I saw very little of the AL locomotives in their glory days and don't remember them at all well. I think the idea was that the livery of the Glasgow Blue Trains would mimic the later Caledonian sky blue, which it did rather well. When the early diesels started being turned out in blue I thought it was a darker shade, and it weathered quickly, losing its ex-works gloss and attracting dirt very easily. They were rarely, if ever, cleaned during the summer I worked at Inverness. There was no clear coat, so any engine coolant spill attacked the paint right away. Wasn't there a similar weathering problem on the Southern in their malachite period?
On the subject of loco liveries, I have a copy of a letter from Percy Banyard, who ended his career as a Loco Inspector at Leicester (GC),
Mr Banyard recalled walking into Leicester shed and seeing several GC green engines, no two of which were the same shade of green.
I do think modellers are too precious about liveries that no living person has seen, when we are talking about an age when foremen mixed paints (they did not come in a tin of Dulux marked, for example, GC green) and where there was heavy industrial pollution in the atmosphere, which would certainly have had an impact over time.
E. S. Cox, who started on the Lancashire and Yorkshire and ended up in a senior loco engineering role on BR commented that when first introduced after the grouping LMS red varied quite a bit between different the works. Horwich painted locos tending to end up a brighter shade of red than the more serious red that emanated from Derby.
Unlike ex-LNWR men who resented anything that came from the Midland and aspired to retain black for everything as long as they could get away with it, Cox reckoned L&Y locos that were eligible for red looked a lot better for it than the rather dull lined black L&Y livery that had preceded it.
I saw very little of the AL locomotives in their glory days and don't remember them at all well. I think the idea was that the livery of the Glasgow Blue Trains would mimic the later Caledonian sky blue, which it did rather well.
Yes, that is my belief although I only went to Glasgow in 1975 so missed the original Blue Train livery. The trains themselves were impressive. I did see the AL locos at Euston in their original livery, they looked very nice.
When the early diesels started being turned out in blue I thought it was a darker shade, and it weathered quickly, losing its ex-works gloss and attracting dirt very easily.
Unlike ex-LNWR men who resented anything that came from the Midland and aspired to retain black for everything as long as they could get away with it, Cox reckoned L&Y locos that were eligible for red looked a lot better for it than the rather dull lined black L&Y livery that had preceded it.
Another *blue* railway that comes to mind is the Great Eastern, whose livery (as seen on the preserved 2-4-0, for example) appears to be of a fairly dark shade.
I've always quite liked British Railways blue, especially as applied to steam engines...
Not sure about the three Rheidol locomotives ... https://tinyurl.com/mthebfx2. One of them at least later gained some kind of lining. It's recently been announced that No.9 is being repainted into this livery.
This and this might make a few heads spin, but actually I think they look quite smart. I wonder if any preserved railways could be persuaded to do a "what if" paint job on one of their steamers...
Another *blue* railway that comes to mind is the Great Eastern, whose livery (as seen on the preserved 2-4-0, for example) appears to be of a fairly dark shade.
I've always quite liked British Railways blue, especially as applied to steam engines...
Not sure about the three Rheidol locomotives ... https://tinyurl.com/mthebfx2. One of them at least later gained some kind of lining. It's recently been announced that No.9 is being repainted into this livery.
This and this might make a few heads spin, but actually I think they look quite smart. I wonder if any preserved railways could be persuaded to do a "what if" paint job on one of their steamers...
The volume of hate mail the SVR received in 1985(?) when they photographed City of Truro in BR black with early cream would suggest it’s not worth it…
On the subject of loco liveries, I have a copy of a letter from Percy Banyard, who ended his career as a Loco Inspector at Leicester (GC),
Mr Banyard recalled walking into Leicester shed and seeing several GC green engines, no two of which were the same shade of green.
I do think modellers are too precious about liveries that no living person has seen, when we are talking about an age when foremen mixed paints (they did not come in a tin of Dulux marked, for example, GC green) and where there was heavy industrial pollution in the atmosphere, which would certainly have had an impact over time.
E. S. Cox, who started on the Lancashire and Yorkshire and ended up in a senior loco engineering role on BR commented that when first introduced after the grouping LMS red varied quite a bit between different the works. Horwich painted locos tending to end up a brighter shade of red than the more serious red that emanated from Derby.
