Livery Photoshopping

[Burkitt]

I once read a quote from an gentlemen in the 1920s, bemoaning the loss of his beloved Mallingford and Little Snoring Junction Railway (or something along those lines) and its elegant livery to the monolithic LMS, and stating categorically that the railways would never again hold any interest to him. It seems that all enthusiasts who witness a fundamental change in the railways consider the old order superior. I certainly look back at the sectorised era of British Rail and think how much better a national quality intercity brand and integrated network throughout London and the South East were compared with today's hotchpotch. But however much better aspects of the past might always have been throughout history, I don't think going backwards through an endless slide of nostalgia would solve much. After all, where would we stop - the good old days when locos were a proud canary yellow, their elegant tall white chimneys finished with a decorative crown, the driver wore a top hat and tails, and there was none of this sissy modern rubbish with roofs and cushions?

 

What I like about the corporate BR blue is that it created a new image that was not a throwback to steam but specifically designed for diesel and electric trains. Admittedly, the first version of the loco livery was too severely simple, and plain blue suburban carriages were rather austere. It took the introduction of the large logo variant, enlivened with more yellow and lighter roofs, and the use of intercity blue and grey on refurbished coaches for it to really come into its own. By comparison with today, it's not just the unified image across the entire network which I find attractive, but that the integrity of the livery tended to be better maintained compared with the horrible combinations of remnants of three or four different liveries which can be seen on some units now.

 

The double arrow logo was introduced nearly fifty years ago in 1964, and more than a decade after it ceased to be promoted by any of the railway companies, it remains nationally recognised as the symbol for railways. It's arguably more widely recognised than the logos of the European companies which remain nationalised. If you look at Google Earth, stations in Britain are marked with a bright red double arrow, whereas those in France and Germany have a bland traffic sign style pictogram of a train, rather than the SNCF or DB logos. And it still looks like a high quality piece of contemporary design, that sits well even on the most space age of computer renderings for new station projects.

That quality and longevity cannot be held of any of the big four or British Railways logos which preceded it, and certainly not of the privatised ones which are its successors. It is arguably only exceeded by the London Transport Roundel, introduced over a century ago in 1908 and recognised worldwide as the symbol for underground railways.

 

Paul

[Steadfast]

I thnk my main reason for my dislike of a BR blue is the dull monotony of absolutely everything being dull blue. As Paul has said large logo really did improve things, an on a 37 looks rather tidy IMO. Sectorisation, for me, seems the most interesting era of BR aesthetically, as you still have the variety of traction, though mixed with livery variety too, and in that variety were some stonking liveries. Intercity swallow, Mmmm... And now for something completely different:

Kestrel style livery applied to my favourite Brush product, the class 60. Should a fleet refurb ever happen, paint the testbed like this?

So, Europorte have got GBRf. They have a relatively large fleet in original style GBRf blue and orange, the barbie liveried stuff could be done with orange cab wrap vinyls, with full repaints only needed for the 92s. GBRf is an existing and successful brand, so why not stick with it? Stranger things have happened...

cheers

 

jo

[Leicester Thumper]

It's not a matter of agreeing or otherwise. I'm just remembering how it seemed to me and my friends at the time. We were in our early 'teens.

As I remember it, there were adults who were glad of the changes too. The prospect of travelling on cleaner trains in a more modern future and all that.... ?

Some future though! I can also remember the sense of decay and filth on our railways in the 70's and 80's. It turned out to be an unfulfilled promise?

 

 

sorry i did overlook that

 

and yes thats something i go with too, the fact we had some 'stonking' good liveries as ewsjo stated. one of my 'coporate blue' favourites is the 1977 Jubille union jack variant on the class 47's now that definitely broke the mould, yes it was for a state celebration, but it did break up that mundane blue.

[coachmann]

It seems that all enthusiasts who witness a fundamental change in the railways consider the old order superior.

