Livery announcement

Liveries are always a controversial subject in the world of heritage railways, but we have an announcement to make! See below from Ian, our Head of Department...

At the PLC Board Meeting on 23 May, a proposal from C&W to adopt a carriage livery of either chocolate/cream or crimson/cream was agreed. The rationale for dropping our existing maroon livery in favour of crimson/cream is based on the following:

• Crimson/cream livery is proven to resist fading better than maroon
• The cost of finishing a carriage in crimson/cream is less expensive than finishing in maroon  
• When it is necessary to replace carriages in a rake either for operational reasons or as part of our long term project to achieve standard rake consists, a mixed rake of crimson/cream and chocolate/cream is visually more attractive

The re-painting of our existing maroon liveried fleet to crimson/cream will be undertaken over a number of years with carriages brought into the works to coincide with operational needs and availability of space in the Paintshop. Where possible, priority will be given to those vehicles whose maroon paintwork is in the worst condition. The cost of the undertaking this work will be met from C&W annual budget (i.e. no additional funding will be required).

Monday 1st July. Summer - Was That It?

 Back to layers to keep warm (but the young ones still in shorts!) Here Peter, Tim and David washing the Cotswold side of rake 2.

This week's interior pic is the SO (second Open) in rake 2, showing the 2 + 1 seating layout. It is a similar vehicle to this that is being upgraded to a FO (First Open). All mechanicals are the same for SO and FO, just the trimmings and table lights make the upgrade.

Long Tall Steve always takes advantage of his extra height and does many "extras", here he is cleaning the back of the station name board at Toddington.

I removed some marks from the exterior of the guards compartment in rake 1. Won't mention some of it obviously where a guard had emptied a coffee out of the window which didn't clear the bodywork. After that it was Ghostbuster in rake 2. Rich Ghostbusted rake 1, John did toilets (and spot mopping with the new spray mop) and busy on the rest of the internals were Greg, Jane, Kath, Lynn, Nigel, Roger C, Tim and Val. Greg, Lynn and Nigel also did mopping. 

Another good turnout of 14.