GNER soon made changes to the livery, introducing Gold lettering for its GNER name and elaborate multicoloured cast metal crests for its coaches! These were interesting as they had to cope with the tumblehome of the coaches and so were suitably curved at the bottom! By the mid 2000s, GNER were repowering their HSTs with new engines and the Power Cars were renumbered by adding '200' to their number, eg 43100 became 43300 and 43089 became 43289. Here are 43300 and 43289
When the Gold lettering and the Crest were first introduced, the Power Cars were still running with Paxman Valenta power units and so remained numbered in the 43002 - 43198 number range. Only when the power units were changed for MTU units, around 2007 / 8, were the Power Cars renumbered. 43105 'City of Inverness' and 43118 'City of Kingston upon Hull' are represented here. I do not know why 43118 has this name as originally 43116 was named after my home city.
Virgin Trains introduced their livery around 1997 too and once again Hybrid livery sets were to be seen. Here are 43156 + 43162 in Virgin Red & Black livery with InterCity liveried MK3 coaches.
In my occasional series - Loco Lives - I have chosen my next subject, a 'loco' dear to my heart as you will already be aware if you know my livery uploads. It is 43116 - 'City of Kingston - upon - Hull' I say 'loco' because some do not view these as locos, but rather as Power Cars, as did BR! I personally tend to think of them as Power Cars. Loco Lives # 4 begins in 1978 with the introduction of the Eastern Region's HSTs on the ECML. At first, all the Power Cars were pretty anonymous; it wasn't until 1983 that the first one was named. Outshopped in BR Blue & Grey livery, the Power Cars had an extended yellow bodyside band and yellow cab roof, which soon got rather dirty. 43116 (LL # 4.1) is partnered here with 43108
I forgot to mention - 43116 has had at least 14 livery variations in its service life! LL # 4.2 is from 1983 when 43116 was named 'City of Kingston upon Hull' on 9th May that year at Paragon Station. It is partnered up with 43118.
Around 1987, 43116 received InterCity Executive livery, along with most of the rest of the fleet. The Power Car retained its nameplate at this point. It is partnered with 43109. Loco Lives # 4.3
By 1990, InterCity Swallow livery was dominating the InterCity fleet and 43116 acquired the livery, but without its nameplates, since the style of nameplates had changed for the flat steel type that reflected so badly you could barely read them. 43116 is with 43105. Loco Lives # 4.4 P.S. Found another couple of livery variants for 43116, so that's now 16!
Sanity prevailed and 43116 received replacement nameplates by 1991, albeit the 'tinplate' variety. Here she is paired with 43039 LL # 4.5
1996 was a 'wind-change' for the railways as BR ceased to exist and Private companies bid to run certain parts of the Passenger services. 43116 ended up as part of the GNER group and received the second variant of GNER livery, i.e. with Gold lettering. The Power Car was nameless and would remain so for some time as GNER lost its interest in the City of Hull. She is paired with 43077. LL # 4.6
Still unnamed in 2005, 43116 did receive a bodyside logo - an advert for London's bid for the 2012 Olympics! Paired with 43109 (again) LL # 4.7
We come to the halfway point of livery variations for 43116 - its final GNER livery. By 2006, GNER had named the Power Car, but not with its 'Hull' nameplates. These had gone to 43118 for some reason. 43116 was christened 'The Black LOVE * Band', a name that refuses to be uploaded to CC, courtesy of the word 'LOVE *', which refers to an obviously obscene stretch of raised banking to hold in a ditch or stream! Disgusting! Anyway, the band were quite good and even made an appearance in Victoria Wood's much praised TV series 'Dinner Ladies'. High accolades indeed! The PC is paired with 43096 'Stirling Castle'. LL # 4.8 * See comment below for some entertainment.
OK, is this a joke? I typed the name of 43116, using the letters D, y, k, e for the 3rd word and upload it and it is changed to LOVE. No, sorry, the Power Car is NOT named 'The Black LOVE Band'. That is something completely different! Must I now call it 'The Black D, y, k, e Band'?
