The overall view from various on-line sources is that Stagecoach's "new look" is a PR diasaster along the lines of Consignia (Remember?).
Comments include: too much white, easily mucky in bad weather; weak colours; coach looks like a school bus etc etc. One brave soul posted that "he quite liked it" but he was very much in the minority.
Another surprise is First's big batch of gas buses due to hit the streets of Bristol later this month.
The scheme appears to be almost all over maroon ...
... with just a selelction of text. No drawings, no diagonal lines, no swirls, no clever logos. The only itern of graphic interest is the gas " bubbles" at the back.
Apparently this is a Ray Stenning job but seems to fall well short of "Creating Desire". Maybe the vision is of distinguished quality rather than garish vistual.
Hmmm!
Apparrently the Electric Red livery for new buses in Salisbury it to be univerally applied ...
... and very smart it looks on a decker.
Such a pity that Sonic has to cheapen the image!
But Back To 1969-ish
Sir Frederick Wood (then known a Freddie) ...
... who died in 2003, was the boss of the National Bus Company and it was all about a national National brand. A twitterer has recently posted some pictures of the NBC "corporate identity" manual, designed to ensure that a consistent image was projected locally and nationally.
It was a thick book!
It covered permitted colours ...
... and livery application to different classes of vehicle as here with "dual purpose" motors.
It was very thorough and death and destruction would be the consequence of any deviation. fbb remembers a couple of stories (maybe apocryphal?) which were doing the rounds as he started his teaching career in Sheffield.
One was that East Midland were so disgusted about having to toe the party line and say good corporate riddance to their quality maroon ...
... (First in Bristol maybe has similar qualitative ideas?), that the leaf green option was chosen in protest.
A far nicer livery than either of them was the historic brown and cream with black roof.
It looked superb on "heritage" liveried vehicles.
Meanwhile, just down the road, Midland General started painting its buses in National Bus Company blue.
It is not clear, looking back, whether this was a local management decision or one made higher up in the company; but it was rumoured that when Freddie heard if it he threw a wobbly of nuclear proportions! Midland General came under common management with Trent and it was not long before poppy red became the norm.
A national brand has its benefits, but buses are, above all, a local product and various marketing projects soon began to modify and then obliterate the corporate identitiy.
L'Identité D'Entreprise Etait Autrefois Orange
Remember the early TGV in France?
Like the UKs "Farewell" heritage repaint for the HST, we read this in a French periodical.
Superbe!
Hornby Goes Big With Harry Potter
The iconic model railway company has pulled many surprising cats out of a whole range of bags to celebrate its 100th Birthday.
Confused.com? Surely Hornby have a significant range of OO gauge Harry Potter models?
Yes, that's it. 4mm to the foot scale with a track gauge of 16.5mm - all very standard. The loco is a red painted "Castle" class and comes with two mark 1 coaches, also in maroon.
But the topmost advert is for Gauge 1 (that's "one"). The scale is 10mm to the foot and the track gauge is just under 45mm. It is big - but is on offer at just £145.
But panic not, "serious" modellers. This ia an all-plastic toy, running on all plastic track, powered by batteries and driven by a simple radio controller. The models look fairly crude in detail ...
... but fbb is sure that some experienced modellers will be looking to enhance and improve the toys to form a starter for a weather proof outdoor garden railway.
1 gauge was pretty much the standard for serious modellers in the 1920s and still has many (wealthy!) adherents today.
What fun!
P.S. Blogger's spell checker has vanished. Apologies from fbb if he has missed any bklkudners!
P.S. Blogger's spell checker has vanished. Apologies from fbb if he has missed any bklkudners!
More Catch-up Blog ; Sunday 9th February
Not a "Castle" but 5972 "Olton Hall" - you were misled by Hornby themselves who've got it wrong on their website! (Castles have bigger wheels, a bigger boiler, curved steam-pipes and four cylinders).
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