposal.

 

[Ewan M]

Memories of last May's drag come flooding back - 128 still has her INTERCITY 50 Nameplates attached!

Hopefully Eversholt will have arranged for them to be removed prior to disposal.

Two of the 91s which went to Newport last year still had their nameplates attached but they were thankfully removed prior to dismantling

 

[ricj]

Any ideas when the first fully repainted set will come back into service?

 

[800001]

Any ideas when the first fully repainted set will come back into service?

Test run next Tuesday, and another set is due to head to Wabtec either next week or week after, so they will want it back in service asap.

 

[Gordonman]

Should work from Doncaster to NL on Friday,10.00ish from Doncaster,I believe.

Only 4 sets diagrammed each day now,so can hardly be short of sets,even including one being in works.8 sets available,7 if including 1 in works

 

[warwickshire]

37601 and 608 doing the honours

Confirmed top n tailed with 37601 and 37608 through Barnt green with 91122 91128 in the middle. Interesting to see. However sadly 91122 91128 bite the dust and are now withdrawn.

 

[Rhydgaled]

Yes but both that and 111 have tiny bits of east coast grey with a purple line at the back of the loco where the promotional livery ends. I think he (and I am too) was wondering if they would have got rid of that? I hope so. It was there to feed nicely onto East Coast livery MK4s and of course now looks completely out of place.

It's rather more than a tiny bit at the back of the loco; the purple line runs over half the length of the loco and is fairly integral to the design of the vinyl livery on both locos. In the case of 91 111 there was also a small East Coast logo squashed in at the back of the loco originally which was later changed to a Virgin logo (I don't think 91 110 has had any such embellishment). Depending on whether the width and height of the red stripe on the coaches happens to match the Battle Of Britain livery MIGHT still work if you changed it from a purple stripe to a red one but other than removing the Virgin logo (which I think LNER have done anyway) and perhaps putting an LNER one in it's place I don't think there is anything that can be done with 91 111 to make it fit better with LNER liveried coaches without designing a completely new 'For The Fallen' livery that looks very different from the current one.

 

[800001]

Should work from Doncaster to NL on Friday,10.00ish from Doncaster,I believe.

Only 4 sets diagrammed each day now,so can hardly be short of sets,even including one being in works.8 sets available,7 if including 1 in works

Diagrams will increase very soon, as Mk4s are going to cover azumas which are away for crack repairs.

 

[HamworthyGoods]

Diagrams will increase very soon, as Mk4s are going to cover azumas which are away for crack repairs.

That’ll be an interesting challenge for Neville Hill everyday!

 

[800001]

That’ll be an interesting challenge for Neville Hill everyday!

Correct it will, but they are in a much better position now with the number of faults per set than they were when they gained them from Bounds Green, and reliability is improving as the depot gain more working knowledge of the sets.
The team at Neville Hill are doing a very good job.

 

[DanNCL]

The last time a set failed and had to be rescued by a 67 was so long ago that I can’t remember when it was! What a difference compared to a few years ago when it felt like at least one set was sitting down somewhere nearly every day - yes it was a larger fleet but even with that taken into account it seemed to be happening more frequently per set than it is now.
Reliability certainly seems to be better now than it had been for a very long time, although I haven’t seen the MTIN figures lately.

Hopefully my comment about improved reliability hasn’t jinxed it!

 

[dodecahedron67]

For anyone interested, the completed set is very visible on any southbound train as you come into Doncaster. Looks good in person

 

[Twingo37175]

For anyone interested, the completed set is very visible on any southbound train as you come into Doncaster. Looks good in person

Without checking the full thread (as may have been mentioned), it looks like the next set is in ready for the same work (as of Tuesday when I went past at track level on the way to platform 6). I assume much better views from the Frenchgate car park as ever

 

[800001]

Without checking the full thread (as may have been mentioned), it looks like the next set is in ready for the same work (as of Tuesday when I went past at track level on the way to platform 6). I assume much better views from the Frenchgate car park as ever

The next set is due in Wabtec a week today.

 

[ricj]

Some good photos and videos of the set out and about on the 225 group twitter

Looks great but a few things don't seem to have been thought through fully: Firstly I'm surprised that the light grey (that replaces the old Intercity brownish grey) that begins at the rear third of the loco and DVT doesn't continue all the way down the train like it used to... Also think the lower valances on the loco and DVT being painted black really takes away from the sleek look they had originally. Finally the grey doors on the MK4's simply don't work with that livery at all but obviously being a legal requirement these days, not much that could be done with that one I guess...

On the whole though, still think it's amazing they've done this!

 

[Davester50]

Overall I like it.
To me, the purple is very similar to the appearance of BR Monastral Blue. Looks good when it's dark, not so good when light.

Also needs yellow First Class stripe.

 

[Rhydgaled]

the light grey (that replaces the old Intercity brownish grey) that begins at the rear third of the loco and DVT doesn't continue all the way down the train like it used to...

I think it does actually; the white stripe between the bright and dark reds does look a subtley different colour to the rest of the body below the red stripe - it's just the light grey is too light so there isn't sufficient difference between that and white for it to stand out I think.

Finally the grey doors on the MK4's simply don't work with that livery at all but obviously being a legal requirement these days, not much that could be done with that one I guess...

