Great British Railways - First Train in New Livery

[physics34]

I would expect the next step to be for other TOCs to follow suit with one of their own GBR branded trains



I don’t think GTR have that luxury in spare trains to keep it in a depot for that long

Very possibly. Could be in depot for other work too though.

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Is the livery a vinyl job like the WMR 172 all over or base of paint job with the red being vinyl

Its all over vinyl on top of the gwr green

 

[GWRPannier1501]

Why did they opt for vinyl over painting? It’s angular enough, you’d think a bit of masking and they could’ve got it done properly without much of an extra cost.

 

[Ashley Hill]

The slopey bit towards the middle will look wrong when trailing. It really just needs that red and white line continuing along the side of the whole unit.

 

[vuzzeho]

I like it. I think it'll grow on people, and this is the first one of hundreds of trains in the country. There'll be tweaks and changes. At least something is happening.

 

[jamster47]

I think it’s looks great. Such a change and difference to some of the bland liveries. I think it will grow on people. Hopefully c2c will do one soon. Their exterior refresh of the 357s seems to have stalled.

 

[Ashley Hill]

Having had a second look, the words horse, camel and committee spring to mind!

 

[StephenHunter]

Having had a second look, the words horse, camel and committee spring to mind!

Are you a neigh-sayer then?

Vinyl has been standard for liveries for a good while now.

 

[Ashley Hill]

Are you a neigh-sayer then?

Vinyl has been standard for liveries for a good while now.

I’m not against vinyl.
The livery looks like an NSE wannabe. The sloping bits towards the middle will look wrong when going in the opposite direction. And the intermediate trailers do not need the red bits. Even BR never put those on the intermediate NSE trailers.

 

[19Gnasher69]

It looks a little like the last livery applied to the 333s before the current one, only with the red and blue reversed. That livery looked cr4p too.

 

[43096]

Why did they opt for vinyl over painting? It’s angular enough, you’d think a bit of masking and they could’ve got it done properly without much of an extra cost.

Because the unit is not due for repainting. More money being hosed up the wall on a re-livery that isn't necessary.

 

[MerlinRail 804]

Perhaps they'll experiment with leaving the centre car without the flag bit. And then see what everyone else has...

I wouldn’t be suprised if they went for some weird thing of splitting it in the middle of the middle coach to make it symmetrical, even though that would probably look kinda stupid

 

[imtom]

Ignoring the livery itself, I’m rather upset hat they don’t have the confidence to do as BR did and use only the double arrow for the brand identity.
“GBR” at the ends and the fully spelled out “Great British Railways” in the middle feel entirely redundant when we have the ‘rail symbol’ that is supposed to be representing the railway. Would be much cleaner with a bigger double arrow at the cabs and “=\= Southern” in the middle.

 

[rmHawk765]

I like it. I think it'll grow on people

Like the NSE livery it certainly will, though I think we can agree more thought went into the final design for that. But then again, this is the first unit as you say, it's more likely than not that they will tweak it.

 

[Zomboid]

Ignoring the livery itself, I’m rather upset hat they don’t have the confidence to do as BR did and use only the double arrow for the brand identity.
“GBR” at the ends and the fully spelled out “Great British Railways” in the middle feel entirely redundant when we have the ‘rail symbol’ that is supposed to be representing the railway. Would be much cleaner with a bigger double arrow at the cabs and “=\= Southern” in the middle.

The double arrow never went away as a symbol of the railway. I wouldn't be surprised if the spelling it out was reduced in future, but the point of doing this is to announce that "GBR is happening!", so they're going strong on that element.

 

[StephenHunter]

Because the unit is not due for repainting. More money being hosed up the wall on a re-livery that isn't necessary.

BR only did repaints during scheduled overhauls, I believe. Some locos never went blue and were withdrawn green.

 

[rmHawk765]

The double arrow never went away as a symbol of the railway. I wouldn't be surprised if the spelling it out was reduced in future, but the point of doing this is to announce that "GBR is happening!", so they're going strong on that element.

The entire 'Great British Railways' branding is just slightly hideous IMO but it is what it is and it's a small price to pay.

 

[Goldfish62]

The entire 'Great British Railways' branding is just slightly hideous IMO but it is what it is and it's a small price to pay.

