Seeing this beauty sweep past the bottom of the garden the other day made me wonder about what other historic liveries would bring a smile to a Curbivore.
It’s a 6,500hp class 91 electric locomotive, designed and engineered for the electrification of the East Coast Main Line from London to the North and Edinburgh by GEC (that’s the (British) General Electric Company, now dispersed and defunct, and not the unrelated American GE) and built in British Rail’s own workshops at Crewe (founded in 1840). They have an unusual asymmetric design, with a streamlined cab at one end and a blunt vertical one at the other, which matches the profile and styling of the Mark 4 coaches they haul.
Nominally capable of 140mph but restricted by signalling capacity to 125mph, 31 entered service in 1989-91, and they have hauled the premier express trains of a succession of operators on the route ever since, most recently London North Eastern Railway. In 1989, one achieved 162mph – still a British record. But now they are beginning to fade away as the new LNER Azumas (Hitachi multiple units, built at a new factory in County Durham) take over – the 91s were the last British express passenger locomotive, and deserve a CC for that alone.
To mark their passing, LNER has restored no 91119 to the original British Rail InterCity livery of 1991-96. The loco was also named Bounds Green after the London depot that maintained them and is now closing as the new units sweep the 91s (and the East Coast’s HSTs) away. And it looks superb.
Other British train operators have done similar things of late. Great Western repainted HST power car no 43002 – the second of the production series of this magnificent vehicle – in BR’s 1976 colours for its last couple of years of operation.
43002 was named to honour Sir Kenneth Grange, designer of the iconic power car’s nosecone, and Great Western made sure it was the last HST to leave London Paddington, when the Western’s HSTs headed to the roundhouse in the sky in May this year – although 43002 will live on at the National Railway Museum, and deservedly so.
Classmate 43185 Great Western was also treated to a special look, with the same BR InterCity livery as 91119. She powered the penultimate HST from Paddington
Similarly, suburban operator Southern Railway painted the last of the 1977 built class 313 electric multiple units into original BR blue and grey colours for its last year.
And even the rubbish Pacer has got in on the act, in a typically underwhelming but for once in the Pacer story very welcome way!
Across the Atlantic, Union Pacific were the first of the American railroads to present modern diesels in heritage paint schemes, with these magnificent six in 2005. Units were painted not in precise copies of historic schemes, but in a ‘New Mini’ version – how the predecessor railroads might have looked if they hadn’t been swept into UP but had continued to develop their own styles, and with the slogan ‘Proud History – Powerful Future’. Stunning.
This is no 1983, for the Western Pacific
And 1989, for the Rio Grande – best of the lot, I think
And 1995, for Chicago and North Western.
And 1996, representing the Southern Pacific. The numbers assigned to these units represent the year the ancestor joined UP.
And, in 2012, Norfolk Southern followed, painting 20 new units in meticulously researched and applied liveries of ‘fallen flag’ predecessors, including such names as Delaware Lackawanna, Erie, Lehigh Valley, Nickel Plate, Pennsylvania, Southern, Wabash and others, right up to Conrail.
Here’s the New Jersey Central.
And the Reading.
And the Norfolk and Western.
And New York Central.
And it isn’t just trains. British Airways celebrated the centenary of its oldest ancestor, Aircraft Transport and Travel Limited, which operated the first scheduled international air passenger service in the world between London and Paris, by repainting four jets – an Airbus 319 and three 747s – in historic schemes from its own past and from predecessors BOAC and BEA.
They do look pretty special, especially coming into Seattle.
And the BEA Airbus looks very smart.
American Airlines has a programme similar to NS – predecessor schemes on modern jets. Here’s TWA.
And even tiny Aer Lingus have had a go, with this very traditional looking scheme on a 737
And, finally, Jetblue, founded in 1988, has a retro livery, showing what its designers think a 1965 Jetblue would have looked like. I guess this is the ‘Reverse New Mini’ approach.
And they have this one too, honouring the New York Fire Department.
These planes and trains are all out there working in the real world, earning their keep alongside their conventionally painted brethren.
So, the QOTD is – who and what should be next?
But it’s a Trick Question. We all know that the livery we want to see come back is the Santa Fe Warbonnet.
Obviously.
How right you are! I thought of the Santa Fe warbonnet before even opening the full article.
When it comes to airliners, American Airlines lightning bolt is my favorite.