Unlike ex-LNWR men who resented anything that came from the Midland and aspired to retain black for everything as long as they could get away with it, Cox reckoned L&Y locos that were eligible for red looked a lot better for it than the rather dull lined black L&Y livery that had preceded it.
The LMS was particularly prone to such internal rivalry.
However even the LNER was not immune - Gorton works outshopped an A5 in full-on lined out GCR freight black well into Grouping years (lettered for the LNER) and after livery standards had been agreed!
No one is quite sure why, other than because they could get away with it.
Another *blue* railway that comes to mind is the Great Eastern, whose livery (as seen on the preserved 2-4-0, for example) appears to be of a fairly dark shade.
I've always quite liked British Railways blue, especially as applied to steam engines...
Not sure about the three Rheidol locomotives ... https://tinyurl.com/mthebfx2. One of them at least later gained some kind of lining. It's recently been announced that No.9 is being repainted into this livery.
This and this might make a few heads spin, but actually I think they look quite smart. I wonder if any preserved railways could be persuaded to do a "what if" paint job on one of their steamers...
The volume of hate mail the SVR received in 1985(?) when they photographed City of Truro in BR black with early cream would suggest it’s not worth it…
On the other hand, that was one of the greatest (if not THE greatest) April Fools in railways history!
On the subject of loco liveries, I have a copy of a letter from Percy Banyard, who ended his career as a Loco Inspector at Leicester (GC),
Mr Banyard recalled walking into Leicester shed and seeing several GC green engines, no two of which were the same shade of green.
I do think modellers are too precious about liveries that no living person has seen, when we are talking about an age when foremen mixed paints (they did not come in a tin of Dulux marked, for example, GC green) and where there was heavy industrial pollution in the atmosphere, which would certainly have had an impact over time.
E. S. Cox, who started on the Lancashire and Yorkshire and ended up in a senior loco engineering role on BR commented that when first introduced after the grouping LMS red varied quite a bit between different the works. Horwich painted locos tending to end up a brighter shade of red than the more serious red that emanated from Derby.
Unlike ex-LNWR men who resented anything that came from the Midland and aspired to retain black for everything as long as they could get away with it, Cox reckoned L&Y locos that were eligible for red looked a lot better for it than the rather dull lined black L&Y livery that had preceded it.
The LMS was particularly prone to such internal rivalry.
However even the LNER was not immune - Gorton works outshopped an A5 in full-on lined out GCR freight black well into Grouping years (lettered for the LNER) and after livery standards had been agreed!
No one is quite sure why, other than because they could get away with it.
Well, the tin of paint was open so why not use it?
On the subject of loco liveries, I have a copy of a letter from Percy Banyard, who ended his career as a Loco Inspector at Leicester (GC),
Mr Banyard recalled walking into Leicester shed and seeing several GC green engines, no two of which were the same shade of green.
I do think modellers are too precious about liveries that no living person has seen, when we are talking about an age when foremen mixed paints (they did not come in a tin of Dulux marked, for example, GC green) and where there was heavy industrial pollution in the atmosphere, which would certainly have had an impact over time.
E. S. Cox, who started on the Lancashire and Yorkshire and ended up in a senior loco engineering role on BR commented that when first introduced after the grouping LMS red varied quite a bit between different the works. Horwich painted locos tending to end up a brighter shade of red than the more serious red that emanated from Derby.
Unlike ex-LNWR men who resented anything that came from the Midland and aspired to retain black for everything as long as they could get away with it, Cox reckoned L&Y locos that were eligible for red looked a lot better for it than the rather dull lined black L&Y livery that had preceded it.
The LMS was particularly prone to such internal rivalry.
However even the LNER was not immune - Gorton works outshopped an A5 in full-on lined out GCR freight black well into Grouping years (lettered for the LNER) and after livery standards had been agreed!
No one is quite sure why, other than because they could get away with it.
Well, the tin of paint was open so why not use it?
Well, yes - that was quite ridiculous, and, in fact, Major Outrage.
Another railway - not sure which - ran a rebuilt Bulleid/Jarvis Pacific in wartime Southern black, which was also Outrage (and pointless IMHO). The Merchant Navies were, of course, originally outshopped in that austere livery, and very impressive they no doubt looked, but...
