Why was Silverlink (train operating company) called Silverlink?

[ChiefPlanner]

There was deliberately "no new branding" allowed in the last days of BR. (with the exception of Thameslink which was allowed the "city scape" in a fetching grey. Known as the "Belgrano" livery y detractors.

North London had 37 x 321's , some of which were due a C6 exam , and returned in "base NSE livery without NSE or route branding in NLR days

The 313's were due a C6 post 1997 hence the new branding and livery - the 121 ans 117 units were hopefully to be replaced. (something which took a few years later - but the GOB and Bedford branches were then a very low priority.

Consider one marketing option, which was to describe the Metro services as "fast, frequent and fun"...............

We all know how supremely important branding is to some here , my priorities re "ambience" from late 1996 was to get the fleet , especially the 313's into a decent state of cleanliness internally and externally , and to have an absolute no graffiti policy. Passengers actually noticed that. A massive heavy cleaning campaign at BY helped.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Yeah; you'd never find a quality company - Rolls Royce, for example - using the word 'silver' if they were marketing an expensive car model like the Wraith, Dawn, Cloud, Shadow, Spirit and so on.

Oh. Hang on a minute...

And "Goldlink" sounds too much like a coach company.

 

[nw1]

Well, that might strike them, when presented by their accountant with a choice of Angelway, Badgerline, Coldgrove, Dragonleaf, etc.

Accountant I knew said they used to make them up in the pub in an impromptu brainstorming session after the second pint, to much hilarity.

Porterbrook is of course another one.

Mind you I doubt 'line' was random, as 'line' is a common suffix for bus companies.

I'm just trying to imagine the company being called 'Angelway' or even 'Dragonleaf' instead. Buses with "Dragonleaf - Dragonleaf - Dragonleaf - Dragonleaf" on the side (a la Badgerline), with a logo of a dragon carrying a leaf in its mouth in between the words.

'Coldgrove' on the other hand would just sound plain rubbish for a bus company, but probably alright for a non-public-facing holding company or Rosco. 'Musterphantom Ltd' - that was another one.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 21 Mar 2022 ==

I recollect that the 321s were initially branded "Grand Union" "Northampton Line" in arcs above and below an impression of a handshake and flowers in the canal-boat decoration style and I think that this was replaced by 'North London Railway" - but I'm not sure about the latter. I only vaguely remember it, possibly not on 321s and I'm pretty sure there was no picture with it, though. It was quite hard to keep up with all the changes at that time.

To comment on the original question I thought it was poor marketing to only aim for second-best.

North London Railway doesn't sound like a good name for this route, given most of it's way north of North London. Only the local Watford stopping service is suitable for that name. One might as well call the Portsmouth Direct 'South West London Railway'...

 

[mattdickinson]

A search for "DFT OLR" at Companies House reveals quite a few OLR companies with names of streets around Victoria as former names.

 

[ashkeba]

One might as well call the Portsmouth Direct 'South West London Railway'...

Or even South Western Railway, given Portsmouth is not in Southwest England. The Portsmouth and Southampton trains should obviously be South Central, except trains of that name went to places on the southeast coast! So many of the names of the privatised railway were geographic stupid and only made sense if someone was viewing the network from London.

 

[PTR 444]

Or even South Western Railway, given Portsmouth is not in Southwest England. The Portsmouth and Southampton trains should obviously be South Central, except trains of that name went to places on the southeast coast! So many of the names of the privatised railway were geographic stupid and only made sense if someone was viewing the network from London.

While history may have played a part, it does seem somewhat ironic that only about 10% of SWR’s network is actually in the South West!

 

[43096]

Or even South Western Railway, given Portsmouth is not in Southwest England. The Portsmouth and Southampton trains should obviously be South Central, except trains of that name went to places on the southeast coast! So many of the names of the privatised railway were geographic stupid and only made sense if someone was viewing the network from London.

The names pre-date privatisation by many years as they’re derived from the Southern Region’s three operating divisions: South East, Central and South West.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

From what I recall, c2c was supposed to have no specific meaning. The concept was it could mean whatever anyone wanted it to mean. Coast to Capital was another, though it didn’t take long for someone to suggest “Chav into Chavette”.

The franchise being "Essex Thamesside," which I think is a rather pleasant, unique name in itself, certainly better than THIS THAT Railway as is taking over. Or worse, London THIS THAT Railway.

 

[nw1]

While history may have played a part, it does seem somewhat ironic that only about 10% of SWR’s network is actually in the South West!

