Most missed livery

[adrock1976]

I seem to remember that the West Midlands Travel silver, blue, and red stripe livery also had the name of the garage on the side of the vehicle after the logo during the early - mid 1990s.

I'll try to search for an image.

EDIT: Image URL is here:
https://farm7.staticflickr.com/6089/6103294077_118e760380_z.jpg

Many thanks to whoever this image belongs to.

You can see that this vehicle belonged to West Bromwich garage.

 

[HMS Ark Royal]

The blue and white of KHCT and their multi colours of their Kingstonian coaching arm

 

[adrock1976]

On the topic of West Midlands Travel, I can also remember the silver livery and also the lighter blue livery of the buses that were part of the "Timesaver" branded routes.

 

[Statto]

I did like NBC Leaf Green livery which always reminds me of Crosville around my area, didn't like the Poppy Red livery though.

Post D-Reg before it became Arriva, British Bus had lovely liveries like, North Western Road Car final before Arriva livery, which was like First Bristol Red, Yellow, Blue livery, Northumbria/Wear Buses blocks, London Country/Londonlinks

I did like the Crosville/RedRider Red-Yellow livery when they were owned by PMT.

Fareway of Kirkby Blue-Yellow livery, Liverbus, London Suburban Brown-White-Red livery.

London companies had some great liveries before all TFL made all Red mandatory like, Grey-Greens Grey-Green-Orange livery, Capital Citybus Yellow, Network Watford, Blue-Yellow-Grey then Green-Grey livery, Metrobus Surrey Blue-Yellow.

 

[Alex 2901]

Travel West Midlands low floor, with the roundel branding, is probably my favourite, but the Orange, white & brown on Chase Bus Services Nationals looked particularly impressive, shame Arriva bought them out in 2007.

Never understood why, but I always had a soft spot for the original Diamond livery, the red & White one (looked fantastic on a clean bus! Last one carrying it was withdrawn last year, 30512, I think?)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/57141830@N08/14817855524/
20508 when it carried it

 

[83G/84D]

NBC Green (Grabs coat, tin hat and runs for door!!!)

Me too!

 

[Strathclyder]

For me, it's Strathclyde Buses Red & Black & First Greater Glasgow All-Over Red. As plain as the latter was, it certainly looked smart when clean.

 

[neilmc]

I too loved the old Oxford livery - it sounds like red, maroon and duck-egg blue would never work together but somehow it did. Next to that, the dignified dark blue and cream on an East Yorkshire Beverley-Bar half cab. Funnily enough, both these fleets had late-1950s exposed radiator Regent Vs which looked fabulous.

 

[tbtc]

I'm more of a fan of bold '90s liveries (than the old Corporation Transport schemes of the '70s/ '80s etc).

Kelvin Scottish and Strathtay Scottish were two lovely ones growing up in the central belt at that time.

The red/ blue Go Ahead livery, the striped Leeds CityLink livery, the wonderful silver and red of Doncaster Mainline.

I also liked the 'Busways' schemes which succeeded the PTE livery, retaining the yellow but adding broad bands of colour which denoted the town that they served; red for Newcastle, green for Sunderland and blue for South Shields

I thought that was a great approach - the same design in each locality but with a different colour of stripe to make it "local". I'd have liked it if an operator like First/ Stagecoach took that approach, giving a local coloured stripe on the side of the bus (e.g. the aforementioned Glasgow "red", Manchester "orange"). So recognisable as part of the national brand, and easy enough to transfer around the country as and when required, but still "local".

The 1990s "GRT" liveries were the same kind of idea - a template pattern that was then applied around the country (dark green in Aberdeen, blue in Falkirk, maroon in Northampton...) - before the Badgerline merger (and everything becoming "Barbie").

The red, orange, yellow and cream of Leeds. The blue and red of Bradford Traveller

I thought that Leeds livery was lovely (CityLink), but the Bradford one a bit drab.

I would not dare talk about Edinburgh, since the livery keeps on changing...

What - two changes in fifty years (to "Harliquin" when low floor buses came along, then back to a more traditional "maroon" a few years later)?

many of the traditional liveries do indeed like smart on modern buses

Some do, but others really don't suit the big dark windows.

Few bus companies have designed liveries that really suit the windows on modern buses. I'd say that exceptions include Bluebird (in Manchester) and the Mainline livery for low floor buses in South Yorkshire (which was the same red/ yellow as normal buses, but with the black band of the windows swooping down at the front of the vehicle).