The KR Models Leader in rail blue looks OK (given the model's faults), but they might have done better to produce it in the darker 1950s blue. Had the Leaders ever entered traffic, they would probably have been in lined black (being mixed-traffic engines), but the Brunswick Green version looks well. There are photos of 36001 in plain black whilst still in the works - for some reason, she was painted in the light grey prior to being allowed out into the open.
FWIW, the BR lined black - which IIRC was derived from the LNWR - looked good on most types, with the exception of the Southern Schools 4-4-0s. It made them look rather dumpy IYSWIM, but BR painted most of them Brunswick Green at some point.
On the subject of loco liveries, I have a copy of a letter from Percy Banyard, who ended his career as a Loco Inspector at Leicester (GC),
Mr Banyard recalled walking into Leicester shed and seeing several GC green engines, no two of which were the same shade of green.
I do think modellers are too precious about liveries that no living person has seen, when we are talking about an age when foremen mixed paints (they did not come in a tin of Dulux marked, for example, GC green) and where there was heavy industrial pollution in the atmosphere, which would certainly have had an impact over time.
E. S. Cox, who started on the Lancashire and Yorkshire and ended up in a senior loco engineering role on BR commented that when first introduced after the grouping LMS red varied quite a bit between different the works. Horwich painted locos tending to end up a brighter shade of red than the more serious red that emanated from Derby.
Unlike ex-LNWR men who resented anything that came from the Midland and aspired to retain black for everything as long as they could get away with it, Cox reckoned L&Y locos that were eligible for red looked a lot better for it than the rather dull lined black L&Y livery that had preceded it.
The LMS was particularly prone to such internal rivalry.
However even the LNER was not immune - Gorton works outshopped an A5 in full-on lined out GCR freight black well into Grouping years (lettered for the LNER) and after livery standards had been agreed!
No one is quite sure why, other than because they could get away with it.
On the subject of loco liveries, I have a copy of a letter from Percy Banyard, who ended his career as a Loco Inspector at Leicester (GC),
Mr Banyard recalled walking into Leicester shed and seeing several GC green engines, no two of which were the same shade of green.
I do think modellers are too precious about liveries that no living person has seen, when we are talking about an age when foremen mixed paints (they did not come in a tin of Dulux marked, for example, GC green) and where there was heavy industrial pollution in the atmosphere, which would certainly have had an impact over time.
E. S. Cox, who started on the Lancashire and Yorkshire and ended up in a senior loco engineering role on BR commented that when first introduced after the grouping LMS red varied quite a bit between different the works. Horwich painted locos tending to end up a brighter shade of red than the more serious red that emanated from Derby.
Unlike ex-LNWR men who resented anything that came from the Midland and aspired to retain black for everything as long as they could get away with it, Cox reckoned L&Y locos that were eligible for red looked a lot better for it than the rather dull lined black L&Y livery that had preceded it.
The LMS was particularly prone to such internal rivalry.
However even the LNER was not immune - Gorton works outshopped an A5 in full-on lined out GCR freight black well into Grouping years (lettered for the LNER) and after livery standards had been agreed!
No one is quite sure why, other than because they could get away with it.
Well, the tin of paint was open so why not use it?
Well, yes - that was quite ridiculous, and, in fact, Major Outrage.
Another railway - not sure which - ran a rebuilt Bulleid/Jarvis Pacific in wartime Southern black, which was also Outrage (and pointless IMHO). The Merchant Navies were, of course, originally outshopped in that austere livery, and very impressive they no doubt looked, but...
Same railway, same engine - ‘you don’t like the purple, so that’s got to go at the end of the jubilee year as we promised, but we don’t have vast amounts of money, there’s less than a year left on the ten-year ticket, so it’s going to be plain black but we’ll do you a ‘what if’’
Was basically what happened there. No pleasing some people 😂
The management openly said that it was going to be a complete waste of money (while removing the purple) to do a full lined green job for less than a year of running before dismantling for overhaul.
In the mid-1960s when I travelled on the line the Vale of Rheidol engines were in full BR lined green passenger livery which very much suited them.