I guess it depends on what you define as the South West, there seem to be at least two definitions, depending on whether you consider Central Southern England a region (which I do personally, having heard it on weather forecasts since well before the age of 10).

If you use the tightest Somerset-Devon-Cornwall definition (which assumes the existence of the central South as a separate region), then it would be even less than 10% I suspect.

But I guess at the end of the day the various TOCs/divisions which have operated trains out of Waterloo were named that way to indicate "the area southwest of London". Certainly a good deal better than "North London Railways" for Northampton and Birmingham semi-fast services!

 

[Merle Haggard]

North London Railway doesn't sound like a good name for this route, given most of it's way north of North London. Only the local Watford stopping service is suitable for that name. One might as well call the Portsmouth Direct 'South West London Railway'...

I've been trying hard to remember and it's possible that the 'Northampton Line' vinyls were applied to the 317s and the 321s from new had 'North London Line'; the latter was not really appropriate for the West Coast services, as you say, and seemed a retrograde step to me
.

I also recollect that Silverlink at some stage only ran 2 trains North of Northampton, with Central Trains operating most of the Northampton - Birmingham trains . The station departure sheets at Northampton showed only two departures a day to Birmingham (the two operated by Silverlink). However, Central weren't the best either, turning back trains at Rugby when running late - one Saturday morning, no Central trains actually reached Northampton between 09.00 and mid-day - I gave up & drove.

As regards my comments about silver not being the best, perhaps I might get support from Team G.B. ...

 

[Bletchleyite]

I've been trying hard to remember and it's possible that the 'Northampton Line' vinyls were applied to the 317s and the 321s from new had 'North London Line'; the latter was not really appropriate for the West Coast services, as you say, and seemed a retrograde step to me

Silverlink's shadow-franchise predecessor was "North London Railways" - and I too have a feeling that the "Northampton Line" decals were removed and replaced with that.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 21 Mar 2022 ==

I also recollect that Silverlink at some stage only ran 2 trains North of Northampton, with Central Trains operating most of the Northampton - Birmingham trains

This was a temporary arrangement during the WCML upgrade works. It wasn't the case at the start of Silverlink, and the two were then subsumed into LM when that franchise started.

 

[Merle Haggard]

Silverlink's shadow-franchise predecessor was "North London Railways" - and I too have a feeling that the "Northampton Line" decals were removed and replaced with that.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 21 Mar 2022 ==



This was a temporary arrangement during the WCML upgrade works. It wasn't the case at the start of Silverlink, and the two were then subsumed into LM when that franchise started.

Thank you.

There was so much going on in the early days of privatisation that I sometimes find it difficult to remember the order. Funny thing is, when you get older, past events are just that, in the past, and all seem sort of equally distant. And it's a shock to realise the things you remember quite clearly, as if they were recent, were more than 50 years ago.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

The names pre-date privatisation by many years as they’re derived from the Southern Region’s three operating divisions: South East, Central and South West.

And surely the South West division was essentially the old LSWR (and Central LBSCR, and South Eastern the SE&C)? Or to put it another way, neither grouping nor nationalisation ever really took hold south of the river: it's just that the pre-grouping companies became Southern Railway divisions sections*, then Southern Region divisions, then something under Network South East, then companies again.

* according to wikipedia

 

[Helvellyn]

Or even South Western Railway, given Portsmouth is not in Southwest England. The Portsmouth and Southampton trains should obviously be South Central, except trains of that name went to places on the southeast coast! So many of the names of the privatised railway were geographic stupid and only made sense if someone was viewing the network from London.

I mean nothing to do with the fact either that prior to the formation of the Southern at Grouping the operator of the routes to/from Waterloo was the London & South Western Railway, which included the Portsmouth Direct.

If the TOC name was aligned with the Network Rail route then it'd be Wessex Railway!


Back to Silverlink, Grand Union might have been a good name given the main route largely shadows the Grand Union Canal. But that would have excluded the North/West London Lines so maybe felt sticking with the bid vehicle name was the easiest option.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Back to Silverlink, Grand Union might have been a good name given the main route largely shadows the Grand Union Canal. But that would have excluded the North/West London Lines so maybe felt sticking with the bid vehicle name was the easiest option.

The NSE Northampton Line logos actually included the text Grand Union. I'm actually surprised that NSE didn't call it the Grand Union Line rather than naming it after a nondescript town half way along the route. Though most of them were geographic rather than abstract in that way. Another good one might have been the "Codebreakers Line" given the depot location, though I guess back then Bletchley Park was still derelict and hadn't been turned into an attraction.