All this shows is the writer never experienced the 'old order'. One only has to looks at what the LMS was building for the third class passenger in 1935....A corridor coach with comfortable seats, control over heating, a lamp above every seat and the a wall covering of empire veneers. This standard of travel was the norm for LMR travellers on mainline journeys right up to circa 1966. Notthing built since even compares.

Then there were the non-corridor coaches that most people probably commuted in to work. The seats were adequate for the short journeys and of course we travelled in virtual silence. The new DMU knocked minutes off journey times, but the trade off was uncomfortable bus type seats plus noise and vibration from the underfloor engines.

 

Sadly for us plebs, there was such a surplus of DMU's by 1966 that these noisy cramped bone shakers were put on longer distance journeys for which they were unsuited. I was living in Wales by this time and the standard of travel being offered to rail travellers by then simply lead me to buying a car.

 

We've experienced a better way of doing things, its as simple as that. Today my wife and I love travelling from Carrog into Llangollen in a Mk.I corridor compartment coach and so we too have accepted dumbing down as an inevitable fact of life. But the cars and roads have gotten better!

 

Apologies for the diversion....I'll have to create a photoshopping now I suppose.

[Ron Ron Ron]

Well you know what they say Larry. Nostalgia ain't wot it used to be .

[frobisher]

I thnk my main reason for my dislike of a BR blue is the dull monotony of absolutely everything being dull blue. As Paul has said large logo really did improve things, an on a 37 looks rather tidy IMO.

 

Thing was at the time there was quite a reaction against the gaudy large logo livery as it was being introduced (people don't like change in general). That was very much "my era" when I was paying most attention to things around me. Me and my friends definately thought that Large Logo, especially as applied to the 50s, lacked any subtlety and refinement, though it rapidly became a good way to distinguish the refurbs from the unrefurbs (beyond the giveaway headlight...).

 

After the event, Large Logo has somewhat grown on me as a livery but I hated it at the time, and I'm with you on its application to 37s, provided it has a stag or a wee dog on it as well

 

The blues weren't actually that dull in practice. You'd find that named locos (which were comparitively rare) were generally kept well cleaned so were quite shiny (the 86s and 87s always seemed to be kept clean in my recollection of the time in contrast to the 85s), plus you'd have the odd variants on Rail Blue around like the white window surrounds on the FP Deltics, and some 33/1s.

 

Though granted, all over blue on suburban units really did look and get quite grotty, and the campaign of repaints into Blue Grey around 1980 for the units in Southern Region really did make them look shiny and new again (until you got inside...).

[coachmann]

Class 67 in the white and gold livery carried by BRC&W 'Lion'....

[stewartingram]

That 92028 reminds me of the old Triang Transcontinental loco for some strange reason!

[Leicester Thumper]

Class 67 in the white and gold livery carried by BRC&W 'Lion'....

 

Reminds me of a Rolls Royce

 

That does look good, IMO that silver would be better looking on the royal train Locos.

[Trainshed Terry]

That 92028 reminds me of the old Triang Transcontinental loco for some strange reason!

 

Thinking about it you are right, I thought that it looked familiar.

 

Terry

[coachmann]

BR Blue Brit, to suit corporate blue era, if steam had run its course......

 

[Rhydgaled]

I'm not really old enough to remember BR very well, and didn't see that much of it when it was still around, but from what I do remember (and mainly photographs and models) they did come up with some great liveries for modern image stock (steam wise I perfer some of the big 4's liveries). Having all the stock in BR blue with little variety does sound like it would get boring, although I was not around to see that for myself. INTERCITY Swallow has to be one of my favorites but I like many liveries (even a few from the currunt era of frequent livery changes) when they are applied to the right stock. The design of some types of stock (mostly types made since BR shut-up shop) can make making them look smart difficult, for example I tried putting the smart WAG Express livery on a 175 in Photoshop and it refuses to look smart.

 

Anyway, a photoshop, I felt Wrexham and Shropshire's silver DVTs could sit a little better with the blue&grey passenger stock so I modified it a bit:

Original image by Oxyman, Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike License

Of course W&SMR later introduced matching silver Mrk3s, explaining the livery on the DVTs and 67s.

