SWR Repaints and Refurbishments

[SouthWestMax]

Good photos... judging by the colours in that last one it must have been lovely and sunny there too!

Cheers, beautiful weather all day!

 

[Dan15812]

444s

002, 003, 005, 006, 007, 011, 012, 014, 015, 016, 017, 018, 019, 020, 021, 023, 024, 025, 027, 029, 030, 031, 032, 037, 038, 042 and 043 (27 units)(60% complete)

450s

001, 003, 005, 006, 007, 008, 009, 010, 011, 013, 014, 015, 016, 017, 018, 019, 020, 021, 022, 023, 024, 025, 026, 027, 029, 030, 032, 033, 035, 034, 036, 037, 038, 039, 040, 041, 042, 043, 044, 045, 047, 048, 049, 051, 052, 053, 054, 055, 056, 057, 058, 060, 061, 062, 063, 064, 066, 067, 068, 069, 072, 073, 075, 076, 077, 081, 086, 087, 088, 089, 090, 091, 092*, 093*, 095, 096, 100, 101, 103, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 113, 115, 119, 122, 123 and 127 (87 units)(69% complete)

Feel free to let me know of any more repainted Desiros.


Note: (* = Currently being done)

444040 and 450111 have had vinyl wrap (not been painted)

Updated: 30/10/22

 

[Elorith]

Fantastic picture; looking very smart indeed. Looking forward to seeing the ugly blue finally extinct on the 450s.

It's a dreadful shame to me. I had hoped the new livery would grow on me, but I think I'll always find it dull and tasteless.

 

[43102EMR]

It's a dreadful shame to me. I had hoped the new livery would grow on me, but I think I'll always find it dull and tasteless.

Indeed - SWT’s suburban blue was one of my personal favourites, an awful shame to see it go out in favour of such a bland replacement.

 

[fgwrich]

Indeed - SWT’s suburban blue was one of my personal favourites, an awful shame to see it go out in favour of such a bland replacement.

Likewise here. It really is a cold, bland and uninspiring livery (only TPE seems to have broken the First Group 2015 rule of corporate blandness) that seems to be troublesome to keep clean both inside and out. Yes, after 20 years, the SWT liveries are looking somewhat tired, but SWR has from the start screamed bare minimum / can’t be bothered.

 

[dorsetdesiro]

The "Trainbow" swoosh is only the good thing livening up the rather dreary SWR livery, it should be applied across all SWR rolling stock.

 

[CR165022]

As bland as SWRs livery is, the slight changes made to more recent 450 repaints make it slightly nicer to look at in my opinion

 

[Goldfish62]

As bland as SWRs livery is, the slight changes made to more recent 450 repaints make it slightly nicer to look at in my opinion

What's changed? Apart from the initial vinyled 450 they're all the same, aren't they?

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

What's changed? Apart from the initial vinyled 450 they're all the same, aren't they?

One very subtle difference I have noticed is that the logo seems to be higher, closer to the windows, on recent repaints.

 

[Goldfish62]

Likewise here. It really is a cold, bland and uninspiring livery (only TPE seems to have broken the First Group 2015 rule of corporate blandness) that seems to be troublesome to keep clean both inside and out. Yes, after 20 years, the SWT liveries are looking somewhat tired, but SWR has from the start screamed bare minimum / can’t be bothered.

Personally I prefer the SWR livery to the old SWT liveries, which were good in their time (except the red version which was always vile to me) but now somewhat dated. The exception for me would be the 158/159s - SWR livery doesn't suit them.

It's of course all a matter of personal taste!

 

[43102EMR]

What's changed? Apart from the initial vinyled 450 they're all the same, aren't they?

The livery isn’t 100% DDA compliant as the bottom of the doors is the same colour as the dark lower band - a bit of grey space has been added to new repaints and started to have been added to existing ones to resolve this.

 

[CR165022]

What's changed? Apart from the initial vinyled 450 they're all the same, aren't they?

The livery gets broken up around the doors, and the door markings end higher up

 

[swt_passenger]

The livery gets broken up around the doors, and the door markings end higher up

I wonder if they’ve fixed that the first class indication was on the wrong side of half the doors?

