Best looking Rolling Stock Liveries?

[W-on-Sea]

1945 to 1980: "blood and custard" crimson and cream, Blue Pullman, post-1956 maroon

Late British Rail (pre-privatisation): the chocolate and cream GWR-style "Skippers" (a.k.a. Pacers), Provincial Sector/Regional Railways on Sprinters, Intercity striped livery (and the Scotrail variant with blue replacing red)

Defunct privatized TOCs or past liveries: GNER (among the very best), c2c blue, Strathclyde carmine and cream, final Stagecoach EMR & SWT liveries (long distance version with cream dominant). West Yorkshire "Metro" (red and cream), Wales & Borders AlphaLine

Current operators and liveries : original London Overground Class 378, GWR, Southern

 

[Strathclyder]

Oh for sure, at least they've been sensible by copying something nice in the first place and not messing too much with it.

Yeah. On the whole, it's a very tasteful modification of an older livery.

Isn't that an ordinary Mk2 FO from an FM Rail venture?

A rake of Mk2s IIRC, plus two 47s (47709 & 47712). First appeared in January 2006.

Strathclyde carmine and cream

It sat really well on the 4 303s that received it.

3030023 PLE 1041 NTN-GLC 3-5-99

Only a handful mof 303s ever carried Strathclyde carmine and cream livery. On 3 May 1999, we see 303023 at Pollokshields East on the 1041 Newton - Glasgow Central.

www.flickr.com

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Still spoiled what was (IMO) a good livery.

I have to agree. Whilst I appreciate that it was a requirement, it could have been executed better. You only have to look at the Swallow-inspired livery to see that the contrasting doors can be done in a way that looks good- even with a livery that wasn't originally designed with that in mind.

 

[james60059]

The Great Western Railway Merlin livery. Basic but eye catching

 

[ScottGallagher]

Without going into politics too much In terms of the Strathclyde Red (really orange) I'm surprised it was ever propsed, lasted the time it did and that more of a fuss wasn't made about that choice given the divisions in Glasgow and how much of a powder keg it can be!

 

[365 Networker]

The NSE livery worn by the 365s was my favourite, closely followed by Silverlink Trains' livery. I also quite like the Regional Railways Centro livery - it was nice to see a 323 repainted into those colours.

 

[hexagon789]

Without going into politics too much In terms of the Strathclyde Red (really orange) I'm surprised it was ever propsed, lasted the time it did and that more of a fuss wasn't made about that choice given the divisions in Glasgow and how much of a powder keg it can be!

The previous livery was not dissimilar to the Irish tricolour.

The reason 'orange' was chosen is ironically supposedly because of not wanting to present any sectarian notions!

SPTE apparently chose an England-based advertising agency to come up with a new livery and branding, they stipulated that the colours chosen couldn't be blue or green due to sectarian connotations (Rangers FC vs Celtic FC of course), so the agency chose orange ostensibly because it was unaware that that had arguably even stronger connotations associated with it!

That story may be incorrect - made up or exaggerated, but that's what I've heard as the background to 'Strathclyde Red'. The moniker 'red' then being used to 'cover up' the choice - by pretending it wasn't orange!

 

[ScottGallagher]

The previous livery was not dissimilar to the Irish tricolour.

The reason 'orange' was chosen is ironically supposedly because of not wanting to present any sectarian notions!

SPTE apparently chose an England-based advertising agency to come up with a new livery and branding, they stipulated that the colours chosen couldn't be blue or green due to sectarian connotations (Rangers FC vs Celtic FC of course), so the agency chose orange ostensibly because it was unaware that that had arguably even stronger connotations associated with it!

That story may be incorrect - made up or exaggerated, but that's what I've heard as the background to 'Strathclyde Red'. The moniker 'red' then being used to 'cover up' the choice - by pretending it wasn't orange!

And to top it all its all blue now anyway!

Even if the agency chose orange it still had to be formally signed off by those in Strathclyde who youd think would be more than aware I mean it was everywhere, buses ,bridges (one memory of Barrhead as a child). I guess we will never know!!

 

[hexagon789]

Even if the agency chose orange it still had to be formally signed off by those in Strathclyde who youd think would be more than aware I mean it was everywhere, buses ,bridges (one memory of Barrhead as a child). I guess we will never know!!

Very true, hence why I suspect it may be more apocryphal than necessarily completely accurate.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

On the TPE livery, this might be a controversial opinion but I think the Nova3 sets look much better when the 68 is one of the blue ones (as the one out on the North route today is, with 68033). Trying to paint the loco as if it's just another carriage in the set usually looks wrong to me.

 

[Willie Bee]

I like the East Midlands Railway livery, with the red, yellow, orange and blue but I think it's only those colours on certain trains.
LNER good too

 

[315801]

For me I preferred the yellow and white with black and grey stripes that the class 507 & 508 units had prior to refurb.

That livery certainly brightened them up and would have been better on the units again instead of the rubbish yellow vinyl on 1 side with grey vinyl on the other which just makes them look drab

 

[Lucan]

London and South East Jaffa cake. I was disappointed when it was replaced by the red white and blue toothpaste livery - I think primary colours look cheap.
The old GWR chocolate and cream.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I like the East Midlands Railway livery, with the red, yellow, orange and blue but I think it's only those colours on certain trains.
LNER good too

That's the legacy livery from the previous operator (Stagecoach) East Midlands Trains. I agree that it was a good livery though, particularly on the sister company South West Trains where the white, blue and red bases denoted long distance, outer suburban, and inner suburban services respectively.

