In 1992, three locomotives were repainted as part of the Freightconnection celebration, an event to raise awareness of the possibilities for freight traffic which would open up two years later with the Channel Tunnel.
The Class 90s were painted in the liveries of the state railway companies of Germany (above), and France (below)...
... and of Belgium:
They wore these liveries for a surprisingly long time, although after the privatisation of British Rail many of their class-mates appeared in a range of more-or-less hideously garish colours -- such as this for the stupidly-named "one" company on the former Great Eastern London-Norwich route:
And don't get me started on the utterly dreadful livery they are forced to wear for Scotrail, to haul the heaviest passenger train operating in the UK -- the Anglo-Scottish Caledonian Sleeper service:
The most recent livery is this, for Freightliner, which replaces their old (and really rather good livery) with something that features a Victorian gentleman's mad, twirly moustache:
It's an undignified position for such a capable locomotive to find itself in.
5 comments:
I don't like that new frightliner livery one bit. Garish and unflattering on the locos that wear it. Like a lot of liveries today. Although personally I think "One" is much worse than First ScotRail. Where did you find those continental liveried pictures? They are unusual in that none of them looked like that when they entered service as they don't have the UK mandatory yellow warning panels applied yet.
You're right: this is the condition of the three locos immediately before the launch event, and yellow warning panels were immediately afterwards applied to the fronts.
I have a particular hatred for First Scotrail's livery as seen here -- although maybe the 90s will get the newish "Saltire" livery now?
Interesting pics of the class 90 in continental liveries. I'm always fond of belgium electric locos in yellow/blue, even if you could call their design and colours garish too (e.g. Reeks 16, 21, 25 and 27). The belgian livery suits the 90s very much.
The german livery on the 90 is also interesting; it suits the 90s more than ours, as the loco body is much lower as our locos and therefore avoids the look of a red elephant. On the front some more rounded version of the 'Sparkeks' is used, whereas on the side the original (pre-1994) 'Keks' is used. I checked in my pocket book 'British Railways Locos' of 2004, and there the class 90 is listed as having only 50 engines from no. 900001 to 90050. Engines 90128 and 90129 are not listed there. Any advice?
BTW not quite sure, whether l'académie francaise' would approve 'Fret connection'.
Anon: 90 128 is 90 028, but in 1991 shortly after they were introduced, locos 025 - 050 were modified with their ETH isolated, carriage buffing plates removed, stronger brake blocks fitted and the top speed restricted to 75mph for dedicated freight use. The modified locos had 100 added to their running numbers to denote their revised spec. There only ever were 50 of the class. Although 90 050 caught fire in 2004 so there are actually now 49. All of them were reconverted back to standard spec by 2000 and now have their original numbers.
@ Niall: Thanks for the info!
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