 

[Elorith]

Indeed - SWT’s suburban blue was one of my personal favourites, an awful shame to see it go out in favour of such a bland replacement.

Likewise here. It really is a cold, bland and uninspiring livery (only TPE seems to have broken the First Group 2015 rule of corporate blandness) that seems to be troublesome to keep clean both inside and out. Yes, after 20 years, the SWT liveries are looking somewhat tired, but SWR has from the start screamed bare minimum / can’t be bothered.

As bland as SWRs livery is, the slight changes made to more recent 450 repaints make it slightly nicer to look at in my opinion

Personally I prefer the SWR livery to the old SWT liveries, which were good in their time (except the red version which was always vile to me) but now somewhat dated. The exception for me would be the 158/159s - SWR livery doesn't suit them.

It's of course all a matter of personal taste!

I loved the Stagecoach colours, but of course it was necessary to change it when the new franchise came in.

I would have personally liked to see a livery that utilised a more dark blue colour scheme similar to that on most SWR uniform without the (awful in my opinion ) grey.

 

[Snow1964]

I loved the Stagecoach colours, but of course it was necessary to change it when the new franchise came in.

I would have personally liked to see a livery that utilised a more dark blue colour scheme similar to that on most SWR uniform without the (awful in my opinion ) grey.

I am not sure how necessary it was to change, we are now 5.3 years on, and plenty of trains are still put into service each day in the old colours.

But I agree, grey is a rather bland colour.

 

[Goldfish62]

But I agree, grey is a rather bland colour.

It's an odd shade. In bright sunlight the blue in it is evident.

 

[Elorith]

I am not sure how necessary it was to change, we are now 5.3 years on, and plenty of trains are still put into service each day in the old colours.

But I agree, grey is a rather bland colour.

"Necessary" only in the sense that that's how the company/HR viewed it when they took over the franchise I mean. And of course, all the 455s/458s/707s still remain in their original liveries.

 

[swt_passenger]

"Necessary" only in the sense that that's how the company/HR viewed it when they took over the franchise I mean. And of course, all the 455s/458s/707s still remain in their original liveries.

Well they’ll all be gone by 2020. Er…

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

I am not sure how necessary it was to change, we are now 5.3 years on, and plenty of trains are still put into service each day in the old colours.

But I agree, grey is a rather bland colour.

But I believe this colour and branding scheme is set to continue beyond First MTR overseeing it, and it therefore needed to be parent company neutral, and the South West Trains livery was extremely reflective of Stagecoach branding at their time of operation on the railways.

It’s a bit like how, had the GWR rebrand not happened, the Great Western franchise would not have been able to establish a permanent livery of Dynamic Lines in blue and pink, as this is (was) standard corporate First Group branding, and until the last few years of Virgin Trains, silver with touches of red and stripey black and white doors was rather a corporate livery of Virgin.

 

[Goldfish62]

I am not sure how necessary it was to change, we are now 5.3 years on, and plenty of trains are still put into service each day in the old colours.

Repaints were due. The units hadn't been repainted since new. if Stagecoach had retained the franchise the plan was to repaint the 450s into a blander version of SWT livery.

As for those units that are currently running around in SWT livery and not subject to the current repaint programme:

Class 455 - will be withdrawn once sufficient 701s in service. Last repaint was only a few years ago.
Class 458 - will be repainted when converted back to four cars.
Class 707 - moving to South Eastern
Class 158/159 - seemingly refurbishment /repaint not sanctioned by the DfT.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

if Stagecoach had retained the franchise the plan was to repaint the 450s into a blander version of SWT livery.

Do you know if this would have remained separately white, blue and red for each, or would they have all received "sunbeam" that 159101/104-108 were fitted with?

 

[Doomotron]

Do you know if this would have remained separately white, blue and red for each, or would they have all received "sunbeam" that 159101/104-108 were fitted with?

I believe the plan was for modernised versions of the liveries they already had. The 159 livery was an example of that.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

I believe the plan was for modernised versions of the liveries they already had. The 159 livery was an example of that.

