Virgin Pendolino Livery Status & Numbers - A Modeller's Aid

[Jack374]

Just thought I'd share this document I've compiled, showing all the current (as of the last few days) Pendolino numbers and liveries. This was produced as I couldn't find such a list anywhere online, and liveries are currently all being updated to the latest white scheme with black window bands on each coach. I was hoping to find a 9-car set in silver still knocking about, but it seems none are left in the old colours.

 

For each set, the length (9 or 11 cars), livery and name, together with any notes and the date last seen in the old livery (for those applicable) have been recorded.

 

 

I may update the list sporadically, but please feel free to download and modify/add to/update the list as you wish, for personal use only outside the forum.

 

Virgin Pendolino List.xlsx

 

This is all to decide which sets I'm going to model as I fancy a silver and white pair...I need to acquire the second set but I do have an 11-car Hornby set ready to be modified. This will include adding the two new coaches and also all the grey doors.

 

Feel free to discuss or just read and take in any useful information!

 

Thanks,

Jack.

[balders]

I was back from Birmingham on Saturday on 010. The stick on plate looks dreadful. Yes I know it's essentially an EMU but the cast plates on it's fellows look so much better! (From an old Coventry 86/87 geezer's perspective!)

 

Do you have a list of cast plate sets Jack? Purely from an informative point of view! 

 

Thanks for the info above. All the modern stuff sort of passes me by. But I really quite like Pendos.

 

Regards 

 

Guy

Edited July 15, 2019 by balders
Type

[Jack374]

13 hours ago, balders said:

I was back from Birmingham on Saturday on 010. The stick on plate looks dreadful. Yes I know it's essentially an EMU but the cast plates on it's fellows look so much better! (From an old Coventry 86/87 geezer's perspective!)

 

Do you have a list of cast plate sets Jack? Purely from an informative point of view! 

 

Thanks for the info above. All the modern stuff sort of passes me by. But I really quite like Pendos.

 

Regards 

 

Guy

 

Hi Guy,

 

Thanks for the feedback...I think all the white livery sets carry vinyl 'stickers' as nameplates, but those which retain the silver livery still have cast plates. I haven’t seen a cast plate on a new livery set - this could be for ease of de-branding in light of the WCML franchise renewal being on the horizon.

 

Even naming ceremonies now use vinyl plates!

 

 

Thanks,

Jack.

[Steamport Southport]

Just reminds me how daft some of the names are.

 

I can understand the City ones and even the charity ones. But some of the Virgin names are ridiculous.

 

 

 

Jason

[TangerineWizards]

Thanks for posting this. It is a useful source of information.

[APOLLO]

2 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

Just reminds me how daft some of the names are.

 

I can understand the City ones and even the charity ones. But some of the Virgin names are ridiculous.

 

 

 

Jason

 

Virgin on the ridiculous ?

 

Brit15

[Jack374]

As I said in the OP, I’ll sporadically update this when I have a spare few minutes (like today). It appears all the units less than number x51 are now in white livery, with 137 being outshopped in a white livery without red 'velvet' vinyls. I reckon it’ll either acquire these in due course, or Virgin have stopped wasting expense now they’ve lost the contract. Either way, it makes it very modellable....

 

 

Here is the updated document as of just now, using Flickr photos to show when the silver units were last seen:

 

 

I wonder whether 151 upwards will now receive new colours? Interesting times.

 

Jack.

[stewartingram]

Now that is a much better looking livery - though white is impractical.

 

Stewart

[4630]

There's only a little over 2 months before First Trenitalia takes over inter-city services on the West Coast main line (8th December 2019 is the start date for the new franchise).

 

It's probably reasonable to assume that any Pendolino that passes through Alstom's Widnes facility now will be outshopped in a similar unbranded base livery to '137.

 

Similarly, because of the number vehicles involved and the intensity with which the Pendolinos are diagrammed, it would not be surprising if there's an increasing number of externally unbranded and de-named units from now. 

[woodenhead]

17 minutes ago, 4630 said:

There's only a little over 2 months before First Trenitalia takes over inter-city services on the West Coast main line (8th December 2019 is the start date for the new franchise).

 

It's probably reasonable to assume that any Pendolino that passes through Alstom's Widnes facility now will be outshopped in a similar unbranded base livery to '137.

 

Similarly, because of the number vehicles involved and the intensity with which the Pendolinos are diagrammed, it would not be surprising if there's an increasing number of externally unbranded and de-named units from now. 

There's only 7 left to pass through Alstom until one enters somewhere to be rebranded again into the new livery, with the facility all set up you'd think Trenitalia might make use of the widnes facility for it's work on the refurb and rebranding.  For Alstom it's a nice bit of work - redo the whole fleet in white, then do it all again with the next livery plus get work refurbishing the interiors....

 

Are Virgin responsible for removing their red velvet, it's not normally the case.

 

First time I have noticed that all the 11 car units are 390 1xx, never knew that - shows how closely I look at numbers these days.

[AMJ]

Knowing that the "sisters" to these in Italy are predominantly red we might be looking at much changed livery.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-speed_rail_in_Italy

 

[Revolution Ben]

 

Hello all,

 

The new franchise holders have only talked about an interior refurbishment for the Pedolinos, and given the durability of modern coatings I suspect a complete repaint for such newly redone units would be ruled out by the accountants, and not without reason.

 

I suspect revised decals with the new branding are more likely.

 

cheers

 

Ben A.

[Pete the Elaner]

2 hours ago, woodenhead said:

First time I have noticed that all the 11 car units are 390 1xx, never knew that - shows how closely I look at numbers these days.

I often get on at the rear when heading towards London & used the unit number to tell if it was a 9 or 11 coach unit. No need to any more because this information is now added to the platform display.

 

 

 

I am intrigued that the latter repaints still have the yellow ends. I understood the Crossrail units (& other new trains) did not need them because their LED marker lights are brighter than old incandescent ones. These brighter lights have been around for a few years now & the Pendolinos certainly have them, so surely the yellow ends are no longer required?

[Steadfast]

Pendolinos have bright lights, but they meet the previous group standard, not the current one that allows the optional removal of yellow panels.

Yes the LED markers are bright, but it's the retina burning bright main headlights that allow the removal of yellow ends, and both headlights need to be lit along with the top marker. Hence Pendolinos don't meet the criteria. Try looking at an IEP head on for comparison, overly bright in my opinion

 

Jo

 

[luckymucklebackit]

Someone on another forum posted a photoshopped picture of a Pendolino in LMS red with the gold stripes at window level, looked awesome, they could do the 11 coach sets in this livery and use the blue livery for the nine coach sets

 

https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/first-trenitalia-wcml-livery-branding.189399/page-2#post-4167270