20 May 2015

First Western National Returns!

Thanks to Richard Smith for these great shots of 32716 sporting a nice fresh green livery whilst working for God TV this week. It is nice to see the Western National name back in use even if its prefixed First!

It would be even nicer if this was to be introduced for the rest of the fleet here in Plymouth as it would make more sense than the current mixture of Plymouth Devon & Torpoint names on the national First livery. Note also the God TV stickers!

 First 32716

 First 32716

Previously this was in green for Western National 80th Anniversary back in 2009. It will be interesting to see if this one gains any more lettering.

First 32716 W716RHT

52 comments:

  1. It looks as though it has been re-trimmed as well or maybe it's the light?! I agree, the WN fleet name would be a happy compromise across Plymouth, Torpoint and Tavistock where I think there is just one Solo with the branding.

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  2. I see that it says God Tv on it again. anyone remember the 777 for God Tv?

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    1. The 777 is back! ive seen this lovely bus running it today. looks very nice in the sun

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  3. That works surprisingly well.

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  4. Although it would be great to see the traditional Green and Gold livery back, it may not be the right time. With the demise of Western Greyhound still fresh in peoples memories. Iy would be nice to see the buses all have a standard livery once again though. Especially something as clean and single as this.

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  5. I always thought the 80th Anniversary livery was the wrong shade of green - the new one looks much better. The traditional is not green and gold, though - it is green with a cream band. Now how about Stagecoach using the Devon General livery?

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    1. Michael Hudson PCB Dest Blinds Team20 May 2015 at 19:27

      the 80th anniversrary green is correct - tilling green as it was matched using paint donated by colin billington.

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  6. It definitely not just a one off, as the seating has been covered with dark green leather. Hopefully this will start being rolled out to Cornwall soon, I suspect the "First Western National" name is so people don't get it confused with Western Greyhound. Although a darker green & gold colour would have been nicer!

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    1. You're turning hope into fantasy. It is a one off. Cornwall's vehicles have started to be painted in Olympia livery. the first one left the Plymouth paintshop last week to head back west. I understand that it went back without any local names, but that KERNOW will be applied back in Cornwall shortly.

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    2. If you know this why remain anon? I doubt that the Olympia livery will remain in Cornwall, as First have made clear Cornwall is getting its own brand. As for a one of, why go to the effort of putting in green leather seat covers?? Personally I think you don't have a clue.

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    3. Are those green seat covers? Look like standard grey ones to my eyes?

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    4. That's your choice. The first of the Scanias to come off the Truro Park and Ride is already in current First livery having been painted in Plymouth. As the new Citaros enter service on the route the three other as anise are going to paint in current First livery too. One is being painted in Plymouth and the other two at an outside contractor. They will receive Kernow local names. The Trident doesn't have green seats. They are standard light brown First group e leather. For now at least First Kernow is using the corporate First livery.

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    5. Its clearly green, unless your colour blind? If you look at the Plymouth P&R Tridents they are chocolate colour, and its easy to tell. As for the scania repaints, they did the same thing with the b6ble's then decided to move them up to Somerset & repaint them again, so what's to say the same won't happen again?

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    6. Perhaps you're colour blind? The offside shot shows they're not green but standard First eLeather.

      This looks like another heritage livery as per many other First examples across the country like the GWR Dart. The B6s were painted under the previous management but moved when Alex arrived and actioned a plan of fleet moves and remember, a number of the B7Ls that came down in exchange subsequently gained Olympia colours.

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    7. There's a simple solution to this, someone needs to go onboard this bus, take a picture and prove whether its first normal chocolate(taken from FGW First Class) or a dark green leather(which it looks like from looking at the rear reverse seats on the bottom deck(it can be seen against the purple) that way we can shut this up once and for all!

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  7. It was running 777 again yesterday evening, more of an annual service I think more than a lost number

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  8. We have been waiting ages for the new livery for Cornwall, maybe they were just waiting for WG to go bus so they could use green? I would expect a different fleet name for Cornwall though as it is a separate division.

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    1. Legal wise its still Devon & Cornwall. It was just decided to try and personalise the First brand for local areas. I suspect they will merge the brands together as Western National. As well as rebranding FGW as GWR.

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  9. That looks great. I do hope this is what we get in Cornwall to spruce up the current awful liveries. Well done whoever set this up?

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  10. Well this bus has certainly re-started the flow of Comments - had been quiet for a while. Good choice of filename and livery, although I would have preferred a cream or gold / yellow relief. Nevertheless, it's another welcome break from blind corporate-ism.

