InterCity (British Rail) - Livery

Livery

British Rail introduced a new corporate livery in 1965. The basic blue colour was relieved on long distance coaches by a light grey panel around the windows. The front of locomotives and multiple units were painted yellow to improve visibility, and this was often wrapped around onto the side in varying amounts. This was therefore the colour scheme used by the new Inter-City services when they were launched the following year. Coaches used on these routes later had a white 'Inter-City' logotype added to the blue area near the door at the left end of each side. This was extended to show the purpose of specialist vehicles such as 'Inter-City Sleeper'.

When the production High Speed Train (HST) sets entered service in 1976, they too carried the blue and grey livery. The coaches carried an 'Inter-City 125' logo type by the left-hand door. The part of the power car nearest the passenger coaches was also painted blue and grey, but most of the power car was painted yellow with a wide blue panel which lined up with the grey on the coaches. On this blue panel was a large 'Inter-City 125' logotype, albeit in outline rather than solid white.

The first production Advanced Passenger Train was unveiled on 7 June 1978. It was painted in a new livery with dark grey upper body and light grey lower body separated by wide white and red bands. The roof was white to reduce solar heating, and a large 'InterCity APT' logotype was positioned on the dark grey section of the power cars – 'InterCity' had no hyphen and was solid white but the 'APT' was an outline. A new 'Executive' service was part of the relaunch of InterCity Sector on 3 October 1983. This saw the coaches of the Manchester Pullman and two HSTs refurbished and repainted experimentally into the same colour scheme as the APT. The HSTs continued to carry an outline 'InterCity 125' logotype (now with no hyphen) and the large yellow area on the power car that had been a feature of the blue and grey livery. The logotype on coaches was positioned as before but changed to black. By May 1984 other coaches and locomotives were entering service in the dark and light grey livery. 87012 Coeur de Lion entered service with black numbers on the cab side but no logo. 73123 Gatwick Express had white numbers and a large double arrow logo on the dark grey of its bodyside, although the new Gatwick Express service was not operated by the InterCity Sector. In use there were problems with the light colour showing dirt on the diesel HSTs and so dark grey was extended from the roof to cover louvres near the top of the power car body, and the logotype was changed from an outline to solid white to make it more striking. The use of the term 'Executive' was dropped in 1985 and the livery was then referred to as just 'InterCity'.

A new logotype was introduced on 1 May 1987 as part of InterCity's 21st anniversary celebrations. The colours were unchanged (although locomotives often carried less yellow than before) but locomotives, carriages and advertising received a new logotype. The word INTERCITY was presented in italic, serif upper case letters. A new swallow logo 'to symbolise grace and speed' replaced the double arrow. It was announced that the new branding would appear on 'all InterCity trains that meet high quality standards'. The logotype was omitted from some older locomotives that were otherwise carrying InterCity livery, although some locomotives that predominantly worked in Scotland were given a ScotRail logotype.