And GBR when it's established can always dump it for something better anyway.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Those concerned for the symmetry of trains with an odd number of carriages -- I have a feeling they'd just leave the carriage entirely blue. Say if that 387 was a 377/6, for example, it would probably be the same but with a centre blue only carriage.

 

[Goldfish62]

Vinyl has been standard for liveries for a good while now.

Which liveries? I can't think of a single livery that is entirely vinyl-based. Avanti comes the closest with vinyls on the white-based livery. Which is not in the least surprising as vinyl, unlike paint, doesn't provide corrosion protection.

 

[jupiter]

The more I think about this the more disappointed I am. Could they really not have thought about this a little more? The lazy design of repeating the end vehicle's graphics all the way down has been immediately and comprehensively criticised. Is it really beyond their imagination to come up with a symmetrical design for intermediate vehicles that will flow from front to rear and vv?

I always thought NSE livery looked great on DMUs but big locomotives always looked like a rugby player in a tutu.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I always thought NSE livery looked great on DMUs but big locomotives always looked like a rugby player in a tutu.

Yet Regional Railways suited everything from a Pacer to a Class 37 in my view. Possibly the best livery of all time?

Mostly though locomotives look better in a different livery to the coaches in my view, ideally a simpler one e.g. all over red would have done for NSE.

 

[Goldfish62]

The more I think about this the more disappointed I am. Could they really not have thought about this a little more? The lazy design of repeating the end vehicle's graphics all the way down has been immediately and comprehensively criticised. Is it really beyond their imagination to come up with a symmetrical design for intermediate vehicles that will flow from front to rear and vv?

Just delete the red stuff on the intermediate coaches. And the name. We don't need reminding on every coach in large lettering what the name of the operator is.

 

[TFT YouTube]

Do we think its the toc name or regional branding that has been talked about?!

Reportedly the TOc Name

 

[MrJeeves]

Those concerned for the symmetry of trains with an odd number of carriages -- I have a feeling they'd just leave the carriage entirely blue.

Or they'd do what they did in the mock-up IET example which they published right at the start of all this.

 

[CapitalStar378]

It's not terrible but I think I'd prefer a more BA tail flowing style.

What I really dislike is Great British Railways, how about British Rail?

 

[northernbelle]

Which liveries? I can't think of a single livery that is entirely vinyl-based. Avanti comes the closest with vinyls on the white-based livery. Which is not in the least surprising as vinyl, unlike paint, doesn't provide corrosion protection.

There are some - TPE's is and Chiltern's Mark 5 sets are, along with GWR's 5-car 800s (although these are being repainted) and a small number of SWR 159s.

But, most operators (and more importantly) ROSCOs have learnt the lesson and paint is seen as the better way to go, even if it takes longer to apply.

 

[Goldfish62]

There are some - TPE's is and Chiltern's Mark 5 sets are, along with GWR's 5-car 800s (although these are being repainted) and a small number of SWR 159s.

But, most operators (and more importantly) ROSCOs have learnt the lesson and paint is seen as the better way to go, even if it takes longer to apply.

That was my point really. A lot of people seem to think liveries these days are applied as vinyl as standard. That is most certainly not the case.

Even with vinyl you still need to a good, solid paint base underneath.

Incidentally, on the TPE livery I think the pale grey is the base paint coat, with the extra colours applied over it as vinyl due to the livery complexity. The Chiltern Mk5s were done in vinyl as the paint coat would have still been well within warranty. Same with the South Eastern 707s.

 

[physics34]

Just delete the red stuff on the intermediate coaches. And the name. We don't need reminding on every coach in large lettering what the name of the operator is.

Southerns 20x 319s were vinyl covered

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It's not terrible but I think I'd prefer a more BA tail flowing style.

What I really dislike is Great British Railways, how about British Rail?

Agree.. but i guess British Rails legacy is (harshly) tarnished.

 

[Goldfish62]

Southerns 20x 319s were vinyl covered

But Southern's livery is generally painted. That a small fleet of units was vinyled in the past while the rest of the fleet has been painted does not demonstrate that liveries are predominantly vinyled these days (which they're not).

 

[bramling]

Southerns 20x 319s were vinyl covered

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Agree.. but i guess British Rails legacy is (harshly) tarnished.

Why is BR tarnished? No one under the age of about 40 will have much if any memory of it anyway. Generally BR made the best of what they had available to them.

“British Railways” sounds a lot snappier than GBR.