Then again, many modern liveries don't suit big dark windows either - I'm sure the new First livery with the lilac "f" looked find on the designer's ipad, but doesn't translate very well onto the side of the vehicles, because the windows disrupt it.

 

[Strathclyder]

What - two changes in fifty years (to "Harliquin" when low floor buses came along, then back to a more traditional "maroon" a few years later)?

I quite liked the 'Harlequin' livery myself. A 2000-reg Trident (W572 RSG/572) has been preserved in one of the earliest versions of the livery.

 

[AnonymousUser1]

NBC Green (Grabs coat, tin hat and runs for door!!!)

NBC livery is simple and understated ...

 

[KendalKing]

I am very surprised that nobody, as mention Pennine Motors

 

[HMS Ark Royal]

What about Pennine Motors?

 

[Busaholic]

Kentish Bus looked good, particularly on the Routemasters used on that traditional Kentish route between Battersea and Finsbury Park!

 

[backontrack]

I'm not an old reactionary - it's just that design agencies are brought in who have no idea of heritage and more importantly see fleet colours as just the same as a retail shop or similar. Such a shame. Compare the two photos below - which one would you prefer at your bus stop?

First Potteries 37146 and 32634, Showbus, September 2016 by Paul Williams, on Flickr

Keele again by Kevin Lane, on Flickr

I actually prefer the latter. Maybe that's due to growing up in a FirstBus stronghold, but also because red is on a whole load of buses these days, and it's nice to have some change at least.

Mind you, the massive adverts are horrible. And there's too much white on that one - actually, I'm not sure...

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I could have sworn that tonight on TV in the background of something filmed in the middle of London I saw a Borismaster in London Country green livery?!?

Am I going mad?

 

[Stonesourscotty]

Northwestern Diagonal lines livery on the deckers or Wigan bus Livery as applied to the Scania's

 

[Bookd]

I could have sworn that tonight on TV in the background of something filmed in the middle of London I saw a Borismaster in London Country green livery?!?

Am I going mad?

No - there is at least one in LT country area heritage livery, as well as one in a London General red heritage livery.

 

[anti-pacer]

As a kid, when we moved from Bradford to Colne, I used to live seeing WYRC's red buses on the 25 route from Burnley-Keighley. It reminded me of Bradford, which back then I missed.

I used to love the old Keighley bus station and seeing mainly red buaes, and the odd Yorkshire Rider bus going to Huddersfield. I miss their livery too.

Someone earlier pointed out that you knew where you were because of bus liveries. The orange and cream of Greater Manchester for example. Can you imagine that now? Take Huddersfield bus station if they still had the former liveries. The 184 pulls in, in orange and cream. You'd have the green and cream from what is now First Huddersfield, and the red and cream of what is now Arriva. Now the 184 from Manchester looks no different to First Huddersfield, except for a different wording on the side.

Other liveries I miss are Crosville Cymru, Bristol City Line, Northumbria, Eastern Counties, and the countless council owned bus companies of Lancashire, especially the dark menace of Hyndburn Transport, and the early 80's Italian flag look of Blackburn Transport.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

No - there is at least one in LT country area heritage livery, as well as one in a London General red heritage livery.

Thank you. I really thought I was seeing things!

 

[Private Baxter]

I'm not quite as well travelled as many here, so really my memories are limited to the west country, and First's barbie livery has sort of dominated this region for the last fifteen years or so, so not a great deal to choose from! That said, I grew up in Badgerline days, and for me the earlier version with the strip along the top is the one that I miss, although both were classic designs.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

When kicking off this thread, I suspected that a lot would depend on what you experienced in your youth (and that has been borne out to an extent) whenever that may have been. Sadly, that would be NBC Poppy Red (aka pink) in my case. Places like Greater Manchester will be associated with orange though older folks may have hated that (in preference to the old constituents corpy liveries) and younger types will only know from running days and photographs.

Some of the ones that have been mentioned may have been considered garish but I actually quite liked them. The PMT red and yellow was very good (and more so when blue replaced red for Pennine). I also liked Northumbria's mentalness (though not North Western which did come from the same design house). The M&D one just before Arriva was very good.

However, (and apologies if I missed it) but I think the red, white and black of Wilts and Dorset was a very strong look. Quite traditional and yet it seemed to suit virtually every bus type

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Yes... Epsom Buses have a small single decker, SD42, running around in what looks like the old London Country two tone green livery at the moment and it's the most distinctive vehicle in the area as a result.

