Liveries
The DM class has worn five distinctive liveries during their working lives:
Royal Blue
The original livery of the DM and D class cars, introduced in 1938. This livery was replaced with standard "Midland Red" by 1949. The car body was painted in Royal Blue with a white band along the side below the windows and grey roof. The traction equipment and running gear were painted black, but were concealed under skirting until the war years when maintenance staff had them removed for ease of access. The car numbers were painted in gold on a black background, while on the side they were painted inside a red oval, similar to the cab-side numberplates on NZR locomotives.
The Royal Blue colour has been noted for its similarities to the MAXX Blue used in Auckland.
Midland Red
The best-known livery, all cars of the DM and D classes wore the "Midland Red" livery at one time during their working lives. When the EM/ET class was introduced in the early 1980s in an olive paint scheme, the red of the DM/D class became a distinguishing feature and they came to be nicknamed "old reds" and "red sets" in New Zealand railfan jargon.
The car body and skirting over the traction equipment was painted in "Midland Red" with the roof in grey and separated from the red body by a black strip and black underfloor equipment and running gear. In 2008 KiwiRail required the car fronts to be repainted in yellow for better visibility at level crossings. Car numbers were painted in gold on a black background, but were later replaced by solid white numbers. By this time, the livery was confined to three 'heritage' sets only and had been applied to all other cars during their successive repaints into other liveries.
The last set in regular service to retain the "Midland Red" livery was DM556 and trailers D2130 and D2411. When it was refurbished in 2006, it was named "Cyclops" due to its single-lens headlight and repainted externally in the "Midland Red" livery with gold car numbers as per the 1950s. This earned Tranz Metro a "business in conservation" award from the New Zealand Department of Conservation and the Wellington Conservation Board the same year. This livery was applied to DM 27 and D 163 from Ferrymead and DM216 and D2687 in 2008 when they were returned to service.
Olive and Cream
Originally introduced on the EM/ET class sets, several of the DM/D sets refurbished for the Johnsonville Branch were later repainted in this livery during the late 1980s. The car body was repainted in olive green with a grey roof and black underfloor equipment and running gear. A white band surrounded the windows on the sides of the car, ending between the first passenger window and the driver's cab window. The doors and ends were painted yellow with white block numbers and classification letters on the side and black numbers on the '1' and '2' ends of the train. The cab windows and headlight mounting were painted with a black surround.
These sets were branded for New Zealand Rail's suburban operator Cityline, and carried the Cityline branding and logo under the central four windows on the car body side. The NZR logo was painted in front of the car numbers at either end.
Tranz Metro "Cato Blue"
This livery was applied to set DM147 by Tranz Rail's suburban operator Tranz Metro during the late 1990s, and was the only unit to wear this livery. The car body was painted in the standard Tranz Rail "Cato Blue" with a grey roof, yellow ends and headlight mount, and black underfloor equipment and running gear. The doors were unpainted aluminium while there were two black bands on the car body, one at floor level separating the running gear and underfloor equipment from the "Cato Blue" body and the other at roof level separating the grey roof from the blue body.
Standard Tranz Metro logos were applied along the centre of the car sides. The car numbers were painted in black Frutiger script on the ends of the car, underneath the left-hand tail lamp. The end numbers were painted in the same style on the centre of the cab doors.
Tranz Metro Two-tone Blue
Starting in 2005, Tranz Metro (now owned by Toll Rail) undertook a major refurbishment of the DM/D sets. As part of this, DM297 and D2778 were painted in a new two-tone livery which would later be used on all sets with the exception of the three 'heritage' units. The car body was "Cato Blue" with a grey roof and headlight mount, yellow cab fronts and black underfloor equipment and running gear. There was a Royal Blue window band along the side of the cars, while a black strip separated the grey roof colour from the car body. The passenger doors were unpainted aluminium, and white overhead hazard stickers were applied to the cab doors. Car numbers were painted on the cab-mounted horn covers in dark blue descending Frutiger script, although some had different sized lettering or a serifed font.
Read more about this topic: NZR DM Class