[S.A.C Martin]

BR Blue Brit, to suit corporate blue era, if steam had run its course......

 

 

Gorgeous. My favourite livery on the brit - beautiful! Thanks Larry for posting that one. B)

 

Can we convince Jeremy Hosking to paint Brittania like that for an april fools one year, perhaps?

[SRman]

The BR blue really does sit well on the Britannia. Very nice.

[Arpster]

Whilst on the theme of modern locomotives in Kestrel and Lion colour schemes, would anybody be able to have a go at seeing what Kestrel would look like in Rail Blue or Railfreight liveries, as if it had gone into production for BR?

 

Cheers,

 

Arp

[Burkitt]

Based on a photograph by Neil Marshall published under the Creative Commons Attribution License. Modified image copyright Paul Burkitt-Gray.

Had the campaign to save the Brighton Belle, backed by many celebrities of the day, succeeded in its goal, how long would they have stayed in service? Unit 403052 awaits its fate after replacement in 1990 with new trains based on the class 442.

Paul

[43009]

How about the loco hauled for Chiltern Railways livery on the DVT, 67 & MK3 Coaches complate with the Chiltern Railways logos

[Leicester Thumper]

sounds redicuulous but where can i obtain photoshop from?

[backwaterscotland]

sounds redicuulous but where can i obtain photoshop from?

 

You could try Amazon or PC world. There are two main versions - Photoshop is the full package and is expensive, Photoshop Elements is a slightly reduced version which suits most people and is a lot cheaper at around £60.

 

Andy B)

[AMJ]

My slide and negative scanner was supplied with Photoshop Elements - so you might even be able to get it 'free' with something else.

 

That Brighton Belle looks different in NSE. Hate to imagine what it would look like if the stock had been cascaded onto other services and gained some of the hideous modern liveries.

[Leicester Thumper]

You could try Amazon or PC world. There are two main versions - Photoshop is the full package and is expensive, Photoshop Elements is a slightly reduced version which suits most people and is a lot cheaper at around £60.

 

Andy B)

 

 

My slide and negative scanner was supplied with Photoshop Elements - so you might even be able to get it 'free' with something else.

 

That Brighton Belle looks different in NSE. Hate to imagine what it would look like if the stock had been cascaded onto other services and gained some of the hideous modern liveries.

 

Thanks Chaps, shall look about for it, then that way i can do my own photoshops, and have some decent photo editing software

 

Thanks again,

Bruce.

[Hammer]

Thanks Chaps, shall look about for it, then that way i can do my own photoshops, and have some decent photo editing software

 

Thanks again,

Bruce.

 

Unless you really are desperate to part with the best part of £200, then you might as well give GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) a go instead. Same idea, but free. Can be downloaded from www.gimp.org.

[Flying Pig]

That Brighton Belle looks different in NSE. Hate to imagine what it would look like if the stock had been cascaded onto other services and gained some of the hideous modern liveries.

Wouldn't it be operated by Southern, whose current livery looks rather good, at least on an Electrostar? It might suit the boxy 5Bel rather less well of course, but probably no worse than NSE which never looked right on the older units to me.

 

Paul - any chance of Southern Trains and perhaps jaffa-cake on the Brighton Belle? I'd try myself, but I found the source image you used and I'm very impressed that you managed to make anything of it - it's well beyond me!

[Ron Ron Ron]

That Brighton Belle looks different in NSE. Hate to imagine what it would look like if the stock had been cascaded onto other services and gained some of the hideous modern liveries.

Not all modern liveries are hideous; a few are actually quite good IMHO (e.g. as Flying Pig says...Southern).

You couldn't get more hideous than NSE.

 

 

 

[Leicester Thumper]

Unless you really are desperate to part with the best part of £200, then you might as well give GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) a go instead. Same idea, but free. Can be downloaded from www.gimp.org.

 

Am Trying to use it now!

 

edit: its not going well though....