On LNWR 'blackberry black' I think there was debate at one time whether that was genuinely a particular shade of black or whether it was achieved with the level of finish and a lot of assiduous cleaning with oily rags. I seem to remember reading somewhere that in the early 1950s, a keen shedmaster who had started on the LNWR long previously, but by that time was in charge of a shed somewhere on the Southern Region, managed to train his cleaners in how to turn out BR Standard tanks in something that looked pretty similar to what people then remembered had been prevalent on the LNWR 35-40 years previously.
In BR steam days, the standard of locomotive cleanliness varied quite a lot. On the ex-LMS with its long and complex loco diagrams, engines were usually pretty grubby even if mechanically not too bad. Their coaching stock was not too bad. Engines on the ex-GWR were noticeably much cleaner. By all repute, but it's before my memory, it was the the LNER just after the war that tended to be the filthiest, and that is why they tried to improve matters by starting to paint some of their engines green again. Whether that did much for their coaching stock I cannot say,
We seldom saw really clean engines in the Town Of My Youth, though ex-works examples on running-in turns were not unknown - we weren't far from a large Works. The Golden Arrow engine was, of course, as immaculate as only Stewarts Lane could manage.
Some of the Maunsell Moguls and BR Standard 2-6-4Ts used on the line to the west were often reasonably presentable, as were our own local H class 0-4-4Ts until electrocution in 1961 saw their demise...
LNER workaday coaches were mostly AIUI a rather dull mid-brown, which lasted well into BR days. The apple green locomotives must have been a welcome dash of colour on the main lines, at least.
... as were our own local H class 0-4-4Ts until electrocution in 1961 saw their demise...
That sounds a bit - er - extreme!
Well, yes - a few lingered on, but they seemed to disappear almost overnight. Nice little engines - good-looking (thanks to Wainwright), free-steaming (thanks to Surtees), and capable of some hard toil if needed, though their latter-day duties were nowhere near as onerous as the London suburban work of their youth.
Now, I thought BF meant every word he said, recalling a friend many years ago who snorted at the very idea of the ECML being, as he said, electrocuted where once the sainted Gresley pacifics had trod without ever needing an umbilical cord to a power station.
I saw the Arrow at Folkestone Warren shortly before its demise but can't recall what was on the front: a 71, 73 or 33. I used to sometimes see the 74s (rebuilt electro-diesel 71 as electro-diesels) at Southampton, notably on the Channel Islands Boat Train. I suspect that they changed to a 33 at Bournemouth.
I saw the Arrow at Folkestone Warren shortly before its demise but can't recall what was on the front: a 71, 73 or 33. I used to sometimes see the 74s (rebuilt electro-diesel 71 as electro-diesels) at Southampton, notably on the Channel Islands Boat Train. I suspect that they changed to a 33 at Bournemouth.
It would probably have been a class 71, and, in all fairness, these were actually quite handsome locomotives, with subtly-curved body sides and ends. They looked well in their original green, though malachite green would have suited them even better!
Meanwhile, my newsletter from Rapido tells me that their neat little Barclay fireless 0-4-0Fs have been affected by *issues*, and have been returned to the factory for rectification.
My chemical works (their extensive sidings can hold six tank wagons, no less! ) will have to manage with horses for a while yet, or maybe Fred, Ted, Ed, and Jed working overtime with ropes...
Still, as Rapido say, better to get the issues resolved now, even if it involves delay, rather than have customers receive unsatisfactory models.
I thought it was quite nice, actually. And certainly a pleasant change from the relentlessly boring parade of green or black liveries that we normally get on preserved steam locos.
Pre-grouping railways used a wide variety of colours, but AFAIK no-one employed purple, at least as the main colour...no doubt someone will prove me wrong.
Post-grouping, of course, reduced this to greens, maroon, the occasional blue, and black, and these were perpetuated in various ways post-nationalisation.
Just over the Channel, the former Chemin de Fer du Nord used a rather attractive (IMHO) chocolate brown, until they were absorbed into the SNCF:
Pre-grouping railways used a wide variety of colours, but AFAIK no-one employed purple, at least as the main colour...no doubt someone will prove me wrong.
I think you’re on safe ground! Note though that at least some A4s did get purple as one of the experimental BR liveries post Nationalisation. There have been models IIRC.
