Read about the differences between Britain, the. Great Britain's railway system was built by private companies, but it was nationalised by the Transport Act 1947 and was run from then onwards by British Railways (which traded as British Rail from 1965) until privatisation, which was begun in 1994 and completed in 1997. That's a different argument (which I disagee with but that's not for this thread). Roofs were Dark Grey and underframes originally brown, but later black. Now the charge of English nationalism is a tedious, largely Remainer trope that I have dealt with elsewhere. From July 1956 the Southern Region began using a 'coaching stock' green that was somewhat darker than the malachite green colour of the old Southern Railway and this extended to former Southern vehicles as well as Mk1 stock. The signs look good, if a bit bland and functional. Because it's not going to be the same as BR. for some form of co-branding. Bland, cheap, unimaginative. [16] A public vote was held following the announcement.[16]. This livery was well received by enthusiasts but as the Class 56s only hauled freight, it was decided to extend the experiment to a passenger loco. The British Rail Class 31 diesel locomotives, also known as the Brush Type 2 and previously as Class 30, were built by Brush Traction from 1957-62. In terms of changing the background colour - I was going to go with a navy blue, but then it wouldn't integrate with any part of the design system I had in my head, so I opted not to. The government has promised to base the organisation outside London to promote economic growth and skills in a region beyond the capital. This colour was applied to all diesel and electric locomotives, with the exception of the ends, which were painted yellow to improve visibility, and the underframes and buffer beams which were painted black; the paints being to BSS 2660-0.003 and BSS 2660-9.103 respectively. In many ways having a 'Railway System' logo (the double arrow) for stations/journey planners but a different logo so people know the train is a 'big' intercity train or a 'small' stopping train is very helpful. [5] As Rail Blue was introduced, the last locomotive recorded as being outshopped in a previous livery was Class 43 D838 Rapid which left Swindon Works in August 1968 in maroon. JavaScript is disabled. And again, there may be scope to take back control of this. A High Speed Train power car (loco) and coach in InterCity swallow livery. Suffice to say, an actual English nationalist would not be passing controversial legislation to enable Westminster to spend even more money on Northern Ireland, as this Government is. English regions, Scotland, and Wales will have their own variants, but these will still emphasise the national nature of GBR. Unfortunately, there is little sign that Beattie actually intends to do anything differently, in this regard at least, to the Democratic Unionists he hopes to supplant. However many people were not happy with the loss of the traditional "historic" regional colour schemes as used by the former private companies. Last week Doug Beattie, the newly-installed leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, hit out at Boris Johnson. Except their is massive nostalgia for BR days. I would say GWR (single colour) is a far better branding package than Avanti (3 colours). [13] Initially new locos were still painted in the traditional Rail Blue livery, but starting with Class 56 number 56084 the new Large Logo version was standard on new locos delivered to BR. The old Northern signs worked well, but only Metro/WYCA really got behind the co-branding opportunities, that I saw. The old BR liveries look dated now and have done for a while. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. Free delivery for many products! A railway works best as a single unit. I think there would be huge advantages of a standard livery and branding across the Britain, in saving money and presenting a unified product to the customer. GBR will own all stations and most infrastructure in Great Britain. Whatever its failings and they were multitude branding was one thing British Rail took seriously and was remarkably good at. (60163 still carries this livery in 2018) Black. We need more national institutions to give a British shape to life, and GBR should be one of them. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. It'll be operated quite differently. Then why was the old version called British Railways, not Great British Railways, and why the change now for the new version if British Railways worked . The double arrow is still overused, though. I personally do not think there should be a standard livery across the network on the grounds that regional identity would be lost. Once we lose TOC branding I certainly think service categories need to return, if only on the Dutch basis of them only describing service patterns rather than anything else. A corporate livery was created for major express services in Scotland, which effectively consisted of the InterCity livery with the red stripe replaced by a light blue one. Quick reference Livery Guide for Nameplates and transfers available in 4mm/00 scale. I think it'll be more like East Coast (or whatever), the full height of the parallel tracks. 1948 -. This idea often seems to pop its head up. Most of this nostalgia is from people who aren't old enough to remember just how rubbish latter day BR often was. Although from the mid-1960s to the 1980s the organisation was associated with "Rail Blue", a number of other schemes were also used, especially when it was split into operating units or "sectors" in the mid-1980s. Launched as the London & South East Sector "Express Livery" this was a short-lived scheme which appeared on a limited amount of units and routes before the advent of Network SouthEast's "toothpaste" red white and blue striped livery. Underneath that in a smaller font, about half the height of the space between the botton track and the bottom of the arrow "Operated by [whomever] for Great British Railways". There is surely a case at least for putting the cross-border inter-city services in national colours (perhaps an updated take on Network SouthEast), to match the saltires splashed all over Scotrail trains. I tried going with the National Rail icon in the right hand side, but it was too small and nobody would notice it. The coaches for the XP64 train were painted in a slightly lighter version of what would eventually become Rail Blue, with a 44-inch-wide (1,100mm) Pale Ivory stripe centred on the passenger windows, and brown underframe. I just see the thing as extremely surface level. The great livery might only look good on certain trains, while on others it looks rubbish. But Beatties second charge is more interesting. GBR is not quite the same, so they no doubt want it to be seen as distinct; plus, it may not even be possible to call it BR, there might be legal implications (just a guess). Antrim Princess Sealink ferry underway in Larne with Sealink letters. Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread . In all of your concepts the Rail Symbol (double-arrow) is far too large for the accompanying lettering, if you're looking to be guided by the original design rules. In 1956 an all-over darker maroon, which more closely resembled the pre-nationalisation LMS livery, was re-introduced, except for the Southern Region, where locomotive-hauled stock was generally painted 'coaching stock' green (from July 1956-on) and a small number of express carriages on the Western Region which were in traditional GWR-style chocolate and cream. You also get a more legible and cohesive transport system. As part of this work, the team engaged with industry through a formal call for evidence. The British Railway official livery for meat & fish vans (and other stock which normally travelled in passenger trains) was originally crimson with yellow lettering. A nod to the past in the liveries would be nice like with the modern GWR too. I'm not convinced "InterCity" services warrant different branding now, as they are no longer of premium quality in terms of service provision; in many case they're just regional or commuter services (thinks XC and GWR in particular). Until the introduction of Mk1 catering vehicles in the late '50s, these trains had matching former GWR catering vehicles. The Tories, particulary this present mob of throwbacks, have long since co-opted the "great" in "Great Britain" to mean "very good"and it's xenophobic, imperialist undertones me me want to vomit. The Transport Secretary announced on 19 October 2022 that the Transport Bill which would have set up GBR would not go ahead in the current parliamentary session.[2]. I wonder if you could make a hybrid of the two? Some franchise brand names are good, such as Trans Pennine Express, but perhaps those longer distance brands might be lost to one all encompassing GBR brand. It's the name of the island ffs. . Class 52 No.D1015 restored to 1960's Western Region Maroon livery. It'll be operated quite differently. Class 14s D9537 (in desert sand livery) and D9539 prepare a double-head a train on the Ribble Steam Railway. [7]. Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread . GBR is currently running a competition to find a town or city outside London to host its headquarters. Multiple units were also generally green, although this tended to be a lighter and bluer shade compared to the colour used on steam and diesel locomotives. The first break in the uniformity of Rail Blue came in 1976 with the introduction of the first InterCity 125 (HST). Aren't best impressions the ones that did the 2015 Virgin East Coast HST? So even if that doesn't become the actual 'GBR' logo it will likely see some use on stations and maybe trains. There was a return of some regional schemes: the Western Region turned out some Mk1 sets for named expresses in chocolate/cream, similar to that used by the GWR before nationalisation. I'd go along with that from a "looks right" perspective, but it would be almost impossible to see from (for instance) inside a train in darkness. I personally like this Lion logo posted by Tim Dunn on twitter a few years ago, Not at all. Why do you show the double-arrow logo *and* the words "Great British Railways"? Variants where the band was blue (outer suburban) or green (inner suburban) instead of orange were planned, but never implemented.[15]. The x-height of the lower-case lettering should be equal to the height of the horizontal arms in the symbol, so that the row of text appears to align with them. In 1964, as part of a plan to develop a new corporate image for British Railways, a number of experiments were tried; Discussions on the livery for British Railways coaching stock in 1948 eventually settled on a network-wide two-tone livery of crimson and cream for corridor coaches, with all-over crimson being used for local, non-corridor stock. Of course it's possible to do better, but I'd argue there are bigger priorities as long as the signage is fit for purpose. Great British Railways: Livery, branding and appearance? Bare minimum, low effort. This livery suited these diesel hydraulic classes, and allowed the Western Region to once again show a degree of independence; it was not applied to any other diesel or electric classes (other than the Class 42/43 "Warships"). Instead, I just added an icon next to the full text and removed it from the main station name. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. OK, it's not a big change, but Germany tends to do rebrandings very infrequently. I dont think we will see train liveries being changed for a while. I'm working on building a GBR brand from the ground up for the next few days (my calendar is completely empty), starting with a logo. For example, GWRs London to Bristol, Penzance, Cardiff, Oxford etc might be wrapped up with a GBR Express or GBR Intercity, but the GWR commuter/regional services under a different brand name. The colour often appears inaccurately in photographs, generally appearing brighter and bluer than the real colour. | Page 15 | RailUK Forums We're pleased to announce the launch of our new booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk, which helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchased. Class 35 'Hymek' D7017 restored to 1960's green & lime livery. "Great" means "large", not "very good". Plus what is one persons opinion of a great livery will be different to the next. But do we really want to go back to that? With the publication of the Williams review and the announcement of the renationalization of British Passenger Rail, i thought i might help out anyone exited for new liveries or branding for trains. Livery across the network on the grounds that regional identity would be nice like with the modern GWR.. To learn the rest of the parallel tracks these trains had matching former GWR catering.. 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