Re: MBTA Survey - Pick the New RL, OL, & GL Livery
Are there official Pantone colors for each line?
If you're going by rigid adherence to the Cambridge Seven Associates system design guide, yes. But all those ugly ass teal-painted trolleys kind of puked all over that 20 years ago, so that cat ain't going back in the bag.
Eh...if you want function the only real requirements are:
-- Does it wear well with grime?
-- Does it wear well with stainless steel and window 'scratchiti'?
-- Does it wash well?
-- Are any/all functional markers (T logo, car numbers, warning text) maximally readable. You do need to easily be able to see the car number when making a customer service report; that's more important than any aesthetics.
I think they have to ditch all those T logos painted in the color of their lines and go for straight black-outline, because that's really not very readable. Especially if you're going to have all exterior text done in the same color.
Don't think the logo wrapping around windows is a good idea. That's just an open invite to scratchiti all over the windows.
The color ends are an interesting concept that looks neat, but that's going to have some issues with winter grime on the leading and trailing cars. And if a paint job needs to be patched it's probably easier to not have some parts of the car significantly more design-complex to patch up than others. If those polka dots start peeling off they're going to be left to peel off longer than if a solid-bloc side section starts coming up. That adhesive 'paint' gets fixed very fast in the shop on the Red 01800's when it peels, but I can't see that happening if it's a custom motif that changes/transitions dramatically on different parts of a single side of the carbody. Keep it simple.
For HRT, I guess the most keep-it-simple is #1 with the logo and all other text switched to max-readability black. In other words, pretty much a vanilla facsimile to the Red 01800's. The black + color-frame ends being the same on every choice is safe assumption because of the default materials: more plastic, little stainless steel vs. the sides. (The one function-over-form design choice I wish they'd bring back is the bright red bold font car numbers from the Orange 01200's. Those are the most readable by far, and do serve that customer reporting purpose.)
For the trolleys...the size of the windows and the ad slots limit how much visible paint there is, period. You're going to end up with something that looks like a Type 8, and there's a lot more plastic molding vs. the HRT cars so less open stainless steel canvas to work with.
Don't like #2's black striping...that's going to look really drab when dirty. Front ends won't hide nicks and bruises all that well with the two-tone mix of #1 and #3...just keep it monochrome green like all the previous paint schemes (Bredas have black framing around the headlights, but that's because of different plastic pieces). Also, if these are going to have any sort of yellow safety stripe affixed to the bottom of the front windows like the Type 8's do you want a dead-simple contrast on the front end for max visibility.
Sort of doubt #3's black stripe matched to the white reflective stripe is going to fly. Green vs. reflective white is flat-out more reflective overall. Or tri-color: reflective white stripe vs. middle green stripe vs. bottom black stripe.
Otherwise, these look better than the Bredas which hide their green way too low and are just drab and grey all around. These is about as close as you're getting to a 'traditional' GL color scheme with all the extra space eaten up by low-floor windows and ad slots, and prefab plastic pieces limiting the color locations to where the panels fit (vs. anywhere the painter chooses like on the uniformly all-aluminum Type 7's).
Now let's see some interior shots! I wanna know if one of their trendy picks has any potential for becoming next generation's "Carter Administration faux-wood paneling" anachronism.