The North Staffordshire livery does indeed look *purplish* in that photo, but I daresay it was one of those colours that varied according to age, lighting etc. etc. - and also perhaps depended on who mixed the paint!
FWIW, one of my favourite colour schemes for coaches and railcars is red-and-cream, or *blood-and-custard* as it was sometimes known in BR days. Something very similar was common on many French railcars (both standard- and metre-gauge) until recently, and can be seen on preserved examples, although the CFD's Vivarais and Corsican systems used red-and-grey.
The late-lamented County Donegal used it on coaches and railcars (again, it can be seen on preserved items), and it was latterly the principal livery of Isle of Man Railway steam stock. When the IoMR bought the two newest Donegal railcars (19 and 20), they painted them in their Isle of Man Road Services bus livery - a darker red with (IIRC) just one cream band - which suited them well, nevertheless.
Back in the 80s, I travelled on a red-and-cream ex-German railcar on the Austrian 76cm-gauge Zillertalbahn, and was delighted to find that the municipally-owned Innsbruck trams and buses were in pure County Donegal colours!
Moving further abroad, a red-and-yellow/yellowish-cream livery can be found on the antique Russian-design (I think) DMUs in Moldova...
The overnight train from Mombasa to Nairobi (now replaced by the new standard gauge line) was very similar to the earlier BR livery as, more recently, was the very nice Strathclyde PTE livery: https://tinyurl.com/3k6rf7kb. The old (pre-1976) Glasgow Subway livery was red, perhaps similar to the County Donegal shade.
The overnight train from Mombasa to Nairobi (now replaced by the new standard gauge line) was very similar to the earlier BR livery as, more recently, was the very nice Strathclyde PTE livery: https://tinyurl.com/3k6rf7kb. The old (pre-1976) Glasgow Subway livery was red, perhaps similar to the County Donegal shade.
Yes, I'd forgotten about the Strathclyde livery.
I think the Glasgow Subway (pre-Clockwork Orange!) livery was similar to CDRJC red, but only when newly-applied, and only on the side which people saw...
Indeed. Apparently, the offside (so to speak) came into view when the cars were lifted out for overhaul, and the dreadful state of the surface thus exposed made grown men weep...
I expect they did give that side a coat of paint now and then, though.
The former Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway works at Tuxford continued to turn out locos in LDEC style (but lettered Great Central) long after the GC takeover and perhaps right through until 1923. This included any GC standard engines that fell into their hands, not just their 'own'.
This seems scarcely believable to us, as we live in an age of corporate image manuals, but the practice is well documented. I have to add that Gorton itself had some odd ideas. For example, the little Sacre 2-4-0ts were painted in at least two distinct styles.
Pre-grouping railways used a wide variety of colours, but AFAIK no-one employed purple, at least as the main colour...no doubt someone will prove me wrong.
I think one obscure example was the West Lancashire Railway. Although IIRC they had engines in a variety of colours. I'm not sure they were all purple.
Pre-grouping railways used a wide variety of colours, but AFAIK no-one employed purple, at least as the main colour...no doubt someone will prove me wrong.
I think one obscure example was the West Lancashire Railway. Although IIRC they had engines in a variety of colours. I'm not sure they were all purple.
C Hamilton Ellis (in The Trains We Loved) records that the West Lancashire Railway had several 0-4-2s painted purple from new, but also that this rather engaging, if eccentric, little concern had some choice secondhand oddities in a variety of colours, including ex-LBSCR Craven 2-2-2 express engines still in Stroudley *yellow*...
Hamilton Ellis says that the only other purple engine he could recall was Herod - a Beattie 2-4-0 on the London & South Western Railway - painted thus sometime in the 1860s.
Well, well. I said someone would come along to correct me, so thanks for the information, and for the pointer back to one of my favourite railway books!
The former Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway works at Tuxford continued to turn out locos in LDEC style (but lettered Great Central) long after the GC takeover and perhaps right through until 1923. This included any GC standard engines that fell into their hands, not just their 'own'.
This seems scarcely believable to us, as we live in an age of corporate image manuals, but the practice is well documented. I have to add that Gorton itself had some odd ideas. For example, the little Sacre 2-4-0ts were painted in at least two distinct styles.
The LDEC locomotive livery was lined black, I understand. Might Tuxford have got away with perpetuating it because black paint was cheaper than GC green, do you think?