For me I preferred the yellow and white with black and grey stripes that the class 507 & 508 units had prior to refurb.

That livery certainly brightened them up and would have been better on the units again instead of the rubbish yellow vinyl on 1 side with grey vinyl on the other which just makes them look drab

The initial post-refurb silver and yellow was great, the original version looked very dated to me.

 

[HSTBEN]

Intercity Swallow for me, huge fan especially on an HST!
Network Southeast in its original guise on the old slam doors and class 319/2 with very light grey regards to dark grey, and also class 159 in NSE. More modern i liked mainline SWT when clean that is but now slowly disappearing!

 

[VioletEclipse]

They have all been mentioned before, but carmine and cream, saltire and GNER are some of my favourites.

 

[greyman42]

Without going into politics too much In terms of the Strathclyde Red (really orange) I'm surprised it was ever propsed, lasted the time it did and that more of a fuss wasn't made about that choice given the divisions in Glasgow and how much of a powder keg it can be!

There is also the "clockwork orange" subway. What livery are the new trains going to be in?

 

[PGAT]

Unpopular opinion: The Lumo 803 livery looks splendid!

 

[AzureOtsu]

For classic liveries, intercity swallow, NSE and regional railways always stuck out as being classy and displayed a modern finesse in their time.

For modern day liveries, I think SWR is the best, it's minimalist and the colours have the same striking vibe as the classic liveries, it's also managed to make the 20 or so year old 450s & 444s look almost brand new.
I feel southern livery is a close second how it honours the heritage of the southern region and Chiltern Railways as a third with how it calls back to the NSE days but modernises the livery

If we move to the topic of worst, personally I really don't like WMRs livery, it strikes me as being too corporate and complicated. the colours are more fitting of a supermarket and I think having Sainsbury's coloured trains and stations ruins the vibe of the west midlands heritage.

 

[dan4291]

Unpopular opinion: The Lumo 803 livery looks splendid!

Completely agree, a livery doesn't have to be complicated to stand out!

 

[D6130]

I rather liked the 1970s/80s Northern Ireland Railways maroon and blue livery with a thin white line between the two at window bottom level. Also the old BR research department livery which was similarm but with a much brighter shade of red.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

If we move to the topic of worst, personally I really don't like WMRs livery, it strikes me as being too corporate and complicated. the colours are more fitting of a supermarket and I think having Sainsbury's coloured trains and stations ruins the vibe of the west midlands heritage.

The front end treatment on the 350s looks awful. Either get rid of the yellow entirely or put it back how it was under London Midland. The weird half-measure they went with is ugly as heck.

 

[FOH]

For me the two recentish decent liveries are (both mkIII):
one Anglia
Great Western merlin

One Anglia in particular was a dreadful livery except it worked really well on the long mkIII carriages

 

[colchesterken]

Jaffa cake for E M U s
Lined maroon as per early BR
Both Pullman livery's brown and cream and blue and grey

 

[brad465]

I enjoyed NSE toothpaste livery and FGW's Dynamic line's livery, my favourites for current operators are Hull Train's Paragon and Chiltern's Silver.

 

[eli 801/2]

I love virgins livery when they were on the east coast line on the intercity 225. It just reminds me of when I would get those trains a couple of times a year and I wouldnt know anything else!

 

[SteveyBee131]

Think my favourites have all been mentioned already, but I'll say them anyway just because...

Pre-Privatisation
Large logo loco with blue and grey coaches;
Regional Railways;
Swallow

Early Privatisation
GNER (better before DDA doors, but needs must);
Northern Spirit (TPE, very closely followed by local);
Midland Mainline (teal and tangerine)

Later Privatisation
EMT/SWT (even though the white version could be tricky to keep clean!);
TPE;
Northern (Serco/Ned Railways, especially the 'pictogram' specials)

 

[SouthEastern-465]

Personal favourite liveries of mine:

Network SouthEast. Just looked very smart and uniform on anything it touched.

GNER. It just looked the business. It looked like a premium and classy brand through its livery alone.

LoadHaul. I can't even articulate why I like it specifically, but it just stands out in a good way...

Jaffa Cake. It certainly looked the part on the then recently overhauled CEPs and 309s with the hopper windows. Wasn't a fan of it on the few CIGs it touched though... Odd.

 

[janahan]

I think there were very few liveries that worked with all stock. Swallow was great on the angular 225 and HST but not so great on some locos, and would have looked aweful on 390s, or 80X. Southern looked great on the Elecro and Turbo stars but didnt look great on either the 455/456. Strangly it was ok on the 313.

Same with the SWT livery, it looked great on all the desiros(444, 450, and 707), and 442s, but not so great on the deisels and the 455 (it was ok on the 456, but those were not very pretty trains, compared to the 321s).indeed the red metro livery suited the 707s far better.

NSW was good on certin stock (442, 321 - especially the white fronted ones, and many modern stock) but looked terrible on the slam doors for some reason, the Jaffa cake would have been better on those, though probably worse on modern stock.

Therefore ideally livery should be tweaked to the stock, such as LNER with different livery on the 225s and the azumas, that works with the shapes beter.

The new SWR livery, the GWR livery and also the old London Midland livery are the closest to a universal livery that suits almost all the stock they used.

There are of course liveries that did not work on ANY sotck, such as Connex South Central! Horrible design!

 

[Mikey C]

There are of course liveries that did not work on ANY sotck, such as Connex South Central! Horrible design!

Plus there are the "non liveries" like the Thameslink and Great Northern ones, which are just incredibly dull and generic.