Pre-TOPS
(At the end of the 1960s, British Railways adopted the Total Operations Processing System ("TOPS"), a computerised system developed by the Southern Pacific Railroad in the United States.)
E3137 first appeared in Electric Blue with Flake Grey cab roof. Some of the early 86s out of Vulcan, Newton-Le-Willows, did not sport a yellow warning panel but we think all the 40 Doncaster-built machines, of which E3137 was one, did do so. It was a relatively small panel, similar to the one the loco carries today.
Rail Blue.
Now with a full yellow warning panel encompassing the front cab window frames.
The centrally-positioned metal arrows were replaced by the 'Peter Pan' nameplates and an 'arrows logo' transfer was placed on the cabin sides.
InterCity.
An early version with wrap-around half-yellow warning panels and yellow cab roof.
InterCity
Amended InterCity mainline livery with larger yellow warning panels (but not wrapped round the cab sides), grey roof and the body side strip is now full length.
InterCity.
In 1992 the 'double arrows' logo was replaced with Intercity branding.
InterCity.
In June 1995 the swallow emblem was added to the Intercity livery. It is interesting to note that at the same time the background colour of the 'Peter Pan' nameplate turned from red to black although the nameplate only had four months left to run before removal and replacement with the 'Greater Manchester' plates.
Virgin - 86259's final livery in commercial service.
The livery comes full circle - on a turntable! - at Tyseley on December 18th 2006. Photographed a few seconds after emerging into the daylight for the first time after restoration, 86259 (still with no number identity) is back in electric blue.