Railway Liveries - Some good, some not so

To a rail enthusiast like me this is an important matter, to everyone else maybe not, but here goes anyway.

A Class 777 EMU in Merseyrail livery

 

On balance I don’t like the Merseyrail livery on their new(ish) and sadly rather unreliable Class 777 EMU’s. I feel that an opportunity was lost and at little extra cost batches of these new trains could have been vinyl wrapped in the various previous iterations of former BR and Mersey Railway trains of the now Merseyrail Network. Having them all look the same, well, it’s boring and unimaginative.

The draft GBR livery

 

So, what about the proposed Great British Railways draft livery? Well, it seems to have gone down badly. Yes, it’s striking but is it a good livery? Probably not. It’s clearly based on a stylised Union flag, although whether that’s intended to be a nationalistic nod to the current fashion of roundabout painting is not clear.

Apart from British Airways using a different 1980’s stylised version of the Union flag on their planes, much to the disgust of former PM Thatcher (who famously covered up a BA model plane tail fin with her handkerchief) I’d say that jingoist liveries are actually rather un-British.

If I had to point to a rail liveries I do like then Trans Pennine Express, LNER and ScotRail come to mind:-

Trans Pennine Express at Berwick-on-Tweed

 

ScotRail & LNER together at Edinburgh Waverley

 

As I said at the start of this ramble through modern-day railway liveries this subject may be what amounts to a nerdy matter to many folk who just want our rather unreliable railways to run on time without the oh so expected cancellations. I too want reliable trains but I want them to look well too. 

With regard to Merseyrail there was a clear opportunity to celebrate the railways and their liveries that came before the present Merseyrail Class 777's so, as a heritage inclined person, I really do point to a missed opportunity.

 

Robbie Fenton RIP – A great former local councillor

 

 

My friend Robbie Fenton died last Saturday, she was 84 and had been in poor health for quite a long time. She passed away in Lakeside Care Home in Southport where I visited her in her final weeks. I must say that the care home staff were really great, welcoming and caring during my visits.

Robbie was born in Maghull (on Northway, if I recall correctly), went to Ormonde High Secondary Modern School (now Maghull High) from the day it opened (September 1954) and lived for all the years I knew her on Haigh Crescent in neighbouring Lydiate. She participated in the formal opening ceremony of Ormonde High a year later in 1955 and a while back showed me the pamphlet produced about that notable event.

Whilst she was well, helping others was in Robbie’s blood so it’s no surprise that she spent many years on our local councils – Maghull Town Council, Lydiate Parish Council (both with her husband Tony who died a couple of years ago) and Sefton Borough Council – Park Ward (1997 – 2012).

What I noticed most about Robbie in her council days was how she’d be like a terrier trying to resolve problems brought to her attention. She wasn’t one for writing letters or sending emails but wanted to speak to people and council officials directly on the phone. She was persistent too, yet the council officers she pushed along seemed to like her, as did the residents she tried to help.

 

She campaigned for an improved health centre in Maghull; sadly a campaign that is still to be won. She battled to try to stop the closure of Lydiate Ambulance Station and of course she tried to defend the Green Belt around Maghull & Lydiate, but it was the small everyday matters that were Robbie’s bread and butter – pot holes, overgrown trees, uncut grass, litter etc. where her terrier-like approach usually got the job done.

 

I’ll miss my chats with Robbie. In her latter years I would stop and talk to her a couple of times each week whilst on my daily cycle rides. She would always ask after other folk whom we both knew and she clearly worried about those in poor health or difficult circumstances.