Great British Railways - First Train in New Livery

[saismee]

Good grief, that off centre logo looks like an afterthought and adds to it stinking of ill-thought out design

"Designing it will be expensive"
"It looks too cheaply designed!"

There's no pleasing some people.

 

[CR165022]

357008 357020 are in East Ham in gbr

It's really impressive that they are able to make it worse on every new train they put it on. Truly terrible livery.

 

[TastyMaltesers]

"Designing it will be expensive"
"It looks too cheaply designed!"

There's no pleasing some people.

I didn't say it was cheap, I just said it was bad

 

[fgwrich]

Wasn't there a blue that could only be used by one artist. International Klein Blue (IKB).Developed and patented in 1960 by French artist Yves Klein

And also subject to a song by the Manic Street Preachers no less.

Anyway Heljan has been in Liverpool Street this morning. Now, who’s brave enough to play spot the difference with the 701 in GBR.

Anglia Goes Red, White and Blue!
We popped into London Liverpool Street this morning to see the first Greater Anglia and c2c EMUs in the new Great British Railways livery.
Anglia 'Aventras' 720144/720501 now carry GBR vinyls and c2c 'Electrostars' 357008/020 are the first trains to receive a full repaint in the new colours.
With the livery set to roll out across most UK passenger train operators over the next couple of years, which trains are you looking forward to seeing in red, white and blue and what models would you like to see from Heljan and Accurascale UK? https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17n8K6rXib/?mibextid=wwXIfr

 

[720144]

357008 357020 are in East Ham in gbr

The whole time I thought it was supposed to be 357312, which has been absent at Ilford since end of April. Looks very nice glad to have the last /0’s done. Also such
shame to see the banana vinyl go on 008 as that was last seen holding that before it got sent to Ilford for the repaint.

 

[GEC465]

The 357 looks really good in GBR. Is it mostly painted with some wraps or is it still fully wrapped?

 

[Bletchleyite]

How have they dealt with the odd number of vehicles? Is it 3 one way, 2 the other or something else?

 

[Sorcerer]

The 357 looks fairly decent, but I'd be curious to see how this livery would look on a 745/755 when they get their repaint. While I do think a single unified brand is preferable it will seem like a visual downgrade from some companies. I wonder if Great Western Railway passengers will miss their distinctive green identity.

How have they dealt with the odd number of vehicles? Is it 3 one way, 2 the other or something else?

It looks like the middle carriage of the 720s in the images are just blank blue without any vinyl patterns. It's not very easy to tell though given the need to zoom in.

 

[RUK]

357008 357020 are in East Ham in gbr

That quiet coach/zone symbol with a white border which looks like an emoji sticks out like a sore thumb to me…

The bike and wheelchair logos don’t look so bad, though their different sizes and shades of blue next to each other look a bit odd to me - I guess the different sizes, colours, and white borders for contrast are for accessibility reasons, so they can be more easily distinguished from each other.

I don’t know why they’ve continued with the really thin numbers for the front of the Class 357s, like with the white and magenta livery which they were going into, rather than the thicker numbers that they used to have with the dark-blue-and-white National Express c2c livery, and before that, which you see on most other rolling stock. It’s thinner than the number on the front of the Class 720s. Especially since the “67670” carriage number on the side is still bold, like it used to be - that’s a Class 357, given its ribbon glazing and rectangular windows in its doors. The number on the front is also placed a lot lower and more towards the middle than it used to be, which makes it look odd.

The Class 387 would also have had space on its front gangway door for the GBR logo, unlike with the Class 720s, so I wonder if that’ll get added to the Class 387s, like we see on the Class 357. Maybe they added it to the front, since they don’t have it on the side near the front, but I would have thought that there would be space between the cab front window and cab side door to put the GBR logo on the Class 357s.

I personally prefer as large a yellow panel as possible, so I wish that they’d have returned to having some yellow above the front of the cab windows on the Class 357, to make it look not so dark, unlike with the white and magenta livery. Where the red (GA)/magenta (c2c) parts on the uprights on either side of the cab front window in Class 720s are, I wish had been made yellow instead of dark blue.

The black/dark grey on the roof of the Class 357 also looks a lot darker than the grey on the roof of the Class 720. That darker grey will absorb more heat.

