Tabbard colours

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Travelling this week, I saw staff in no fewer that four different colour tabards ...



Most of us know orange ... but where on rail do you find yellow, blue and green?

[LiskeardRich]

Down this way I've seen the passenger assistance in a green one, (I think, or it may have been the cleaner)

[ChrisB]

Blue seems to be Network Rail (at NR^» (Network Rail - home page) stations) and Chiltern wear them too

[TaplowGreen]

.......Is it the hi vis Pride March this weekend? ;-)

[Surrey 455]

Saw two in pink as my train pulled in to a SouthEastern station today Saturday. Wasn't really paying attention to which station it was though, I'm not familiar with that line.

[grahame]

I sort of think I've worked out:
Orange - General rail aware
Yellow - General not rail aware (seen Swindon)
Green - Customer information / assist (seen Swindon)
Blue - Network Rail (seen Glasgow Central)
Pink - Network Rail Customer assist (example https://www.networkrail.co.uk/Network-magazine-Oct-2015.pdf )

[chuffed]

.......Is it the hi vis Pride March this weekend? ;-)

Wouldn't they all be wearing rainbow tabards, then ?

[TaplowGreen]

.......Is it the hi vis Pride March this weekend? ;-)

Wouldn't they all be wearing rainbow tabards, then ?

............now that would be worth seeing! 

[Tim]

To my mind orange means that they might be doing something important or at least safety critical (fixing the train, oiling the points, standing and watching colleague do one of the above) and are in HiVis to make them conspicuous to train drivers rather than passengers. 

Other colours of Hi Vis are just to make them more visible to passengers.

I would be more inclined to approach staff in non-orange HiVis.  Those in orange I might be more aware that they might have other duties and not want to be disturbed, but those in non-orange HiVis I would regard as fair game for inane passenger questions. 

[Chris from Nailsea]

Yes: Orange is the required colour for high visibility gear for any railway staff working 'trackside' or on 'safety critical' duties. They should not be distracted.

Anyone wearing any other colour of hi-viz is indeed 'fair game', I think. 

[chrisr_75]

Yes: Orange is the required colour for high visibility gear for any railway staff working 'trackside' or on 'safety critical' duties. They should not be distracted.

Anyone wearing any other colour of hi-viz is indeed 'fair game', I think. 

However BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) and fire brigade are almost always to be seen in yellow, even if trackside. Something I've yet to work out seeing as everyone else MUST wear orange to some degree or another.

[Oxonhutch]

However BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) and fire brigade are almost always to be seen in yellow, even if trackside. Something I've yet to work out seeing as everyone else MUST wear orange to some degree or another.

From my own railway training: an orange hi-vi cannot be mistaken for a green or yellow signal when trackside - the yellow ones have a greenish tinge, and might.  When BTP et al. are trackside, nothing is running so their hi-vi colour is not an issue.

[chrisr_75]

However BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) and fire brigade are almost always to be seen in yellow, even if trackside. Something I've yet to work out seeing as everyone else MUST wear orange to some degree or another.

From my own railway training: an orange hi-vi cannot be mistaken for a green or yellow signal when trackside - the yellow ones have a greenish tinge, and might.  When BTP et al. are trackside, nothing is running so their hi-vi colour is not an issue.

Orange is used as it is considered the least natural colour, so it is unlikely to be mistaken for anything else, in some circumstances yellow can blend in a bit. I've always wondered why there hasn't been widespread switch to orange on the roads as I always find it is visible from a greater distance than yellow.

I have seen footage on several tv programmes of BTP trackside on active railways.

[Tim]

If orange is better than yellow for visibility, why are the fronts of trains painted yellow and not orange? 

I'd always assumed that trackside clothing was orange so it could be conspicuous in front of more background colours including greeny-yellow vegetation and the yellow paint applied to trains and wagons.   If a TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) decided its new livery was to be mainly orange you could see how that would potentially increase the danger for trackside workers in orange HiVis in a way that NR^» (Network Rail - home page) "flying banana"* does not

*an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) used as a track measurement train and painted, like much rail plant, completely in yellow. 

[chrisr_75]

If orange is better than yellow for visibility, why are the fronts of trains painted yellow and not orange? 

I'd always assumed that trackside clothing was orange so it could be conspicuous in front of more background colours including greeny-yellow vegetation and the yellow paint applied to trains and wagons.   If a TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) decided its new livery was to be mainly orange you could see how that would potentially increase the danger for trackside workers in orange HiVis in a way that NR^» (Network Rail - home page) "flying banana"* does not

*an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) used as a track measurement train and painted, like much rail plant, completely in yellow. 

Now you mention it, I suspect orange is partly used because train ends are yellow, although due to brighter and more reliable headlights, it appears the yellow is gradually disappearing - mentioned on another thread somewhere iirc. Now I think of it, when I worked trackside (10+ years ago so things may have changed a little), it was not permitted to wear any yellow, red or green clothing which could've been mistaken for signal flags, so this is another reason for orange - it's not a signal colour.

I suspect you would see objection from the unions and HSE^▸ (Health and Safety Executive) if there were any mainly orange train liveries proposed! Indeed, trackside fencing (the plastic sort used to delineate safe working areas to remove the need for lookouts) once was orange, but was changed to blue to provide contrast with hi-vis clothing after feedback from train drivers.