You SO beat me to that one, except I was going to post a picture of a 707 rather than a DC-8… Wait a minute… that’s not a DC-8. Is that a Convair 990?
990 it is.
At least at one time in the fairly recent past American Airlines did have a 737-800 in the “Astrojet” livery, as it’s officially known.
I attached a picture to that post; I don’t know why it’s not showing up. Let’s try again…
Edit: Nope, not showing up on this post either.
Reduce the size of the picture… that would help. I’d love to see a modern seven-three with that livery!
Trying once more with a smaller image… Bingo!
Awesome! I was actually looking for that livery specifically. It has the “A-Eagle-A” Logo on the rear stabilizer.
Funny Story: As a little kid of about 4 or so in 1964, my Dad would take me out to Friendship Airport (BWI) to watch planes from the observation deck. That is what I called that airline! A PanAm sighting was always special too. 😀
I saw one of the AA Heritage liveries at the airport, the Allegheny Airlines one, and I think they look fantastic in person, very different from the rest of the blah out there on the tarmac.
The RCAF used a similar double lightning bolt design from the 1950s. Canadair CL-2 North Star pictured
Totally agree. Especially nice on a CV990. This scheme carried over from the prop days. It is better than the evolutionary lightning bolt scheme that followed.
On the rail side I’d lie to see the SP Daylight scheme on a modern passenger train
The SP daylight was the best livery ever.
Also the SP “bloody nose” livery
Finally, as a former New Yorker I miss the modernist simplicity of Conrail Blue, although Norfolk Southern has occasionally revived it as shown here
One more comment on airplanes, then off to the railroad liveries…
Your picture of the American Airlines 737 (N915NN) in TWA livery freaked me out one day leaving work here in Columbia Maryland. Planes fly fairly low over here sometimes when lining up on Runway One-Zero at BWI.
That very plane flew over extremely low (lower than the 2000 or so feet above ground level that they usually use on approach). It was banked pretty steep on a right turn (most likely from Right Base to Final) and I got to see that livery close up. What first caught my attention was the TWA on the tail. I did not see the American logo above the cheat line on the fuselage and then lost sight of it it in the trees. I thought I was seeing things.
As to trains, I’d love to see this classic rolling along again… A Brunswick Green 5-Stripe Pennsylvania Railroad GG1….
I also like its Tuscan Red sibling, but I see that NS did that. Somehow it just doesn’t look the same on a diesel like that…
…wait, that’s not a sibling, it’s the same locomotive. I suppose it was repainted along the way.
New Jersey Transit has released a set of “Heritage” locomotives too, including one in PRR Tuscan Red, but the esthetics of these modern locomotives is a bit, uh, challenged!
Photo from TRAINS Magazine
Count me as another sentimental fan of the old Pennsylvania Railroad. I got a few overnight rides on that one as a boy. I still have a deck of playing cards with the old Pensy logo on them.
As always thank you for the informative article and if that first picture is the bottom of your garden you are one incredibly lucky man to have that view every day!
I’m surprised how Los Angeles has been revitalizing so much of their old streetcar right of ways they haven’t brought back the iconic Pacific Electric “red car” livery for the modern trams.
I should have included the historic street cars of San Francisco which are painted in their original colours from across the US
I liked the elegant graphic design used by Trans-Canada Airlines, predecessor to Air Canada.
Heathrow, September 1954.
This picture brings back some (photographic) memories. My maternal grandfather’s first and only flight was a short hop from Montreal to Ottawa on Trans-Canada Airlines in 1956, to visit his daughter (my mom) and his newest grandson (me). This was the only time I ever met my grandfather, and indeed any of my grandparents (the others having died well before I was born).
This flight was on his bucket list, and he passed away a few months later. This trip was probably the first time he took a real vacation from his work as a pharmacist, at age 78.
The picture below shows his plane arriving at Uplands Airport in Ottawa. Back in 1956, our entire family could stand on the tarmac to greet him as he disembarked, and my dad took a family picture on the tarmac at the arrival gate with my mom and my siblings. Try that in 2019! That’s a 3-year-old me in my sister’s arms.
According to vickersviscount.net this particular plane, TC-TGJ, a Vickers-Armstrong VC2 Viscount, was built in 1954 in Weybridge, Surrey, England and powered by Rolls-Royce Dart 506 engines.
