Our new ticketing site is now live! Using either this or the original site (both powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!
Never saw NSE toothpaste in the flesh, although seemed to stand quite well against the test of time.
IC Swallow looked great fresh out of the paint shop and would certainly be my favourite 'hornby' livery, but when it got grubby the white could show it up quite badly.
Never saw NSE toothpaste in the flesh, although seemed to stand quite well against the test of time.
IC Swallow looked great fresh out of the paint shop and would certainly be my favourite 'hornby' livery, but when it got grubby the white could show it up quite badly.
IC Swallow.
Two-tone Green Deltic without a yellow front with a rake of maroon Mk1s behind it.
Any Green BR Loco to be honest. Suited every loco it was applied to apart from Class 52s.
London Underground "Train Red"
Modern GWR
Current Trans-Pennine. Brave but they pull it off.
Brighton Belle/Pullman Brown and cream.
It's only a matter before we get on to worst livery so I'll just throw the current Scot Rail one in. Drab blue and white. Scotland's colours could look so much better.
South West Trains white as applied to 442s is probably my favourite, with a runner-up being the green and red Valley Lines livery as applied to their Pacers.
Southern - the shades of green seem to work well, and it doesn’t seem to have dated. Must be the longest surviving privatisation livery?
GWR - seems to suit most of the fleets though for some reason looks just a touch drab on the IETs
TransPennine Express - the current livery is excellent in my opinion, and cultivates a good solid brand image (shame the performance doesn’t match).
Midland Mainline - I confess to having a soft spot for the original teal and tangerine livery.
Chiltern - simple and understated yet effective.
GNER - worked well though the red doors spoiled the simple lines
WAGN - the livery seen on their refurbished 317/2s was another which was simple but effective. It’s a shame the 313s and 365s never received this.
ScotRail - for some reason I quite liked the early white and purple livery.
And for a wild card - the version of Connex livery applied to the 365s and a small number of 465s where the NSE livery was modified with a yellow skirt but the blue upper part was retained. This really suited the Networkers.
I tend to dislike most of the white-based liveries we’ve seen in recent years, to me they look unfinished, and of course show dirt badly. Not a great fan of any liveries which are obviously affiliated to bus companies either. It’s rather unfortunate that I could probably reel off a much longer list of liveries which I find either ineffective or utterly ghastly.
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
I think GNER worked because it went hand-in-glove with a specific brand image that was meant to exude quality. I agree it was rather 1990s and probably wouldn’t be regarded as trendy enough now, though surely most people would prefer it over VTEC’s abomination?
.Valley Lines Pacer pre Arriva
.WAGN 317
.LTS 357 in Green
.North Western Trains blue with gold star
.Regional Railways 156 with the Sprinter logo (always reminded me of the Krypton Factor)
Strathclyde Transport Red (we all know it was really orange) and Black is my all time favourite. Followed up by InterCity Executive on an HST and InterCity Swallow on a 225.
As for post 1994 liveries, First Great Western Neon on the HSTs and NatEx ScotRail, because it was a bit more colourful than the dour and often uncared for blue we have now.
Currently, I’d have to say LNER. Very sleek, colourful but tastefully done.
Back in the late 1950s with maroon coaching stock and (usually dirty) steam locomotives the railways were, in my eye, drab and miserable places. Even the Brits hauling the Palatine Express were not particularly well looked after. Living in South Manchester though, we were about to begin the amazing transformation of inter-city transport.
The sheer impact of the amazing Midland Pullman livery cannot be underestimated.
So, given the context, The Midland Pullman livery is by far the best! Although a 'nod' in the right direction, the re-liveried HST doesn't quite do it for me. Time and place is important.
I recently saw some refurbished IC225 sets and liked that livery a lot. It's a variation on IC swallow, with a dark plum colour replacing the dark grey and LNER lettering vice swallow.