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  11. Just be advised I know a lot of people have already said this that KernowFoxBus is completely fake, and is trying to give the impression of a real working bus company. Its quite annoying because members of the public are falling for it!

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    1. As I said the other day, the people behind it are fantasists.
      I will believe their stories when they apply for their operators licence and register some bus routes. They do not have a licence at present so they can't operate local bus services.
      If they do apply for one, they will be going to Public Inquiry due to the past history of one of the directors and there are more than enough questions for the other director to answer.
      A lot of money (c£30-40-50k in reserves if you want any room to expand) is required to establish financial standing for an operators licence - plus the known history of the other and his failings as an operator. Those questions VOSA have about his conduct at the helm of Cornwall Busways remain unanswered as he failed to attend the PI at the turn of the year. Thus the Cornwall Busways licence was revoked. There is no current operator licence.
      Neither of these people are of good repute, so it is highly likely that their operator licence application will fail and not be granted if it's applied for.
      Some of the vehicles they 'own' are photoshopped images of other peoples buses - one of them does have an Optare Solo - but it's a non DDA compliant bus that was sold by Go South Coast for preservation only. Other vehicles formerly in the Cornwall Busways fleet do not hold current MOT certificates, thus aren't usable on the public highway- neither are these vehicles DDA compliant, and are worth no more than scrap value in operational terms at the end of this year unless sums worth more than the value of the vehicles are spent getting them to DDA standards.

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    2. I've actually asked them why they are pretending to be real, and just ended up with a load of abuse! So beware!

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  12. I would doubt this is one off.. if so why the green seat covers, why re - do the interior of a bus they only did a little while ago when there are lots in more need? Also if this was not to be rolled out across the Devon and perhaps Cornwall fleet I am sure they would heve repainted this one in First Corporate colours. I hope and suspect First Western National is looming, possibly in Plymouth first and Cornwall later to allow time for WG to be forgotten down west! It makes sense from logistics as well with Buses of Somerset being green also, better for swapping surely?

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  13. Hopefully they will do same as in Somerset with a new ID, i.e First Western National and a revamped/enlarged network for the City.


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  14. This name sounds like it would be on a preserved bus so maybe they will do this livery on the Olympian that has been around plymouth still?

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  15. I do wish that 'anonymous' people wouldn't post opinions as facts. I don't mind anon posts but clearly some of the 'facts' posted on this page's comments are wrong.

    If this bus is a one-off, then why do it? It's not (yet?) commemorating anything. If it's a historical one-off, then why present the fleetnmae as FWN? Is the shade of green right?

    If it's not a one-off, then why paint Cornish buses in standard First livery?

    Hopefully it will all make sense, soon! However, whatever liveries First uses in Plymouth and Cornwall will make moving vehicles about harder than it needs to be unless Somerset / Devon /Cornwall all have the same scheme.

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    1. i would love to see more green but did Michael Hudson say it was donated by colin billington? if so he might have more of need to make more for outer buses?

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    2. No Bradley - thats not what Mike said!
      Some original paint was donated so First could colour match it to make sure they got the right colours.

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    3. I don't think there's even anything to commemorate yet, and considering they've had time to put "First Western National" and change the seat covers to a dark green from looking at the back to front seats on the bottom deck, I would say this has to be something to do with Plymouth or Cornwall, maybe First is keeping the Olympia livery with the Truro P&R buses being moved and Kernow getting the Western National colours??? But this is First we're talking about, whatever we guess or expect one minute, they'll change 2 minutes later!

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  16. Think people are running away on this. First have encouraged firms to reflect their heritage, irrespective of anniversaries. There is an Ipswich decker repainted in 1987 style Eastern Counties livery with fleetnames but that's not extended across that fleet; same goes with Yorkshire Rider reappearing on a Gemini.

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    1. Yes, this sounds more plausible. But the two examples you mention are pretty accurate representations of the old liveries. Although this green is much more akin to WG, a cream waistband would be an improvement IMHO.

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    2. But this is what makes it all rather strange - from the photos, the shade of green isn't a traditional WN one at all, so it's not a true heritage livery in the way that others around the country are (or as this bus itself was until recently). It's a nice colour though and I wouldn't object if it was to be a new fleet livery.

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    3. There's those two but there's absolutely loads of others, some being direct copies and some being interpretations. First Wales has four Darts all in differing heritage colours. First Manchester has 7 or 8 for Manchester Corp, LUT, etc. First Midland Red and Leicester each have a pair in various versions of older liveries.

