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WMTrains livery and station branding

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sprinterguy

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My biggest issue with the liveries is why have they left the yellow bit above the windscreen on the 172? Only the gangway is yellow on the 350 and it looks better than having a random bit yellow at the top.
Yes, my biggest bugbear with the cab end livery treatment is the retention of that seemingly superfluous semi-circle of yellow at cantrail level. If you're attempting to largely dispense with yellow ends, why retain that bit? It's absent on the previously produced mock up.
...which is why I've just knocked this up - original image is @sprinterguy 's.View attachment 40392
I've swapped the positions of the yellow and purple at the front, and I think it looks much, much better than what's actually gracing the lines. I'll attempt to add yellow to the 350 in a bit...
Now that's already a great improvement, though personally I'd keep the yellow areas around the headlights tight to the current layout as seen on the LM livery.
 
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JaJaWa

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Yes, my biggest bugbear with the cab end livery treatment is the retention of that seemingly superfluous semi-circle of yellow at cantrail level. If you're attempting to largely dispense with yellow ends, why retain that bit? It's absent on the previously produced mock up.
Seems these trains don’t have the right headlights to not have yellow ends so they have to follow the old criteria which specifies a minimum area of yellow.
 

XCTurbostar

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Seems these trains don’t have the right headlights to not have yellow ends so they have to follow the old criteria which specifies a minimum area of yellow.
The Entire gangway should cover that requirement right? I thought it was a 1m by a 1m minimum?
 

sprinterguy

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Seems these trains don’t have the right headlights to not have yellow ends so they have to follow the old criteria which specifies a minimum area of yellow.

The Entire gangway should cover that requirement right? I thought it was a 1m by a 1m minimum?
The minimum required yellow area is one square metre, with a minimum dimension of 0.6m. It seems to me (without wandering down to Tyseley with a tape measure) that the yellow corridor connection ably fulfils this on its' own.
 
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sprinterguy

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Yep, overall I do like that, but it's slightly overbranded - two of the diamond logos need to be removed so there is only one i.e. the big one, or remove the big one and keep the one by the text.
I like it as it is: The full body height logo in grey is clearly a separate livery element to the smaller logo incorporated into the insignia. It doesn't share, IMO, the same disjointed look the new Northern livery suffers from in displaying the logo in a prominent range of colours and sizes.

It's worth noting that the logo is repeated fewer times on the unveiled version than on the previous mock up, too. I also think it's a nice touch that the silver-grey base colour is actually made of a seventies wallpaper-style repetition of the logo in outline.
 

mushroomchow

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Somebody get Tinky Winky a liver transplant, that jaundice looks even worse in the flesh. :'(

Hands down the worst livery in the privatisation era. Only the Freightliner Powerhaul livery comes close, but even that looks alright on the 70s it was designed for - it just looks like something I would have made in Trainz Paintshed when I was 11 when applied to older locomotives.

This... this is irredeemable.
 

JordyWM

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Somebody get Tinky Winky a liver transplant, that jaundice looks even worse in the flesh. :'(

Hands down the worst livery in the privatisation era. Only the Freightliner Powerhaul livery comes close, but even that looks alright on the 70s it was designed for - it just looks like something I would have made in Trainz Paintshed when I was 11 when applied to older locomotives.

This... this is irredeemable.

Both look far too busy, and that coupled with ghastly colour schemes make them look hideous.
 

Loki

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The yellow front on that 172 is absolute horror as the colour does not mix with the rest in any way. The CAF units and Aventras better come without it. They wouldn't need it anyway.

But the West Midlands Railway style will be used across all TfWM transport modes in Birmingham. The black and green should really stay as-is on LNR.

What do you mean? Trams and buses will be repainted too?
 

atsf_fT

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The cameraman from japan was very happy has you can see he did a great Tv spot to his Japanese audience.

172339 is only 172 so far , after the unavailing 339 went back light to Tyseley depot ?

poor photos due to bad lighting conditions sorry, to many shadows.



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JordyWM

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^ Great pictures, they are actually really good considering the challenging light conditions.

Is the front purple more matte while the the side purple is more glossy?

Think it was a big mistake putting that over busy advertisement, on it’s launch vehicle. Everything is complicated enough without that, too.
 
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OT, but promoted on the ad is The Electric Cinema. One of my favourite places in Birmingham and the oldest working cinema in the country. Highly recommended.
 

atsf_fT

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^ Great pictures, they are actually really good considering the challenging light conditions.