I think GNER worked because it went hand-in-glove with a specific brand image that was meant to exude quality. I agree it was rather 1990s and probably wouldn’t be regarded as trendy enough now, though surely most people would prefer it over VTEC’s abomination?
I only used GNER a couple of times, in the early 2000's, I recall using a couple of HST services and my only memories of these was of the disgusting nicotine yellow stained Mk3s, this isn't something I recall noticing on Virgin or Great Western at the time so it may have tainted my view of GNER slightly.
I think the VTEC livery had the potential to be very good, unfortunately, it was poorly done and the vinyl's looked worn very quickly.
BR era: NSE, Infrastructure livery, derby RTC, intercity swallow, regional railways on locomotives and coaches and RfD and all its sub-sectors
post privatisation: Stagecoach rail sleeper (yes, a real thing) FGW fag packet, scotrail national express (caledonian sleeper), virgin’s stock/ loco livery and first barbie.
current: LNWR’s 730’s livery, DRS, freightliner yellow/orange, and GBRf.
I recently saw some refurbished IC225 sets and liked that livery a lot. It's a variation on IC swallow, with a dark plum colour replacing the dark grey and LNER lettering vice swallow.
I personally don't like it because it's just a rehash of an older, better looking livery - there's no real creative aspect to it or something 'new' with a nod to the past.
Contrast it to the GWR all-over green or Southern reimagining of the 'Totem' idea, both of which have clear nods to the forebears but are not direct copies.
I think whether a livery looks good can vary a lot depending on what it’s applied to. A few have mentioned IC Swallow, which in my opinion looked excellent on premium trains such as HSTs and 225s, although I thought less so on, for example, a class 37 or Mk1 stock which it didn’t seem to suit, especially when dirty with brake dust etc.
I’ve always been a fan of the original Railfreight Sector liveries, which were very smart and at the time seemed to sit well on any class of loco. However GBRFs version on a class 66 has never looked quite right to me, which maybe proves the scheme was of it’s time.
I recently saw some refurbished IC225 sets and liked that livery a lot. It's a variation on IC swallow, with a dark plum colour replacing the dark grey and LNER lettering vice swallow.
I personally don't like it because it's just a rehash of an older, better looking livery - there's no real creative aspect to it or something 'new' with a nod to the past.
This kinda thing is entirely subjective of course and I ain't knocking your tastes, but as far as rehashed liveries go, I personally think you can do far worse than this one.
This kinda thing is entirely subjective of course and I ain't knocking your tastes, but as far as rehashed liveries go, I personally think you can do far worse than this one.
Back in the late 1950s with maroon coaching stock and (usually dirty) steam locomotives the railways were, in my eye, drab and miserable places. Even the Brits hauling the Palatine Express were not particularly well looked after. Living in South Manchester though, we were about to begin the amazing transformation of inter-city transport.
The sheer impact of the amazing Midland Pullman livery cannot be underestimated.
So, given the context, The Midland Pullman livery is by far the best! Although a 'nod' in the right direction, the re-liveried HST doesn't quite do it for me. Time and place is important.
I've seen the one they have at the NRM. It is indeed a nice livery. Although my main takeaway was how nice it was to sit in. Maybe TOC managers and government need to also sit in it to understand how to make a nice train to ride on.
I recently saw some refurbished IC225 sets and liked that livery a lot. It's a variation on IC swallow, with a dark plum colour replacing the dark grey and LNER lettering vice swallow.
Sadly they didn't keep the white skirt at the front of the loco which made the whole thing look so sleek and futuristic. It's probably practical though, that must have been a nightmare to keep clean.
I've seen the one they have at the NRM. It is indeed a nice livery. Although my main takeaway was how nice it was to sit in. Maybe TOC managers and government need to also sit in it to understand how to make a nice train to ride on.
We are aware of an issue with emails from the Forum to Microsoft-based email accounts (hotmail/outlook/live.com email addresses). This is being looked into currently, thanks for your patience meanwhile.