It seems from Heljan’s message that the Class 357s have the livery painted, rather than applied as a vinyl as with the Class 720s.

There’s not much consistency so far with the application of the GBR livery, with the 4 different Classes which we’ve seen so far.

 

[zwk500]

It looks like the middle carriage of the 720s in the images are just blank blue without any vinyl patterns. It's not very easy to tell though given the need to zoom in.

Which makes it even more of a shame they didn't stick with just having the red/white flashes on end vehicles only.

 

[Posa]

The middle carriage of a 5 car set is plain blue

 

[Bletchleyite]

The middle carriage of a 5 car set is plain blue

Thanks. Would be interesting to see a side view of this to see how it looks alongside the marked ones either side.

 

[Callum450]

357008 357020 are in East Ham in gbr

It seems like we’ve entered a period where you can slap any design on the side of a train and call it a livery which really upsets me.

Just like the new CrossCountry livery and Chiltern Mk5 sets, this looks hideous.

 

[sabanda]

The middle carriage of a 5 car set is plain blue

Praise the Lord!

 

[442Haz]

Agreed, also means the logos are off centre far too far along the carriage as this poor photo shows, saw them out the corner of my eye and panicked for the phone!

Not sure as to why it’s so different from the 387? Considering they are the same design

Perhaps hopefully this is a screw up with the vinyl and is a human error because it looks rubbish compared to the electrostar and arterio version

 

[AndrewP]

It's really impressive that they are able to make it worse on every new train they put it on. Truly terrible livery.

Totally agree - they have to do better than this

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Am I the only one that absolutely loves it?

 

[sabanda]

Am I the only one that absolutely loves it?

I think it depends what it's replacing for me. I really do like it on the SWR 701, but don't think I will have the same opinion when it starts being rolled out on GWR or Chiltern stock!

 

[Bletchleyite]

Am I the only one that absolutely loves it?

I like it on everything I've seen it on so far, but that's mostly boxy EMUs - the mockup on an 80x looked awful because it didn't follow the unit's curves. I don't like the repeating pattern though, nor the use of Rail Alphabet 2/3 in the logotype.

 

[RUK]

Perhaps hopefully this is a screw up with the vinyl and is a human error because it looks rubbish compared to the electrostar and arterio version

According to the message from Heljan in post number 784 of this thread, the Class 357s (which are also Electrostars, along with the Class 387s) are the first trains to have the GBR livery painted, rather than applied as vinyls, unlike the Southern (ex-GWR) Class 387, and the Class 720 and Class 701 Aventras: https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...first-train-in-new-livery.302338/post-7863610

I don't like… the use of Rail Alphabet 2/3 in the logotype.

What’s the alternative to that, though? Presumably British Rail used Rail Alphabet for their name, in the Rail Blue/Grey days.

 

[Electrostar387]

Am I the only one that absolutely loves it?

I genuinely quite like it, but echo what a lot of people have said about how it needs to be modified so there's a cleaner look as it goes down the coaches. For me, I'd happily accept each end coach as is, but with either plain blue for the intermediate coaches or horizontal striping.

 

[birchesgreen]

I genuinely quite like it, but echo what a lot of people have said about how it needs to be modified so there's a cleaner look as it goes down the coaches. For me, I'd happily accept each end coach as is, but with either plain blue for the intermediate coaches or horizontal striping.

Yeah with some tweaks it'll be pretty decent.

 

[Purple Train]

Yeah with some tweaks it'll be pretty decent.

Seconded. It's still very much early doors as far as GBR goes and I'm sure it'll sort itself out over time. I have to say I'm excited to see what they'll do with it.

 

[whoosh]

Agreed, also means the logos are off centre far too far along the carriage as this poor photo shows, saw them out the corner of my eye and panicked for the phone!

Not sure as to why it’s so different from the 387? Considering they are the same design

They aren't quite the same. The side cab door on 387s (and the other units with a corridor on the front) is further back than on the units with no corridor (170s, 357s). This might be a factor that has caused a shift in the application, either deliberately or not!

 

[Electrostar387]

The 357 looks really good in GBR. Is it mostly painted with some wraps or is it still fully wrapped?