On 10 July 1957, TCA issued instructions that all Viscounts would be repainted in a ‘White Top’ livery (as per Daniel’s first picture above) when a suitable maintenance period became available.
TCA retired the plane in 1964, and its carcass was last seen in a grassy field in the Democratic Republic on Congo in 2017.
Thanks for the great information and photos Louis. 🙂
The National Aviation Museum in Ottawa (CFB Rockliffe) had an unrestored Vickers Viscount in Trans-Canada Airlines livery, in their outdoor static display for decades.
Didn’t AC paint a couple of their planes recently in this livery? I could swear I saw one on the tarmac at Pearson.
Indeed, BunkerMan. It looked lovely.
Automotive-related, I liked the graphic branding SuperTest a Canadian-based petroleum company, used for their gas stations and products from their inception in 1920s through the early 1970s.
This was the brand look and feel SuperTest used for their stations in the mid-1960s. I remember as a young kid in the 70s, various stations still retained this design and architect look.
They had a simple job to do with the retro War Bonnet pain job and they screwed it up in multiple ways.
The retro American Airlines Astrojet looked fantastic. There of course is a reason why airplanes used to be mostly their actual aluminum color: a lot cheaper in the first place and a couple hundred pounds lighter, saving a bit of fuel with each flight. But is that a plane with carbon fiber bits? Did they have to paint those parts silver?
As I understand it while the bare aluminum saved a bit of fuel, it cost more to maintain because it required regular polishing to prevent corrosion. So in terms of overall cost to the airline it was pretty much a wash, no pun intended.
Back when AA still used the bare metal livery they mostly painted the carbon fiber parts gray. Go look at a photo of a 777 from when they still had the bare metal, for example. You’ll notice the tail is painted gray.
Boeing uses alclad skins on metal airplanes. There is a layer of pure aluminum bonded to the stronger alloy. It takes a polish beautifully. Airbus does not, so you have never seen a polished Airbus. American now has a mixed fleet, including composite aircraft, so they are all painted a pearl gray to “simulate” silver. I dont care for it.
Odd historical note, Continental had Convair gold anodize the skins on one of its planes. Since the process was uneven, it looked kind of like a checkerboard. They had to settle for a gold painted vertical tail.
American had A300s with polished metal:
https://www.airliners.net/photo/American-Airlines/Airbus-A300B4-605R/5492167
American’s A300s first appeared in painted grey. They were refinished in bare aluminum later.
Yeah, but that was because some parts were carbon fiber and had to be painted, and AA thought it would look better if the entire plane was painted one color rather than some parts painted and some parts polished. IIRC Airbus was the first civil aircraft manufacturer to make extensive use of carbon fiber. Apparently someone decided the gray paint didn’t look good, so they switched to a polished fuselage with a gray painted tail to match the rest of the fleet at some point. It had nothing to do with the metal alloy Airbus used and it’s definitely not true that there’s never been a polished Airbus.
When American acquired the A300’s from PanAm, they painted them gray. That is what I read in Aviation Week. Not that 2000 series aluminum cannot be polished, but it is less corrosion resistant than alclad. Having a lot of carbon parts makes the polished one look a bit odd anyway. Other than this one AA example, what other Airbus aircraft were done in a polished livery?
I really like the old United Airlines “rainbow” paint scheme from the 1970s/1980s with the “tulip” on the tail. Also, the “battleship” scheme from the 1990s. I also Like Delta’s “widget” scheme from the late 1960s through the 1990s.
I’m surprised so many people seem to like the United “battleship” livery. That’s one of my least favorite. It always just seemed very drab and dull to me, kind of like the “grey scale” car colors we like to complain about. Although all my experiences with that livery were in the early 2000s, and by that time most of their planes were looking pretty faded.
One of my favorites, though is United’s “rising blue” scheme that came after that one.
I have 3 favorites. The Astrojet and Warbonnet liveries which have already been mentioned, and last but not least, the “Pepsi Can” livery applied to Amtrak’s new GE P32-8BWH locomotives in 1990. This livery was gone in just a few short years. Which was too bad, because maybe the Pepsi Can livery could have made even the Genesis locomotives look good – or maybe not.
Wardair promo shot, sometime in the 70s I assume. Wardair was acquired by Canadian Airlines in 1989, which was subsequently bought out by Air Canada, if memory serves me correctly.
