Patrick, the first commercial TGV, retires after 41 years

[Yavianice]

The first commercial TGV nicknamed "Patrick", is retiring after 41 years of operation. Regular services was already suspended in december last year, but for a final farewell tour, the TGV is donned in its original livery (though I am not sure if it is completely. I think it's a multicolor livery, showing the different liveries this particular TGV has donned over the years).

 

lavoixdunord.fr/705550/article/2020-02-05/sncf-patrick-le-premier-tgv-va-prendre-sa-retraite-apres-42-ans-de-service

 

I hope that KATO will produce it...

 

 

[disturbman]

No, from what I have been reading, "Patrick" is in full orange livery. What is different is the "SNCF" at the front, which used to be molded or in relief but was painted slightly bigger, and apparently the pantographs. There might be some other minor differences.

 

edit: My bad, pictures show the cars to be in the new livery.

https://www.railpictures.net/photo/724690/

Edited February 6, 2020 by disturbman

[disturbman]

From this article, https://www.francebleu.fr/infos/societe/patrick-le-premier-tgv-sorti-des-usines-alstom-de-belfort-prend-sa-retraite-1580926517:
 
"Pour l’occasion, la rame a été re-pelliculée aux couleurs de ses livrées historiques : orange d’origine pour les motrices, bleu et carmillon pour les voitures."

"For the occasion, the train has been re-coated in its original liveries: the locomotives in original orange, blue (Atlantique livery) and carmillon (most recent SNCF livery) for the passenger cars."

 

Sorry for the confusion, you were right, the media reports and the twitter posts were unclear. The picture I linked in my previous message shows that the last visible car is in the TGV Atlantique livery. That would for sure make for an interesting model.

Edited February 6, 2020 by disturbman

[Yavianice]

Here is a picture of the whole train

 

 

[Martijn Meerts]

Sure hope they're not doing a model of that version 😉

 

[Yavianice]

It is a good idea with terrible execution. For example a gradient boundary between liveries from an old power head to a new power head would have been lovely. 
 

this just looks like a painting mistake. The middle cars have two liveries even with a join in an awkward spot. Ugly!

[DanielMackay]

SNCF Rainbow Fleet!

[enosuomynona]

The orange part of the livery is a little off, the white stripe is too wide compare to the original standard orange TGV livery.  The paint scheme looks more like the livery on the diesel prototype TGV 001. It looks kind strange to see the orange livery painted this way as it makes the TGV looks not as elegant.  I like the narrower white strip on the standard orange TGV livery.

[Yavianice]

Here is a video from Erebos San showing the whole train.

 

Yup, great idea, but poor execution.

 

 

[disturbman]

18 hours ago, enosuomynona said:

The orange part of the livery is a little off, the white stripe is too wide compare to the original standard orange TGV livery.

Indeed, good catch. Incidentally, I think I prefer this slightly wider version.😊

 

2 hours ago, Yavianice said:

Yup, great idea, but poor execution.

I don’t know what the SNCF was thinking. From what I read, it was meant as an internal homage, not a public one, with the train touring various maintenance centres around France

 

Either it was an half-thought out, last minute plan, or something done on the cheap. Do we know if the whole train will be scrapped or just the locomotives ?

Edited February 10, 2020 by disturbman

[Yavianice]

I think in the original article I linked there were plans to display the locomotive like they did with their gas-turbine predecessor.

 

Probably the rest will be scrapped.

 

16 hours ago, enosuomynona said:

The orange part of the livery is a little off, the white stripe is too wide compare to the original standard orange TGV livery.   I like the narrower white strip on the standard orange TGV livery.

 

I don't mind either, but what I don't like is the humongous SNCF logo on the front. Originally this was a bit smaller. Definitely done on a budget. Too bad.

[disturbman]

Yes, as I noted earlier, the logo was originally smaller and in relief.

 

https://www.sncf.com/sites/default/files/styles/media_crop_4_3_paragraphe_50_50/public/2017-10/page_164._cite_du_train_quais_de_l_histoire.tgv_pse_motrice_61_de_1982_086.jpg?h=fd558055&itok=VYcEVPrc
 

I am surprised they couldn’t find an original.

[enosuomynona]

Definitely done on the cheap.  The original SNCF gives the livery a little something extra.  

[enosuomynona]

I also, noticed that the SNCF logo only applied to one of the power cars, the other end is just the standard orange.

[disturbman]

2 hours ago, Yavianice said:

I think in the original article I linked there were plans to display the locomotive like they did with their gas-turbine predecessor.

They were only saying that one of the locomotives of the TGV 001 is displayed near Belfort. The original article linked in the article you linked, says that nobody knows what the SNCF plans for the TGV 01.

"On ignore ce que la SNCF réserve à Patrick pour sa retraite."

https://www.lavoixdunord.fr/705550/article/2020-02-05/sncf-patrick-le-premier-tgv-va-prendre-sa-retraite-apres-42-ans-de-service

[jappomania]

aargh.. 🙈

like my french friends says "c'est d'la merde!"

it's umbelievable that they haven't use the TGV loco restored from Mulhouse museum (Disturbman photo) like base model, OK, maybe the side panels sequence can't be correctly restored (possible only for static display), but the nose cover, the white stripes, the grey rooftop profile ...... (f..k, the old Lima TGV model is painted better!)

it's like a casual bunch of parts from dismantled trains found in train depot and joined

I don't know if that's really a "cheap" tribute to TGV, but what I know is that a good or a wrong job require the same time and cost
the difference is only that at the end "you are fired" (and in my life I fired a lot of people....)

 

@disturbman

 

TGV PSE 16 and TGV-A 325 are planned for preservation for historic trains, probably will be the same for some other head cars, but for display only

 

 

Edited February 10, 2020 by disturbman
just the french ;)

[jappomania]

50 minutes ago, enosuomynona said:

I also, noticed that the SNCF logo only applied to one of the power cars, the other end is just the standard orange.

 

it's correct because they reproduced small different version of orange livery, one with original nose SNCF logo - first type TGV logo on side panel and the renewed version without nose logo, second type TGV logo on side panel and SNCF spaghetti logo near the door

(also the position of 01 train number is correctly different - moved from the emergency door panel to the front small equipement door)

Edited February 10, 2020 by jappomania