by NorthWest
Oh no. Thanks, Benny. I much prefer the orange and cream to the green!
Railroad Forums
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NorthWest wrote: I much prefer the orange and cream to the green!I'm with you but unfortunately that livery was used only on Breda railcars and on some normal coaches. With the coming of the 668 model cars, their colors were adopted for all the remaining fleet, not always with good effect.
NorthWest wrote:Interesting units. Did the livery change occur at the same time as the government commission took control or did it precede that?No, the light blue and white livery appeared for the first time in 1978, when FSE received a batch of railcars strictly derived from the FS ALn 668.1900 series, of which maintained the colours, and then gradually extended to other stock. The state management started in 1985. But for many years there has been not uniformity of the corporate identity, when I was there in 1989 I saw vehicles in the three liveries.
NorthWest wrote:Paint is pricey, and so often it is easier to let things be...Definitely true back in 1978, but I think these days railways do a lot of it with vinyl stickers. Most of the UK passenger rolling stock is owned by leasing companies not train operating companies and therefore often gets transferred from one train operating company to another, and has to change its livery anyway every few years when franchises expire, so it is painted fairly neutrally and the train operating company's livery is added on huge vinyl panels. Likewise "special" liveries commemorating certain people or events, or advertising. I assume that producing and fitting the vinyl panels is much cheaper than doing a proper paint job on a whole train or a whole vehicle. I've seen videos showing a couple of blokes covering a whole vehicle with a new vinyl livery in just a few hours, whereas repainting a vehicle with multiple coats of specialised paint takes far longer.
johnthefireman wrote:That machine has a no-nonsense business-like look to it. I like the livery, too. It actually looks very much like BR's early green diesel livery.Sorry John, but I don't understand what you wrote. What is a no-nonsense business-like look?
Benny wrote:What is a no-nonsense business-like look?Sorry, I suppose that is a very British-English idiom! It means it is not fancy, pretty, beautiful, ornamental, delicate, graceful, etc, but looks like it is built for hard work, solid, heavy-duty, functional, etc. I use it as a compliment - I like the look of this machine.