Here it is, from a post by yourself:

Network SouthEast Route Symbols

So, I'm hoping users of the forum can help me work out why the route symbols were chosen as they were by Network SouthEast. Looking at this site quite a few of the symbols are present. But what did they represent? Castle on a star? Similar to the badge of the Royal Anglian Regiment. (Logo was...

www.railforums.co.uk

From that same post it seems "Harlequin Line" wasn't used as a wording, but the logo was the diamonds one would associate with a harlequin.

 

[Merle Haggard]

Back to Silverlink, Grand Union might have been a good name given the main route largely shadows the Grand Union Canal. But that would have excluded the North/West London Lines so maybe felt sticking with the bid vehicle name was the easiest option.

Just as I personally don't think Silver aims high enough, and I know other disagree, I wonder - how did Grand Union get past the focus groups?

A reasonable association with canals is, I would suggest, 'archaic', moribund for 150 years with their operations at the speed of an ambling horse. With, at that time,a lot of N.U.R./R.M.T. and A.S.L.E.F. disputes causing disruptions, the mention of Grand Union with hands shaking could be interpreted as redolent of those two working together. Neither great images for a forward looking organisation getting new trains.

But maybe I just spent too much time sitting and thinking..,.,

 

[Doctor Fegg]

Back to Silverlink, Grand Union might have been a good name given the main route largely shadows the Grand Union Canal. But that would have excluded the North/West London Lines so maybe felt sticking with the bid vehicle name was the easiest option.

The Grand Union's Paddington Arm and Regent's Canal run parallel to much of the North London Line, so maybe it would be appropriate after all...

(The Grand Union Canal Company was actually formed by the Regent's buying up the other navigations.)

 

[Bald Rick]

I always thought it a missed opportunity that Silverlink didn’t go for a silver livery.

 

[Doctor Fegg]

I'm quite taken by @Bertie the bus 's observation that the logo was a silver wing. It always looked more like a pestle and mortar to me.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I'm quite taken by @Bertie the bus 's observation that the logo was a silver wing. It always looked more like a pestle and mortar to me.

That or a flying banana. I did hear them called "FlyingBananaLink" a few times.

 

[LUYMun]

Unlike the two above, I saw the Silverlink logo as a bird with silver wings. I'm not surprised they were planning to go for "Silver Wing."

 

[OVS Flatbottom]

I'm quite taken by @Bertie the bus 's observation that the logo was a silver wing. It always looked more like a pestle and mortar to me.

That or a flying banana. I did hear them called "FlyingBananaLink" a few times.

It seemed to be the default way of referring to Silverlink on uk.railway around the turn of the millennium. Still my favourite TOC nickname.

 

[Silverlinky]

I remember when the 321's were going through the exam program....427 was the last one outshopped in repainted NSE colours, 428 came out in all white with "Make the Link" branding, and then 429 came out in the new Silverlink colours.

428 gained the nickname Casper thanks to its all white livery which it remained in for a good while. The branding of "Make the Link" was on the train before we all knew what our name was changing to....from North London Railways to Silverlink, with the split businesses Silverlink County for Euston-Northampton services and Silverlink Metro for Euston-Watford DC, North London Line, Willesden-Clapham and Gospel Oak-Barking as the lines were in those days. The St Albans Abbey Line was a bit of an anomaly, officially under the County umbrella but using 313 units and crews from the Metro side of the business.

 

[richardcoughla]

On the subject of Silverlink dose anyone here miss them? I certainly do at was pretty much part of my childhood.

 

[miklcct]

While history may have played a part, it does seem somewhat ironic that only about 10% of SWR’s network is actually in the South West!

I see the name as completely appropriate as the whole network is in the South West of the capital (we should consider City of London the centre of mass of the country, as administrative and economic activities are concentrated there - in railway terms that's Farringdon, the only non-London-terminal located inside London Terminals before Crossrail opens, and be the only intersection point between the two cross-London lines afterwards). The South West Main Line, which forms the core of the network, does really run South West from Waterloo all the way to the South West. Woking, Basingstoke, Winchester, Southampton, Bournemouth and Weymouth are all in the South West relative to London.

 

[Bletchleyite]

On the subject of Silverlink dose anyone here miss them? I certainly do at was pretty much part of my childhood.

I dunno. At the time I described them as "quietly competent", and the very local management had a nice feel to it, but 321s weren't wonderful (3+2 and poor legroom*) and they did have a few periods of bad industrial relations. I think latter-day LM was probably the best we've had it on the south WCML.

* Except the row of airline seats backing onto 1st, over which there were often very close to fisticuffs.