Interesting, thanks. Yes, the fact there were three completely contrasting colour schemes of white, red and blue really did seem incredibly sloppy and messy to me. I know people liked the purpose in that they identified the types of routes that they were running (although as red stock and blue stock tended to overlap a lot, as did 450s and 444s on the same routes, this wasn't foolproof), but as I have said many times, I'm a fan of consistency. It looks neat and applies one single solid brand.

All subjective, goes without saying.

As and when anyone manages to get a picture of 458007 and 458017 in the SWR Grey (I don't think they've been repainted yet), I would love to see it.

 

[Doomotron]

Interesting, thanks. Yes, the fact there were three completely contrasting colour schemes of white, red and blue really did seem incredibly sloppy and messy to me. I know people liked the purpose in that they identified the types of routes that they were running (although as red stock and blue stock tended to overlap a lot, as did 450s and 444s on the same routes, this wasn't foolproof), but as I have said many times, I'm a fan of consistency. It looks neat and applies one single solid brand.

All subjective, goes without saying.

As and when anyone manages to get a picture of 458007 and 458017 in the SWR Grey (I don't think they've been repainted yet), I would love to see it.

I believe there were renders of it uploaded here; of a 450 in blue with the extra lines like the 158. As for the three liveries, it was fully intentional but I believe it was a later addition. The 458s (which I believe were the first newly-built trains for SWT) had the white express livery despite being inner suburban units and therefore should have received the blue livery (as they later did) or even the red one.

 

[43096]

I believe there were renders of it uploaded here; of a 450 in blue with the extra lines like the 158. As for the three liveries, it was fully intentional but I believe it was a later addition. The 458s (which I believe were the first newly-built trains for SWT) had the white express livery despite being inner suburban units and therefore should have received the blue livery (as they later did) or even the red one.

The 458s were outer-suburban from new - they were effectively VEP replacements - so the blue livery was the most appropriate. However, at the time they were built SWT hadn't evolved the three-livery idea, that came with the Desiros and 455 refurbishment.

 

[Elorith]

Well they’ll all be gone by 2020. Er…

Perhaps they meant 2030?

As and when anyone manages to get a picture of 458007 and 458017 in the SWR Grey (I don't think they've been repainted yet), I would love to see it.

They haven't, but it may be quite some time with the 458 conversion project on hold indefinitely.

 

[Goldfish62]

They haven't, but it may be quite some time with the 458 conversion project on hold indefinitely.

Oh, is that so?! The last report was a six month delay.

 

[Dan15812]

444s

002, 003, 005, 006, 007, 011, 012, 014, 015, 016, 017, 018, 019, 020, 021, 023, 024, 025, 027, 029, 030, 031, 032, 037, 038, 042 and 043 (27 units)(60% complete)

450s

001, 003, 005, 006, 007, 008, 009, 010, 011, 013, 014, 015, 016, 017, 018, 019, 020, 021, 022, 023, 024, 025, 026, 027, 029, 030, 032, 033, 035, 034, 036, 037, 038, 039, 040, 041, 042, 043, 044, 045, 047, 048, 049, 051, 052, 053, 054, 055, 056, 057, 058, 060, 061, 062, 063, 064, 066, 067, 068, 069, 072, 073, 075, 076, 077, 081, 086, 087, 088, 089, 090, 091, 092, 093, 095, 096, 100, 101, 103, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110*, 113, 115, 119, 122, 123, 124* and 127 (89 units)(70% complete)

Feel free to let me know of any more repainted Desiros.


Note: (* = Currently being done)

444040 and 450111 have had vinyl wrap (not been painted)

Updated: 13/11/2022

 

[Flange Squeal]

Saw 450047 today and it looked to have some external graphics promoting a charity with a message regarding ending male violence against women on the sides, just behind the cab doors on each driving car. I've heard 450100 may be another similarly treated. Can't find any photos online though.

 

[WarrenTManager]

Saw 450047 today and it looked to have some external graphics promoting a charity with a message regarding ending male violence against women on the sides, just behind the cab doors on each driving car. I've heard 450100 may be another similarly treated. Can't find any photos online though.

0060 has them