My first ever flight was on a Wardair 747 in 1975, Toronto to Amsterdam. Since Wardair only had four 747s by 1980 (thanks, Wikipedia), this could be the actual plane.
It was a wonderful first flight. Wardair was a charter airline, with no preassigned seating, and just one class. Having arrived rather early for the flight, our small group was offered seating on the upper deck. Fantastic! It was like a private jet with fewer than 20 seats, a bar at one end, and a large semi-circular sofa at the other. Excellent service, food and drink. Real glasses, plates and cutlery (yes, including metal knives…).
Sad to say, my subsequent flying experience was mostly downhill from there (figuratively speaking, of course).
I like this old Air Canada paint scheme from the 1970s. This is in front of the old Terminal 1 in Toronto, since demolished in favour of new terminal construction.
Nice choice. The flat black nose paint in front of the cockpit made them readily identifiable. Something they featured for decades before.
The Dreamliner looks good in virtually any livery, but I happened to snap an Air Canada version this year.
Beautiful shot! I like how they retained the cockpit window surround blackening. The terminal lighting reflecting in the sky, adds a science fiction quality to the image.
Growing up in Pennsylvania, I rode trains as a kid behind those red Pennsy engines, but they were tired EMD E units pulling whatever was left of their red fleet in the 60’s. My parents used to put me on a train by myself as a barely school age lad to go to my grandparent’s place at the other end of the state (imagine doing that now!). At their stop I was often the only passenger but the whole train stopped to let me off and the conductor would help me with my bag like I was an adult, perhaps because I’d behaved so the whole way.
Later, running freight on that same line as an engineer, a set of of E-units pulling the Conrail company train rushed toward me out of the fog one morning, track speed was 90 and they were doing every bit of it as they went by. Just a few seconds engraved in memory, whoosh.
Far as airplanes, not that the TWA scheme is my absolute favorite, but rows of Super Constellations at Pittsburgh airport entranced me even more than the huge Calder mobile did, although over the years I have always taken a moment to look it over like an old friend. The red and gold over white and those triple tails hinted about a sophistication and future I sensed but could not grasp at the time, then they (and that sense) were gone.
Southern Pacific’s Black Widow scheme…
Chicago and Northwestern livery on the Union Pacific North commuter line out of Chicago. Car 553, the only private commuter car left in the country
I might add that as far as Santa Fe, some of the Southern Pacific old timers still complained about the blocked merger with ATSF. For a while they were getting paychecks with ATSF on them, even.
Later, working on BNSF as a contractor, I found that the BN maintenance guys and the ATSF maintenance guys did not necessarily work well together, very different cultures between the north midwest and southwest.
Might have been a very different scheme going forward had that merger completed.
Somewhere I have a photo of my 1964 Dodge pickup posed in front of a Santa Fe freight depot in New Mexico, engines idling in the background, during my first trip out west. Slant six, column 3 and a 3.23 posi made for a nice cross-country drive.
Went there years later to try to help an incompetent shortline save itself, later BNSF took it back after too many fatalities under that regime. One of their incidents involved a crew running through the night; the conductor stepped out to the rear unit for something and disappeared. Near Roswell, so maybe he’s flying for Trans Mars Airways now.
The legend about Santa Fe paying Southern Pacific employees is true. Santa Fe owned the SP railroad in trust after the merger was disapproved…SP’s nonrailroad assets were merged…so was responsible for the bills and expenses until the railroad was sold to Denver and Rio Grande Western.
The classic Northwest Airlines logo: it’s an “N”! It’s a “W”! It’s a compass pointing to the northwest!
When I was going to seminary in Pennsylvania, Northwest livery–the red tail, in particular–always signaled “home.” (I’m from Fargo, N.D.)
That is one neat logo!
I do love the BEA livery. I’m also a fan of the New Haven’s McGinnis livery. The livery of the Northern Pacific’s North Coast Limited is another that stands out.
I miss the original orange TGVs. They’re mostly gray now, which looks more anonymous.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Boeing_747-123%2C_United_Airlines_AN1045539.jpg?1571877944193
My father worked for United Airlines at O’hare from the early 60’s to around 1984 so this is the livery I grew up with and loved dearly.
The proud bird with the golden tail.
As much as I loved the DC-10, I never got to fly on one. I worked in Manufacturing Operations at a company where we made LRU’s for these. Always felt a special connection to these birds.
