Great Western Railway Refurbishments

Good evening all, Liam here bringing you everything you need to know regarding the refurbishments of stock currently under the Great Western Railway franchise.


First off with the basics, Great Western Railway (commonly abbreviated to Great Western Railway) is a train operating company owned by FirstGroup currently serving many lines in the South and West of England, including the Brunel's iconic Great Western Mainline, the Cotswald Line, and many others. The company rebranded from First Great Western into the more classic Great Western Railway on 20th September 2015.

©FirstGroup PLC - New GWR logo



Currently, many vehicles are currently being refurbished into the standard dark green and grey colour scheme. A few Class 166 Thames Turbos and HST sets have been refurbished, as can be seen in the below photographs.
©Andy Young - 43188 at Reading before departing with the 10:39 to Swansea.
©Liam Jenkins - Semi refurbished 166204 heading into Guildford with a Gatwick bound service.

The fully refurbished Class 165s and 166s feature a refurbished interior, with toilets, air conditioning, and new seating covers - a radical green and grey combination, as can be seen below.

Refurbished Class 166 interior
©Andy Young - Fully refurbished 166210 heads into Reading returning from the Traincare depot.

The new Hitachi Class 800 units to be delivered to GWR when electrification of the Great Western Mainline has been completed will be furbished in the green and grey GWR colour scheme, as seen below in an artists impression.

©GWR - An artists impression of the Class 800 look
That's all from me for now! I am no longer scheduled to post on the blog before Christmas, so from me, I wish all the blog viewers a very merry Christmas and a prosperous new year.



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