V/Line commenced repainting their carriage fleet into a new grey, white and red livery in late 2007, the offical launch being on September 12th at Southern Cross Station. So where have they gotten up to since?

It took a year for a final version to appear, with carriages being progressively repainted with just a few remaining as of 2010.

Carriage set FSH25 was the first to receive the new livery, by August 2007 it had been refurbished and repainted, then stored in the EDI Rail section of Newport Workshops pending the public launch. Initial rumors suggested that V/Line would test the set by the cover of night, but it went out in public on September 04, 2007 for a daytime test run to Geelong. The interior was still incomplete at the time.

N474+FSH25 at North Shore

East end of passenger saloon - BH car?

Sprinter 7007 was also refurbished and repainted, the first version of the new livery being rejected, and a revised version applied. Mechanical issues delayed 7007 reentering service.

The public launch of the refurbished trains and new livery was held on September 12, 2007 at Southern Cross Station.

Launch of the new livery

After the initial launch, the livery on the trains was altered. White window lining was applied to half of the windows of FSH25 by mid October, the rest of he set followed a few days later:

Comparison of window lining before and after

The first N carriage to be repainted was the newly converted BZN252, being released to traffic in October 2007. The livery was slightly different to the H cars, the red bands at each end being extended to the end of the carbody, in the same was as the revised Sprinter livery.

BZN 252 in new V/Line livery, stabled at Geelong

The first complete N set to be refurbished and repainted was VN12, it was taken on a test run in December 2007.

N458 leads N451 push-pull and four cars of carriage set VN12 in the new V/Line livery on a test run to Geelong

By March 2008 V/Line decided to tinker with the N set livery yet again, with a white stripe added along the window line of repainted set FN14. The job was done in a rush, as the stripes did not continue along the entire carbody, and some sections were missed entirely. It was not until around May 2009 that set FN14 received a complete set of white stripes along the window line, VN12 also receiving white window stripes around the same period.

Missing stripes on the BN of set FN14

V/Line finally decided upon a final version of the livery in May 2008 with set FSH23, the white window band being extended to the full carriage length, and the white highlight of the window frames being removed.

New liveried FSH 23

All N cars repainted since that time have also received the same version of the new livery:

N466 passes through Franklin Street with another load of commuters

The same livery has been also applied to the future standard gauge carriage sets, here set SN15 is coupled to refurbished power van PCJ493. Due to their silver fluting minor modifications were needed to the coloured bands.

Carriage set SN15 coupled to new liveried PCJ493, and alongside old liveried PCJ492

Newly converted power van PH454 has received a different variant of the new livery:

Power van PH454 trailing an N set at North Shore