... Normally (?) Red, Green or Blue
Livery is a very subjective thing but originally paint was applied to protect the structure, A single colour gave identity and mostly it was red, green or, more rarely, blue. There were some unusual colours. Alexander Northern and Newcastle Corporation were yellow; West Bridgford and Maidstone councils used brown. One colour that was rare, became popular and faded into obscurity is ...
... guess what!
O ccasional
O bviously
O utstanding
O range
This fruity colour blog is not intended to be comprehensive, but it does attempt to chart the rise and fall of a distinctive colour for buses and trains.
Shamrock and Rambler coaches were orange ...
... and the colour found its way onto a Southern Vectis FLF!
Pennine Motors were half orange and very smart they looked ...
... but the big entry into citrus shades cane with S E L N E C PTE in the greater Manchester area.
The theory was that, in a line of parked buses, the orange stripes should be even and near continuous.
With the rebranding it all became Greater Manchester with more orange and of a richer saturation ...
... a shade maintained for the pre-privatisation GM Buses.
Next in line was Greater Glasgow PTE ...
... with double deckers enhanced by black round the lower deck windows. Interesting.
Perversely, the Seddons had a white stripe!
Both Manchester and Glasgow painted their trains in the same colours including the delightfully quaint "Subway".
The white stripe also gave relief to Cardiff Corporation's orange.
fbb thinks that Cardiff was the only operator to use the colour as part of a quirky pro-bus advertising campaign.
Later, in the privatized era, the orange was twinned with dark green ...
... but it was a minority tinge probably to satisfy the nostalgia freaks!
Oddly, the company called their colour Strathclyde RED.
In France the first, and thus the most exciting TGVs were mostly orange ...
... and it really did promote the brand!
Also promotionally distinct is the Irish Railways livery ...
... both complementing and highlighting the scenery of the Emerald Isle.
And. talking of orange and green, how about this non stylish effort for New World buses in Hong King.
And just to challenge us all, the Berlin Underground seems to have gone from orange (right) to yellow (left).
Ot would you have called the old livery "darker yellow"?
It's too much for fbb - he needs a drink!
Aaaah! Delicious!!
But you do wonder why orange has fallen out of favour. It would certainly stand out in a busy street and likewise along the leafy lanes of rural Britain.
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What's going on? A blog about CHRISTmas and the arrival of the Christ Child on 13th December? The simple fact is that no one knows when Christ was born because no one cared! Historically, in the minds of the Romans who were in charge, it was an insignificant event, hardly remembered, let along celebrated!
Two of the four Gospel writers mention the first CHRISTmas; Luke with the shepherds and Matthew writing about the Wise Men, who popped in two years after the birth.
The only Historic detail from Luke is the journey to Bethlehem for Mary and Joe and the arrival of the shepherds, a really unlikely lot, to see the baby. There is NO CATTLE SHED in the Bible, NO INNKEEPER to turn them away and NO CATTLE to low!
All there is is the manger. "And they laid him in a manger because there was no room at the inn."
Luke is interested in what the story means. and not the clutter that subsequent generations have added to it.
O utstanding and
O ngoing
O ffers
So, what made the shepherds risk their future employment by leaving their sheep? Their explanation, sometimes treated as fiction by Buble "knockers", is simple, superhuman but real enough to send them scuttling into the town sans sheep.
And it almost certainly did NOT look like this!
Maybe like this?
Some massive manifestation of supernatural power (remember he is God - he can do what and how he likes!") spoke to them and made the world's most Outstanding Offer to the Shepherds!
But the real Ongoing Outstanding Offer was to the world at large.
And the angel did NOT offer "Peace on Earth and Goodwill to All Mankind" - absolutely not.
To get Peace on Earth, humanity has to please God! And, fairly obviously, for 2000 years (approx) since the angelic announvement humanity as a whole has failed.
But the offer does not go away. The deal is still on the table.
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Next P ABC Blog : 16th December
Also Merthyr Tydfil buses who followed Cardiff's move to orange.
ReplyDeleteIn my new NIV bible there is no inn either. The correct translation of the Greek is guest room or as in the last supper, upper room. The modern suggestion is they went to stay with a favourite relative and their guest room was already full and so they stayed in the family room with their animals. Wrapping babies in swaddling bands and putting them in a household manger was normal practice for peasants and the like of shepherds, back then.
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