      This looks nothing more than painting the previous commemorative vehicle and smartening it up in a heritage scheme with the seats being standard First Group eLeather. It happens all over the First Opcos so not certain why anyone thinks any different? As for the FWN fleetnames, perhaps a heritage repaint whilst still showing its a First bus to the travelling public....just as it was before. I think it's a nice touch but anyone who thinks this is some new livery for Plymouth or Kernow really needs to look at the other evidence which disproves that.

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  17. Yes looks very nice but looked better on the Bristol VRs and would look nice across the fleet , They wont paint anything descent as if its a good bus it get tranfered away somewhere else and a banger is put in its place , but the bangers need a paint to make them look respectable

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  18. The seats have been recovered in Green. Walked past it this morning whilst it was on Royal Parade on the PR2 route.

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    1. Thanks for the confirmation - at least that bits been cleared up!

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    2. NO they are not Green, they are GREY. Physically got on the bus this morning whilst it was at Royal Parade on PR2 route.

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    3. Okay. It's green because it's carrying 'God bus' advertising. There may be more to go on. The seats were retained in standard First e-leather while it was being painted following on from the B7s for Park and Ride as part of a batch of retrims.
      First Kernow do not have a local livery. They have large numbers of vehicles due to cascade in to them shorty in current First livery and have started repainting in that livery too. All buses in current First livery will get the 'Kernow' vinyls in the near future.

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  19. Heritage livery or not, perhaps they should also do one in blue? After all, WN buses haven't been painted green for more than thirty years and to anyone who's (say) over 40 or 45 and not an enthusiast, they'd probably only remember WN as having blue/white/red/yellow or blue/cream/red buses.

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    1. Sorry, that should have said:
      "...... anyone who's (say) under 40 or 45...... "

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  20. It does look nice when you see it next to the Red of the Citybus'. Also don't understand what people are saying first have so many different liveries. Counted at least 5 different Citybus liveries this morning. Red Flash, Blue Flash, Swoop with Dark Red front, Swoop with standard Red front, the old Red and white, plus all the hideous full advert wraps. Then the Brighton and Hove buses with just a few stickers on.

    Both firms are a mess.

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  21. this bus is now working the new bus route 81 d seen it few times on that route ,
    lets hope it stays on route with new seats covering it got and nice shiney paint work put citybus to shame
    cant under stand way the bus does not go in to the city after the ferry and trun round in city and back again on route

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  22. Seen on news First are investing millions in hundreds of new buses (approx 400 I believe) and pensioning off their old 15 yr old buses.. hopefully they will cascade some newer ones down here (obviously not brand new as clearly they will go to the more financially sound businesses!) but this could upgrade Plymouth's fleet soon as I believe a previous poster has referred to!

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    1. 385 which sounds a lot but is still fewer than than either of the last couple of years. Not sure what the 15 year old reference relates to, other than it's a rough approximation of the Group's total fleet renewal cycle (one third in the last five years) but it not's going to mean that every bus older than X-reg is going to get sold or scrapped, if that's what you're expecting - First doesn't work like that, especially since there were many years where nearly all the new vehicles went into London and thus are no longer owned, giving them a somewhat wonky age profile across the fleet and a limited number of mid-life buses to play with in future cascades.

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    2. It means the vehicles they are replacing - non DDA single deckers, which are those 15 years and older, except from the odd few conversions.

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  23. Think you answered your own question. 15 years is an average age but it is only an average.

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  24. I saw 32716 the other day and the green colour looks darker than it comes across in the photos and this darker green is what I remember the Western National livery to be. The Bristol VRs looked good in this green but 32716 needs an off white stripe over the lower deck windows like the VRs had, to set off the green livery. In 1979 WN operated our school buses which were from the old Callington depot (now a CO-OP supermarket), they were Lodekkas which I assume were no longer used for scheduled services. Occasionally we would get a fairly new VR instead (R or S reg), which I remember immaculately turned out in this green livery. There was a good example of a Lodekka preserved in the Bristol M Shed Museum the last time I visited, (worth a visit to the museum just for that in my opinion). A few years later as a student in West Yorkshire the VR was the main stay of the Dewsbury WYPTE Metro Bus fleet which I have fond memories of.

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  25. I saw Optare 81D in Western National colours today also!

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    1. Not quite. The bus on the 81D today was the Dartmouth Park and ride bus which is also bright green.

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    2. Isn't the Dartmouth P&R Solo in a brighter green (same shade as the front of the Somerset livery)? Brighter than 32716

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    3. Think its a bit brighter green, but its certainly the one which was on the 81D today

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