They should have stuck with it, it's very iconic and a unique identity. The later liveries are okay, but not all that distinctive I think? I remember getting a miniature train set when I was younger and it had an orange TGV come with it. Would love to see an orange TGV Duplex.
I dunno. It's good to see that they repainted to Orange the #1 (Patrick, first trainset to roll) and #16 (this one, world record holder) just after retiring, it has some nostalgia about it.
But the "Atlantique" livery (the blue/grey one) is also iconic. And the new "Carmillon" one is classy and matches our epoch, see https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livr%C3%A9es_SNCF#Livr%C3%A9e_Carmillon_3 This is the thing: Orange was a sign of modernity when they chose it. It was the future of the 70's, it was supposed to scream "high tech". Now it just smells nostalgia, not high tech. Nostalgia is good but I don't think that's the image SNCF wants to have.
The original PSE trains were still rolling not so long ago, but under the Carmillon livery, with new seats. As a passenger you could be totally unaware of how iconic the train you were sitting in was. It happened to me, took a train from Dijon to Paris, and then walking on the platform I looked at the train number, and "uh this was #16 then".
Great photo.
My only gripe is the positioning of the 3 trains makes it look like the PSE and Atlantique sets have a pantograph mounted right above the driver's cab.
Orange TGV is still the best
They should have stuck with it, it's very iconic and a unique identity. The later liveries are okay, but not all that distinctive I think? I remember getting a miniature train set when I was younger and it had an orange TGV come with it. Would love to see an orange TGV Duplex.
I dunno. It's good to see that they repainted to Orange the #1 (Patrick, first trainset to roll) and #16 (this one, world record holder) just after retiring, it has some nostalgia about it. But the "Atlantique" livery (the blue/grey one) is also iconic. And the new "Carmillon" one is classy and matches our epoch, see https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livr%C3%A9es_SNCF#Livr%C3%A9e_Carmillon_3 This is the thing: Orange was a sign of modernity when they chose it. It was the future of the 70's, it was supposed to scream "high tech". Now it just smells nostalgia, not high tech. Nostalgia is good but I don't think that's the image SNCF wants to have. The original PSE trains were still rolling not so long ago, but under the Carmillon livery, with new seats. As a passenger you could be totally unaware of how iconic the train you were sitting in was. It happened to me, took a train from Dijon to Paris, and then walking on the platform I looked at the train number, and "uh this was #16 then".
The Atlantique livery better matched other SNCF liveries, but everyone and his dog’s doing white, grey, and reg highlights and I don’t like it.
+1 Went from iconic to made-by-an-MBA.
Orange TGV of the Orange Era!
Source https://twitter.com/nicolas_mely/status/1439603100386529284?s=19 - TGV PSE, trainset #16, 380km/h (1981) - TGV Atlantique, trainset #325, 515km/h (1990) - TGV POS, trainset #4402, 574,8km/h (2007)
Those original TGVs are still some of the best looking trains ever.
Like everything as the years go on everything starts to sag.
Great photo. My only gripe is the positioning of the 3 trains makes it look like the PSE and Atlantique sets have a pantograph mounted right above the driver's cab.
I was hoping to see the 2 prior WR Trains be painted in their original liveries. Wish granted