North West Regional Railways Livery
156 » Livery »	Provincial • NWRR • N.Spirit • First • Plain Blue • Northern.1 • Northern.2 • Northern.3

First North Western's 156.461 at Preston 25.September.2004 This unit was the last to retain this livery.

List of all 156s to carry North West Regional Railways livery

Description of North West Regional Railways livery

The Regional Railways livery was a development of the existing Provincial livery applied to the later build sprinters. The lower bodyside colour was changed to silver-grey and the dark blue window band was continued the full length of the bodyside. On each cabside is a Regional Railways 'fleximark'; dark blue horizontal bars on a white background. This linking device was used on all promotional material.

By the time that refurbishment and repainting of the class 156 fleet started, Regional Railways had been broken up into Train Operating Units ready for franchising to private companies. However several of the TOUs continued to use the name, including 'North West Regional Railways' (NWRR).

When the 18 units operated by NWRR were refurbished between 1995 and 1998, they were painted into a modified version of the Regional Railways livery with the light blue waist stripe replaced by mid green.

This livery was also applied to the small fleet of 'Clacton Express' class 309 Electric Multiple units that were transferred to the Manchester area in the mid 90's.

	156.441 at Barrow in 1996 Regional Railways branding is carried toward the driving cab ends of each vehicle. This livery features a full yellow cab front, relieved only by black window frames and light clusters. Photo: John Law
	The one line Regional Railways branding applied to trains.
	After privatisation, NWRR became 'North Western Trains', and the Regional Railways branding was removed. Unbranded 156.464 is seen at Manchester Piccadilly with an early morning service to the Airport, June 16, 2001. Note the change to a yellow on black destination blind.
	Following First Group's takeover of NWT, the franchise was renamed in November 1998. 'First North Western' branding had been applied to a couple of class 156s by Summer 1999. 156.421 seen at Manchester Piccadilly on May 18, 2002. The last digit of the set number is white, as are the vehicle numbers (on a silver grey background).
	The 'First' logo is always towards the cab end, therefore on the right hand side it reads North Western First. The lettering is dark blue.
	Yellow gangway door covers have replaced the original transparent covers on many sets, but not neccessarily on both ends. 156.460 at Salford Crescent November 1, 2003.