According to Ian Visits, it's painted, which probably explains why the dark blue looks richer on the 357 (photo from the linked article).

"The first two trains from GBR Anglia sat side by side at Liverpool Street – and the ex-c2c train is also the first to have been fully repainted rather than just having a vinyl decal added."

First GBR Anglia trains unveiled as Greater Anglia and c2c merge their fleets

Two newly branded trains appeared side by side at Liverpool Street as Greater Anglia and c2c officially launched GBR Anglia.

www.ianvisits.co.uk

 

[ash39]

If the livery is not repeatable on all types of rolling stock without poor compromises, it should have been designed differently.

Forget what anyone thinks about whether GBR should be a brand, or whether we should paint/vinyl rolling stock outside of it's usual warranty cycle, or whether the brand livery is fundamentally attractive. I don't have any strong feelings on any of that, but the one thing that has to be right for a brand to work is standards and repeatbility.

 

[JaJaWa]

It's certainly blue.

I like the GBR branding on the bottom of the clock – matches the livery well

 

[ash39]

According to Ian Visits, it's painted, which probably explains why the dark blue looks richer on the 357 (photo from the linked article).

"The first two trains from GBR Anglia sat side by side at Liverpool Street – and the ex-c2c train is also the first to have been fully repainted rather than just having a vinyl decal added."

First GBR Anglia trains unveiled as Greater Anglia and c2c merge their fleets

Two newly branded trains appeared side by side at Liverpool Street as Greater Anglia and c2c officially launched GBR Anglia.

www.ianvisits.co.uk

So we have the first occurance of two trains side by side and we've got:

- Two differing shades of blue, can't be that hard to get a vinyl manufacturer to match a paint colour or vice versa
- Two different side number positions with no obvious reason why the 357 couldn't have it on the blue section.
- Different standards on front numbering. Could be operator specific but why not standardise it.
- GBR branding on the front of the 357 but not the 720.

I actually quite like the GBR logo but if sticking with it the unit the number needs to go further up, most brand guidelines dictate the space around a logo should be at least the size of the logo itself. Currently looks unbalanced and like an afterthought.

 

[Steddenm]

There is this video on Facebook as well from them (apologies if you don't have Facebook):

790 reactions · 19 shares | GA’s 720501 and C2C’s 357008 all liveried up in the new GBR branding at London Liverpool Street this morning What do you think of the livery on these units? • • • • • #traindriver #femaletraindriver #greatbritishrailwa

GA’s 720501 and C2C’s 357008 all liveried up in the new GBR branding at London Liverpool Street this morning What do you think of the livery on these units? • • • • • #traindriver...

www.facebook.com

 

[RUK]

There are still quite a few dark-blue-and-white National Express-era c2c liveried Class 357s, so I presume that they will go straight into the GBR livery from now on, rather than the magenta livery which they were going into until now, so I suppose this will be the fleet which gets the most number of units in GBR livery the soonest. The ones going into magenta haven’t been having a deep-clean or any refresh of their interiors, with some saggy seat cushions, etc. If that doesn’t change with the GBR re-liverying, then that won’t make a good first impression of GBR for the first fleet to presumably have the most members in the new livery.

I also wonder how the “metro” branding on the 2+2 seated Class 357/3s will be incorporated into the GBR livery, if at all (I presume it will be, because the Class 701s retained their Arterio branding). The “Quiet Zone” text has been replaced with a pictogram, which I suppose makes it easier to understand for those who don’t understand English, but I suppose the “metro” branding can’t be done similarly, like the “Arterio” brand can’t.

I suppose we’ll be seeing GBR Anglia-liveried ex-Greater Anglia Class 720/1s and 720/5s to Southend Victoria next to GBR-Anglia-liveried ex-c2c Class 720/6s to Southend Central at Liverpool Street in the not-too-distant future.

When I first saw the EMR branding on the yellow panel at the front of their trains, I quite liked it, so I don’t know why I don’t quite like the GBR branding on the front of the Class 357 as much. I suppose it’s just something that’ll take some getting used to.

I thought that 357 008 would be the last Class 357 to get re-liveried, as it previously had a Gold Goose charity livery on it.

Are those GBR “Building a railway you can be proud of” posters/banners set in Rail Alphabet 2/3? It doesn’t look like it to me?