Not purple, I admit, but I believe one LNWR Greater Britain 2-2-2-2 compound, unusually and impractically for a steam locomotive, appeared at one stage in a special exhibition lined white livery!
The pictures in "The Trains We Loved" are well worth a look!
Wasn't a loco - I think NBR no.55 - painted in Royal Stewart Tartan livery?
IIRC Ellis reckons that the engine had certain panels painted tartan, IOW not all-over tartan!
There have certainly been some other spectacular (?) one-off liveries, as @Sighthound points out, so a purple Bulleid Pacific is following a long tradition.
Not purple, I admit, but I believe one LNWR Greater Britain 2-2-2-2 compound, unusually and impractically for a steam locomotive, appeared at one stage in a special exhibition lined white livery!
Not sure if this came up here once before, but my maternal grandfather told of seeing three big L&NWR locomotives in what he described as red, white and blue, from his school playground by the main line in Pinner, the occasion being Queen Victoria's jubilee in 1895. I read somewhere else that the blue one was not in fact blue, but normal L&NWR black (I can't confirm that).
I beg to slightly differ (having been to Hungary several times) :
The D1 DMUs were actually made in Hungary for the Russian (Soviet) 1520mm gauge state railways in the then USSR, and by the well-known Ganz-MAVAG company. Transfer was made simpler by the relative vicinity of the Ukrainian border, and the switch from standard to Russian gauge there.
Even before its merger with Ganz, MAVAG produced quite a few Hungarian landmarks, be it bridges or railway engines, underground EMUs, trams, or even buses and planes.
More from Wiki, and regarding impressive Mallets (having discussed Garretts a few pages back!):
The MÁV class 601 (nicknamed "The Giant" or "Big boy") was a class of Hungarian four-cylinder Mallet locomotives, which was designed to haul long and very heavy cargo on very steep railway tracks. At 22.5 m (73 ft 10 in) long and outputting 2,200 kW (3,000 hp), they were the largest and most powerful steam locomotives built in Europe before and during World War.
Saw Hornby's announcement of a J15 in quite lovely GE blue this morning. I don't remember seeing them at work, but perhaps they didn't stray into our (GNR) area.
If they can do a J15, I wonder if an E4 might be a possibility? They were more familiar, coming down from Cambridge for the Saturday RAF Henlow Camp leave trains on the Hitchin-Bedford line and hauling long trains far out of proportion to their size. The usual engine was 62785, the one that's now preserved, and sometimes 62797, one with the side window cab. Why can I remember those without having to look them up?
Comments
Unlike ex-LNWR men who resented anything that came from the Midland and aspired to retain black for everything as long as they could get away with it, Cox reckoned L&Y locos that were eligible for red looked a lot better for it than the rather dull lined black L&Y livery that had preceded it.
Again, agreed.
They looked quite nice with the lining, IMO.
This and this might make a few heads spin, but actually I think they look quite smart. I wonder if any preserved railways could be persuaded to do a "what if" paint job on one of their steamers...
The volume of hate mail the SVR received in 1985(?) when they photographed City of Truro in BR black with early cream would suggest it’s not worth it…
The LMS was particularly prone to such internal rivalry.
However even the LNER was not immune - Gorton works outshopped an A5 in full-on lined out GCR freight black well into Grouping years (lettered for the LNER) and after livery standards had been agreed!
No one is quite sure why, other than because they could get away with it.
On the other hand, that was one of the greatest (if not THE greatest) April Fools in railways history!
What I did not like was this: https://tinyurl.com/yazs7brj
Well, yes - that was quite ridiculous, and, in fact, Major Outrage.
Another railway - not sure which - ran a rebuilt Bulleid/Jarvis Pacific in wartime Southern black, which was also Outrage (and pointless IMHO). The Merchant Navies were, of course, originally outshopped in that austere livery, and very impressive they no doubt looked, but...
The KR Models Leader in rail blue looks OK (given the model's faults), but they might have done better to produce it in the darker 1950s blue. Had the Leaders ever entered traffic, they would probably have been in lined black (being mixed-traffic engines), but the Brunswick Green version looks well. There are photos of 36001 in plain black whilst still in the works - for some reason, she was painted in the light grey prior to being allowed out into the open.