I just found a photo online of the London Country liveried one...

http://www.andrewsbusstop.co.uk/EnglishBuses/Epsombuses/

( not my photo )

 

[tbtc]

I don't think anyone has mentioned the First Edinburgh livery - http://www.centralsmt.co.uk/Photos/Leyland Tigers/LT29 with First Borders 11-10-01.jpg - a combination of the blue "Midland", green "Eastern" and yellow "Lowland" colours but with the First willow leaf - local but corporate - maybe we could have had a red and yellow version for Mainline/ PMT, a green and yellow version for Badgerline, a predominately orange version for urban operations around Manchester/ Glasgow... if only.

I quite liked the 'Harlequin' livery myself. A 2000-reg Trident (W572 RSG/572) has been preserved in one of the earliest versions of the livery.

Excellent news - thanks - a lovely livery (though anything that replaced the traditional madder/ white scheme was bound to irk the purists).

Lothian came a long way in the Harlyquin years - from being on the back foot against First to dominance.

Someone earlier pointed out that you knew where you were because of bus liveries. The orange and cream of Greater Manchester for example. Can you imagine that now? Take Huddersfield bus station if they still had the former liveries. The 184 pulls in, in orange and cream. You'd have the green and cream from what is now First Huddersfield, and the red and cream of what is now Arriva. Now the 184 from Manchester looks no different to First Huddersfield, except for a different wording on the side

I can't argue with nostalgia, but sometimes the enthusiasts who want to go back to the "good old days" of every town/ city having a different colour of buses (like in their youth) also seem to want every train to have the same colour scheme (like in their youth) because it is so confusing to have all the different liveries that the railway has nowadays.

I'm not saying it's wrong - buses and trains are different - but a lot of us grew up in an era of varied bus liveries and one corporate train livery and now live in an era of corporate bus liveries but varied train liveries

I also liked Northumbria's mentalness (though not North Western which did come from the same design house)

I liked Northumbria as a company - great informative timetables with maps etc - decent logo - I like the colours (Doncaster Mainline was one of my favourite bus liveries - the same silver and red colours - a dull base colour with one bright colour can work brilliantly), but found the application of the Northumbria a bit jarring - I'd have no problem with the silver and red but the diagonals and asymmetric bits made the buses look a bit messy - in the way that I think the attempts to put a big "f" on First buses looks necessarily complicated, I thought the Northumbria "N" was imposed on top of the vehicle's shape (rather than suiting it). Each to their own, of course - there's certainly no "right" or "wrong" when it comes to liveries.

 

[HMS Ark Royal]

I know they have gone out of the bus service game, but I think SWEYNE have a couple in the lothian colours... Certainly got W577 RSG

 

[90019]

What - two changes in fifty years (to "Harliquin" when low floor buses came along, then back to a more traditional "maroon" a few years later)?

There's just been another change - the new man upstairs is a traditionalist, and wants straight lines*.
It sort of works on some buses, but the E400s look a bit crap, in my opinion.
I'm not sure I like the version on the older single deck Volvos, either.


*Also lines following panels, so repairs don't cost as much.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

I know they have gone out of the bus service game, but I think SWEYNE have a couple in the lothian colours... Certainly got W577 RSG

There's quite a few buses kicking about that have been sold off and the new owners haven't repainted.
I spotted one parked up on the outskirts of Hull recently.

 

[sprinterguy]

I also liked Northumbria's mentalness (though not North Western which did come from the same design house).

Yes, it certainly seemed apparent that the Northumbria and North Western liveries were from the same stable, though I agree that the North Western scheme didn't have the same impact.

 

[SCH117X]

Of course its not just buses but the High St shops as well which has become the same town in town out. Nottingham today I found highly confusing with both TrentBarton and NCT adopting overall colour schemes with resulting similar liveries for various completely different routes. Once it was so obvious whose bus was whose; NCT green and white, Trent red and white, Barton red and cream, South Notts blue and cream....

 

[HMS Ark Royal]

There's quite a few buses kicking about that have been sold off and the new owners haven't repainted.
I spotted one parked up on the outskirts of Hull recently.

That will be a SWEYNE bus on a charter or RRS

 

[Busaholic]

I could have sworn that tonight on TV in the background of something filmed in the middle of London I saw a Borismaster in London Country green livery?!?

Am I going mad?

I saw the same clip. I believe one of the buses on the 38, the original Chumpmaster route, has these colours, but there may be others too.