That’s me and the MD-11. i managed the build of large chunks of the interior and only one i went on was on the ramp at Long Beach
Here you go everybody. Knock yourself out:
http://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/12/24/business/airplane-livery.html?_r=0
klm
Livery inception:
I like just about all of the AT&SF and BNSF historic liveries.
But living here on I-40 in NM with railroad running along side the interstate much of the way I see those liveries quite a bit.
(And oh the irony that the main line never went through Santa Fe proper)
The Metrobuses that criss-cross the Washington DC and nearby suburbs in Maryland and Virginia have been white or silver with red and blue trim almost as long as I can remember – almost – but I have faint recollection of them once being a pale green. I could find only a few photos of such buses online but the one in front here looks exactly as I remembered it (though I’d forgotten about the “Air Conditioned” callout that once graced seemingly every bus, theatre, and motel). This photo was taken at an event called a “Bus Rodeo” a few years ago where they showed off their old bus stock to the public – never heard of this but would go to the next one if it happens.
I have fond memories of riding on the Auto-Train in the 1970s before it became an Amtrak subsidiary, with our ’66 Dodge wagon along for the ride. Very ’70s logo, all lower case, which I remember well because I bought an A-T deck of cards that I had for the next 20 years or so.
That BOAC plane would send me into a serious time warp if I saw it touch down at the landing strip in 2019.
Speaking of buses – I loved the old Toronto Transit Commission colours. A bus that I loved was one that ran up and down the street outside my bedroom window on Runnymede Rd. It had such a distinctive sound, and smell, and I would gaze out my window as a kid of kindergarten age to watch for these. I’m pretty sure these were GM made, and dated back to the 1940s, but I could be wrong. I loved Toronto President’s Committee streetcars as well.
Martinair
Victorian Railways (State of Victoria, Australia). Beautiful royal blue with yellow detailing, right up to early ’80’s.
Below, streamlined 1930’s “Spirit of Progress” intercity poster illustration. (Btw, these gorgeous and quick locally manufactured 3-cyl 4-6-2 locos were scrapped for local EMD F7 GM diesel copies by early 1954, having only been introduced in late 1937. Outrageous).
Great topic!
There’s some of this going on in the truck freight world too.
I’m voting for UPS, because they never strayed to begin with. LoL
The Warbonnet is #1, and when I want a fix, I watch this video.
I should very much like to see a few LNER Azumas acknowledging the Gresley glory days – Garter Blue (with matching rake), Silver Link silver, and Apple Green with mock teak carriages.
Malachite Green on Southern electrics would be nice too!
This airliner and livery is my favorite. This was the first plane I ever flew on
I like this livery way better than American’s current one.
My last ride on a Boeing 727 like that was in 2001, with that very livery. It was a substitute for the 757 we were supposed to fly on that day, but there was a mechanical issue. It was great having an old Tarmac Classic like that one step in and save the day!
When I was a kid, the 727 was my favorite plane. Getting a last ride in one was quite special.
And the new font for the American logotype isn’t Helvetica. Pure blasphemy, I say!
The PanAm logo and livery have to be on this list somewhere. It symbolized the jet age (and its initial glamour) for many years.
I have to agree, especially the exact one you have pictured there, and even gave it an honorable mention when I commented above on being a 4 year old plane spotter at Friendship Airport (BWI) back in 1964 when you would’ve see a 707 painted like that one. The later liveries we’re ok, but this one, especially on the 707 was Pan Am’s best, IMHO.
I also liked TWA’s livery for the 707 back then; in fact my first plane ride ever was on one of those at 14 in 1974.
I always liked the cheat line at the windows on the painted planes, but preferred it below the windows (like the American livery in my first posted pic) on the bare metal planes.
Just personal preferences, YMMV. 😉
Didn’t know Bounds Green was closing. Full of life last time I was there!
Probably the original HST blue and yellow fading to blue and grey over the length of the train. The power car only in traditional colours with modern carriages doe snot work for me. Preferably with the BR twin arrow logo too.
And remind me, we don’t see all of your garden in that first photo do we?
Steam locomotives, with all the soot, needed to be primarily flat black. With diesels, flat black paint was no longer necessary and colorful paint jobs were more practical. Just an observation.
One more. I’d really like to see this back on the sides of a few London buses.
Only one livery matters: The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Warbonnet! End of story. Period!
Second thought: On aircraft, TWA.