Is the front purple more matte while the the side purple is more glossy?

Think it was a big mistake putting that over busy advertisement, on it’s launch vehicle. Everything is complicated enough without that, too.

Yes the front was more of a matt finish than the sides , but the front is paint were has the purple on the sides are gloss vinyl , i do like it my self but i think there should be a bit more yellow on the front hi viz
Talking to one of the "west midlands Train personal" he said units will have different advertisements , one way of bringing extra money i guess .
it will be interesting to too see what companies etc along west midland rail network take this up , SVR - Statford upon avon rep -Tyselsy museum , come to mind . :D
 

birchesgreen

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OT, but promoted on the ad is The Electric Cinema. One of my favourite places in Birmingham and the oldest working cinema in the country. Highly recommended.

Yeah i go there a lot, Trash Movie Night is brilliant.

I'm not feeling the "London Overground" vibe some are claiming with the WMT livery, LO don't have a monopoly on the colour orange. Overall with some tweaks both the WMT and LNWR liveries will be pretty good, far better than the drab SWR one for sure.

Is the re-liveried 172 in normal service? Might try and track it down at the weekend...
 

XCTurbostar

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I don’t think it is, it’s been out of service all today for some reason (just sitting in Tyseley carriage sidings)

I’ve dropped LNR a quick complaint about how I feel the liveries could be improved e.g more yellow on the ends, a yellow first class line and the similarities with southern.
 

southern442

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Am I the only one that thinks the WMR livery (especially seeing as it's a 'star) looks extremely similar to the Gautrain livery?

04a.jpg


(off-topic but would have been very nice to see that front-end design on some Bombardier products in the UK, 345's and GatEx units spring to mind?
 

Bayum

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So, the 172, meh. It works.

The 250 on the other hand... Jesus wept.
 

sprinterguy

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Am I the only one that thinks the WMR livery (especially seeing as it's a 'star) looks extremely similar to the Gautrain livery?
I would imagine so: Other than the fact that it has a window band, a solebar level stripe (in a completely different colour, mind) and, umm...doors in the right sorts of places, which are always useful on a passenger train, there seems to be very little resemblance. Parallels with aspects of the XC and London Overground liveries seem more apt.
 

the sniper

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If that 172 and 350 had yellow where the other 172s and 350s have yellow they'd look acceptable. As it is they look like a mess... They've omitted the yellow there purely to show they can. I can't believe anyone can look at that and think it enhances the overall design.

Quite impressive to replace one of the best livery's with two of the worst in one fell swoop.
 
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jopsuk

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I like it- have there been full photos of the 350 yet or just that depot teaser shot?
 

whhistle

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But the seats are still green, correct?
Hmm...



I like it- have there been full photos of the 350 yet or just that depot teaser shot?
Yeah, there's been many. Facebook is a good place to find some - sorry can't link at the moment.
 

Bletchleyite

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I think there are some in this or another thread. I think it looks OK, but nothing special. It's certainly quite understated compared with the brash, bold and confident LM brand. Mind you. I'm not sure where they want to position their brand, and suspect they aren't sure either; the livery looks "quietly professional", the posters look 1980s, and there's presently a "no smoking or vaping" poster at Bletchley that isn't a world away from the VT joke "don't flush goldfish down the bog" thing.

I guess Abellio just aren't used to making up brands. Merseyrail got theirs from the PTE (and it's probably about the longest running rail branding scheme in the UK, dating from the 1980s), ScotRail was given theirs, and the rest just have the basic red, black and white. There is old-Northern, but perhaps the brand was Serco-led.
 

GatwickDepress

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Yeah i go there a lot, Trash Movie Night is brilliant.

I'm not feeling the "London Overground" vibe some are claiming with the WMT livery, LO don't have a monopoly on the colour orange. Overall with some tweaks both the WMT and LNWR liveries will be pretty good, far better than the drab SWR one for sure.

Is the re-liveried 172 in normal service? Might try and track it down at the weekend...
Obviously they don't have a monopoly; nobody was suggesting that, but its what I feel the livery is most reminiscent of due to the expanses of white combined with the orange doors.
 

birchesgreen

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I think the similarity of the 172 and 378 in appearance might have some bearing on that, be interesting to see the livery on the other stock
 
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