FWIW, the BR lined black - which IIRC was derived from the LNWR - looked good on most types, with the exception of the Southern Schools 4-4-0s. It made them look rather dumpy IYSWIM, but BR painted most of them Brunswick Green at some point.
OTOH it was a temporary job designed to pull in a lot of passengers at a time when the SVR really (almost desperately) needed money.
It worked.
I can imagine the Fat Controller standing in front of the loco and saying in a severe voice, "What on earth have you been up to?"
If it brought the SVR some much-needed £££, well and good. It still looked hideous, though YMMV.
Still, it's not as awful as the risible *liveries* inflicted on other Sodor characters (many post-Awdry, I suspect) modelled by Bachmann.
Same railway, same engine - ‘you don’t like the purple, so that’s got to go at the end of the jubilee year as we promised, but we don’t have vast amounts of money, there’s less than a year left on the ten-year ticket, so it’s going to be plain black but we’ll do you a ‘what if’’
Was basically what happened there. No pleasing some people 😂
On LNWR 'blackberry black' I think there was debate at one time whether that was genuinely a particular shade of black or whether it was achieved with the level of finish and a lot of assiduous cleaning with oily rags. I seem to remember reading somewhere that in the early 1950s, a keen shedmaster who had started on the LNWR long previously, but by that time was in charge of a shed somewhere on the Southern Region, managed to train his cleaners in how to turn out BR Standard tanks in something that looked pretty similar to what people then remembered had been prevalent on the LNWR 35-40 years previously.
In BR steam days, the standard of locomotive cleanliness varied quite a lot. On the ex-LMS with its long and complex loco diagrams, engines were usually pretty grubby even if mechanically not too bad. Their coaching stock was not too bad. Engines on the ex-GWR were noticeably much cleaner. By all repute, but it's before my memory, it was the the LNER just after the war that tended to be the filthiest, and that is why they tried to improve matters by starting to paint some of their engines green again. Whether that did much for their coaching stock I cannot say,
Some of the Maunsell Moguls and BR Standard 2-6-4Ts used on the line to the west were often reasonably presentable, as were our own local H class 0-4-4Ts until electrocution in 1961 saw their demise...
LNER workaday coaches were mostly AIUI a rather dull mid-brown, which lasted well into BR days. The apple green locomotives must have been a welcome dash of colour on the main lines, at least.
Well, yes - a few lingered on, but they seemed to disappear almost overnight. Nice little engines - good-looking (thanks to Wainwright), free-steaming (thanks to Surtees), and capable of some hard toil if needed, though their latter-day duties were nowhere near as onerous as the London suburban work of their youth.
Yes - some PMs have explained matters!
Even the sainted Pacifics on the Golden Arrow were replaced by a boxy thing, which dared to wear the sacred embellishments of flags etc.
I saw the Arrow at Folkestone Warren shortly before its demise but can't recall what was on the front: a 71, 73 or 33. I used to sometimes see the 74s (rebuilt electro-diesel 71 as electro-diesels) at Southampton, notably on the Channel Islands Boat Train. I suspect that they changed to a 33 at Bournemouth.
It would probably have been a class 71, and, in all fairness, these were actually quite handsome locomotives, with subtly-curved body sides and ends. They looked well in their original green, though malachite green would have suited them even better!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_71
Meanwhile, my newsletter from Rapido tells me that their neat little Barclay fireless 0-4-0Fs have been affected by *issues*, and have been returned to the factory for rectification.
My chemical works (their extensive sidings can hold six tank wagons, no less!
Still, as Rapido say, better to get the issues resolved now, even if it involves delay, rather than have customers receive unsatisfactory models.
I thought it was quite nice, actually. And certainly a pleasant change from the relentlessly boring parade of green or black liveries that we normally get on preserved steam locos.
Not to mention: https://tinyurl.com/msfy4n97 and https://tinyurl.com/4uktyy29 - although I do take your point.
Post-grouping, of course, reduced this to greens, maroon, the occasional blue, and black, and these were perpetuated in various ways post-nationalisation.
