Virgin East Coast liveries

[TheNewNo2]

I was out at New Barnet today (for slightly longer than intended due to a cancellation in fact), and I have to say, Virgin Trains East Coast seemed to be doing a lot of mixing and matching. I saw VTEC-liveried Mk4s hauled by East Coast liveried 91s, East Coast mk4s by VTEC 91s, full VTECs, full ECs, and even a rake of mk3 VTECs hauled by two East Midlands Trains 43s.

I'm guessing it's all down to reliability issues meaning locomotives get separated from the coaches they were painted with, but it was surprising to see such a mix.

 

[sprinterguy]

It's not so much reliability issues, it's more the fact that the locomotives (and HST power cars) follow different maintenance regimes and exam schedules to the carriage rakes. Class 91s and HST power cars have always been frequently swapped between rakes for exactly this reason. What is more unusual is if carriages within a rake carry different liveries: I remember a few piebald sets going round on the East Coast when the changeover to GNER from Intercity was happening (and of course, elsewhere Virgin were notorious for it!).

I thought that VT East Coast were only meant to be hiring one pair of EMT power cars to stick with the hired in EMT mark 3 set on the Hull diagram, but they might have hired an additional pair if availability of their own power cars is low - so that would be a reliability issue, which might be being compounded by power cars being out of service while they are reliveried.