I'm not sure what the exact wording of that legal requirement is, but I think it could have been done alot better. For starters, the doors seem to have been done in a colour that isn't found anywhere else on the livery (except maybe the roof) - why are they not the same shade of dark red as the window band? Second, and this is the one I'm not sure about regarding whether it would comply with the legal requirement or not, but get rid of the light-grey up either side of the doors (a bit like an inversed version of the Blue Pullman HST).

EDIT: tried to photoshop it, but I couldn't get the shade of blue I wanted (which would have been GNER blue) so it doesn't look quite right. I've gone with blue rather than red because I've always thought LNER should have gone with blue rather than red - I've tried a similar photoshop with blue instead of red on an Azuma as well in the past.

 

[Helvellyn]

Some good photos and videos of the set out and about on the 225 group twitter

Looks great but a few things don't seem to have been thought through fully: Firstly I'm surprised that the light grey (that replaces the old Intercity brownish grey) that begins at the rear third of the loco and DVT doesn't continue all the way down the train like it used to... Also think the lower valances on the loco and DVT being painted black really takes away from the sleek look they had originally. Finally the grey doors on the MK4's simply don't work with that livery at all but obviously being a legal requirement these days, not much that could be done with that one I guess...

On the whole though, still think it's amazing they've done this!

The grey doors are "Platinum Grey", one of LNER's house colours and are what are used on the Azuma doors. Same as the "Oxblood" red window band, albeit it is a solid colour block rather than the the base colour of the vinyl pattern used on the Azumas (where inside fitted windows make vinyl patterns work, whereas as with outside framed windows on a Mk 4 you'd have an Oxblood border to every window even if the coach body had the vinyl pattern).

Someone else mentioned the lack of yellow first class stripe, but the Azumas don't have this either.

At the end of the day if they'd been done like the Azumas lots of people would be complaining about lipstick on a pig. This isn't to everyone's taste but I think it's taking a livery style that worked for the train, updating it to use LNER house colours/style, and also ensuring compliance in areas that had changed since the late 1980s (i.e. contrasting door colour).

 

[Doomotron]

I think it would have looked nicer if it was the normal InterCity colour scheme but with the red replaced with the oxblood. The oxblood window band does not look good in the light.

 

[43096]

I think it would have looked nicer if it was the normal InterCity colour scheme but with the red replaced with the oxblood. The oxblood window band does not look good in the light.

InterCity tried a maroon stripe rather than red back in the late 80s/early 90s and it looked far too dull. Doing as you suggest would have the same effect.

 

[ricj]

I think the chrome window surrounds on the mk4's added to the look in the Intercity days too.

 

[FOH]

I think the chrome window surrounds on the mk4's added to the look in the Intercity days too.

100%

 

[Davester50]

Someone else mentioned the lack of yellow first class stripe, but the Azumas don't have this either.

I did. It's true that the Azumas don't, (but IMHO should), but then they don't appear in a pseudo InterCity livery either.
And the original Mark 4 IC livery did have the yellow band.

 

[class397tpe]

I think it does actually; the white stripe between the bright and dark reds does look a subtley different colour to the rest of the body below the red stripe - it's just the light grey is too light so there isn't sufficient difference between that and white for it to stand out I think.


I'm not sure what the exact wording of that legal requirement is, but I think it could have been done alot better. For starters, the doors seem to have been done in a colour that isn't found anywhere else on the livery (except maybe the roof) - why are they not the same shade of dark red as the window band? Second, and this is the one I'm not sure about regarding whether it would comply with the legal requirement or not, but get rid of the light-grey up either side of the doors (a bit like an inversed version of the Blue Pullman HST).

EDIT: tried to photoshop it, but I couldn't get the shade of blue I wanted (which would have been GNER blue) so it doesn't look quite right. I've gone with blue rather than red because I've always thought LNER should have gone with blue rather than red - I've tried a similar photoshop with blue instead of red on an Azuma as well in the past.

Yeah, I agree it looks too fussy with the grey doors. I'd probably just switch the doors to oxblood - like the window band. It does look nice the way you've done it there with the window band continuing onto the doors, but I'm not sure if that's allowed with legislation sadly.

 

[YorksLad12]

Yeah, I agree it looks too fussy with the grey doors. I'd probably just switch the doors to oxblood - like the window band. It does look nice the way you've done it there with the window band continuing onto the doors, but I'm not sure if that's allowed with legislation sadly.

Interesting - I'd have said it would be allowed, as once you've found the contrasting colour you can follow it until you reach a door, which will be in the same contrasting colour. Then again, I'm not partially sighted so I'm not the one the regs are aimed at.

 

[DanNCL]

91110 now has a revised version of the Battle of Britain livery. The East Coast Purple stripe has been replaced by a ‘Platinum Grey’ stripe, whilst some detail changes have also been made to the spitfires and the Lest We Forget text. The loco has been repainted underneath the new vinyls.

 

[800001]

91110 now has a revised version of the Battle of Britain livery. The East Coast Purple stripe has been replaced by a ‘Platinum Grey’ stripe, whilst some detail changes have also been made to the spitfires and the Lest We Forget text. The loco has been repainted underneath the new vinyls.

So pleased they have kept, and updated this.
Always makes me think about the past when I see this.