Just over the Channel, the former Chemin de Fer du Nord used a rather attractive (IMHO) chocolate brown, until they were absorbed into the SNCF:
http://www.antiqbrocdelatour.com/les-anciens-trains-de-legende/images/La-Pacific-Chapelon-reseau-Nord-1934-musee-chemin-de-fer.jpg
I think you’re on safe ground! Note though that at least some A4s did get purple as one of the experimental BR liveries post Nationalisation. There have been models IIRC.
FWIW, one of my favourite colour schemes for coaches and railcars is red-and-cream, or *blood-and-custard* as it was sometimes known in BR days. Something very similar was common on many French railcars (both standard- and metre-gauge) until recently, and can be seen on preserved examples, although the CFD's Vivarais and Corsican systems used red-and-grey.
The late-lamented County Donegal used it on coaches and railcars (again, it can be seen on preserved items), and it was latterly the principal livery of Isle of Man Railway steam stock. When the IoMR bought the two newest Donegal railcars (19 and 20), they painted them in their Isle of Man Road Services bus livery - a darker red with (IIRC) just one cream band - which suited them well, nevertheless.
Back in the 80s, I travelled on a red-and-cream ex-German railcar on the Austrian 76cm-gauge Zillertalbahn, and was delighted to find that the municipally-owned Innsbruck trams and buses were in pure County Donegal colours!
Moving further abroad, a red-and-yellow/yellowish-cream livery can be found on the antique Russian-design (I think) DMUs in Moldova...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQAoWNJrGZQ
Yes, I'd forgotten about the Strathclyde livery.
I think the Glasgow Subway (pre-Clockwork Orange!) livery was similar to CDRJC red, but only when newly-applied, and only on the side which people saw...
I expect they did give that side a coat of paint now and then, though.
This seems scarcely believable to us, as we live in an age of corporate image manuals, but the practice is well documented. I have to add that Gorton itself had some odd ideas. For example, the little Sacre 2-4-0ts were painted in at least two distinct styles.
I think one obscure example was the West Lancashire Railway. Although IIRC they had engines in a variety of colours. I'm not sure they were all purple.
C Hamilton Ellis (in The Trains We Loved) records that the West Lancashire Railway had several 0-4-2s painted purple from new, but also that this rather engaging, if eccentric, little concern had some choice secondhand oddities in a variety of colours, including ex-LBSCR Craven 2-2-2 express engines still in Stroudley *yellow*...
Hamilton Ellis says that the only other purple engine he could recall was Herod - a Beattie 2-4-0 on the London & South Western Railway - painted thus sometime in the 1860s.
Well, well. I said someone would come along to correct me, so thanks for the information, and for the pointer back to one of my favourite railway books!
The LDEC locomotive livery was lined black, I understand. Might Tuxford have got away with perpetuating it because black paint was cheaper than GC green, do you think?
Wasn't a loco - I think NBR no.55 - painted in Royal Stewart Tartan livery?
IIRC Ellis reckons that the engine had certain panels painted tartan, IOW not all-over tartan!
There have certainly been some other spectacular (?) one-off liveries, as @Sighthound points out, so a purple Bulleid Pacific is following a long tradition.
Not sure if this came up here once before, but my maternal grandfather told of seeing three big L&NWR locomotives in what he described as red, white and blue, from his school playground by the main line in Pinner, the occasion being Queen Victoria's jubilee in 1895. I read somewhere else that the blue one was not in fact blue, but normal L&NWR black (I can't confirm that).
The D1 DMUs were actually made in Hungary for the Russian (Soviet) 1520mm gauge state railways in the then USSR, and by the well-known Ganz-MAVAG company. Transfer was made simpler by the relative vicinity of the Ukrainian border, and the switch from standard to Russian gauge there.
Even before its merger with Ganz, MAVAG produced quite a few Hungarian landmarks, be it bridges or railway engines, underground EMUs, trams, or even buses and planes.
More from Wiki, and regarding impressive Mallets (having discussed Garretts a few pages back!):
Impressive beast!
If they can do a J15, I wonder if an E4 might be a possibility? They were more familiar, coming down from Cambridge for the Saturday RAF Henlow Camp leave trains on the Hitchin-Bedford line and hauling long trains far out of proportion to their size. The usual engine was 62785, the one that's now preserved, and sometimes 62797, one with the side window cab. Why can I remember those without having to look them up?