The Network Turquoise We Never Got
As promised, here it is! As alluded to in the retro-turquoise drawing, here is what NCT's 65 plate Enviro 400s would've looked like had the Network brand survived long enough to encompass their introduction. Alas, it was never to be and the real vehicles arrived in what was essentially Go2 livery (with silver in place of the green), just without the Go2 graphics.
The majority of this batch retain the livery they were delivered in to this day - in fact they're possibly the only vehicles delivered before the current livery was introduced to do so. Of the ones new in turquoise (i.e. not 661/2), only 648 and 660 have been painted, with the rest having their front graphics altered to the new style but nothing more. Weirdly, I kind of like them looking like that!
Because the Omnidekkas that the Enviro 400s replaced were in the livery I'd call "network mk1.5", the turquoise version of "network mk2" livery (as above) was never carried by any vehicle, E400 or otherwise, and exists only as a curious might-have-been. The exact same story also applies to the South Notts 1 livery.
As a random aside, prior to the introduction of the 65 plates, I fully expected them to arrive looking like the one I've drawn above, and using my crap 2015 photoshop skills bodged one of the 77s E400s into network livery to see what they'd look like. In that picture I gave it fleet number 651 and the reg YN65 EKF... considering the real 651 got registered YN65 XFK, I really wasn't that far out, especially guessing the letters K and F would be towards the end of the registration! Because of that, I used 651's identity on both the Retro Turquoise drawing and this one; it's apparently just my go-to bus for doing fictitious turquoise line stuff now!
The Network Turquoise We Never Got
As promised, here it is! As alluded to in the retro-turquoise drawing, here is what NCT's 65 plate Enviro 400s would've looked like had the Network brand survived long enough to encompass their introduction. Alas, it was never to be and the real vehicles arrived in what was essentially Go2 livery (with silver in place of the green), just without the Go2 graphics.
The majority of this batch retain the livery they were delivered in to this day - in fact they're possibly the only vehicles delivered before the current livery was introduced to do so. Of the ones new in turquoise (i.e. not 661/2), only 648 and 660 have been painted, with the rest having their front graphics altered to the new style but nothing more. Weirdly, I kind of like them looking like that!
Because the Omnidekkas that the Enviro 400s replaced were in the livery I'd call "network mk1.5", the turquoise version of "network mk2" livery (as above) was never carried by any vehicle, E400 or otherwise, and exists only as a curious might-have-been. The exact same story also applies to the South Notts 1 livery.
As a random aside, prior to the introduction of the 65 plates, I fully expected them to arrive looking like the one I've drawn above, and using my crap 2015 photoshop skills bodged one of the 77s E400s into network livery to see what they'd look like. In that picture I gave it fleet number 651 and the reg YN65 EKF... considering the real 651 got registered YN65 XFK, I really wasn't that far out, especially guessing the letters K and F would be towards the end of the registration! Because of that, I used 651's identity on both the Retro Turquoise drawing and this one; it's apparently just my go-to bus for doing fictitious turquoise line stuff now!