BR steam liveries

Bit of both I think, I also think it was due to quite substantial repairs often being done away from Swindon in places I assume didn't benefit from a paint shop.

 

Same applied to M&SWJ livery (where locos returned from heavy repairs seem to have spent an eternity in the paint shop) and, over in Ireland, many an early GSR withdrawal languished, here and there, long enough for their faded pre-WWI liveries to become visible, after the thin layer of 'battleship grey' had weathered to nowt.

 

Well to be fair, Swindon didn't have a paint shop either! Anyway, there's a question, what was the last engine to be turned out in a pre-nationalization livery? Frustratingly I don't have the exact date to hand, but a Dean Goods was turned out from Wolverhampton in 'wartime' GWR black in, I think, late January 1948. The details are in one of the GWR Journals.

Just to add a spanner in the works, the term 'lake' refers to a specific process by which a colour is produced, being a mix of a water-soluble dye and a metallic salt. However it tends to be used by enthusiasts as some sort of peerage title, denoting the glories of the pre-grouping age over the low-quality proletariat maroon spawned by the Revolution of 1948.

 

Indeed it is. On the 3rd Aug. '68 when I was there this seemed to be the store road for preservation locos. At the stops ahead of 61306 were (4)6441 and (4)2073 while in front of 42085 was 75027 (in WR green livery) which had just been set aside for the Bluebell.

Peter

 

My understanding is that it wasn't outshopped in lined black but received a lined tender from a withdrawn Black Five, and enthusiasts then decided to complete the job and lined out the cabsides afterwards. A low-res image of it appeared on a Lostock Hall website, although I can't find the site now. This is the image of 8618.

 

Don't think I have ever seen a colour photo, but one would assume with the interchangeability of tenders it would not be unknown for say a green tender to end up attached to a black locomotive, I am thinking at least on western region with the 4000 gallon tenders being so widely used between express and mixed traffic locomotives, less sure with the Stanier ones?

 

Green liveried 45697 Achilles finished its last few days working from Holbeck coupled to a black tender. I've probably gots some photos but can't immediately lay my hand on them

 

I’m not so sure. Swindon finish was pretty durable, some locos were still to be seen in the pre 1934 livery post war. There was no paintshop at Swindon, it was all done in the main works

 

It goes back further than that. On the LMS, there was some redistribution of tenders among the Stanier Pacifics, and red 6231 acquired the black streamlined tender from 6249. The BRILL book of the Coronations Mk2 shows a photo dated 2 May 1948 of a newly overhauled 46224 with BR number and the full LMS 1946 black livery. It went straight back to the paintshop, possibly without re-entering service, to emerge in BR blue livery.

 

There was a Stanier 8F working out of Speke Junction shed paired with a lined green tender.

 

Why didn't you say so? We could have arranged a swap.

 

In GWR Journal #7 there's a colour photo of Hall with a different coloured tender, it's in the same article I mentioned earlier regarding the Dean Goods.

There's a 70s/80s footplate reminiscence book written by a Plymouth area fireman, it might be A Loco Fireman Looks Back, which mentions buying some gold paint and touching up the Great Western lettering on a 45xx. This would've been in the fifties. I can't remember though if it says the original lettering was just worn, or actually showing through a later finish. I do wonder if some of these cases were due to a quick and dirty coat of unbranded corporate black applied early on in BR - not necessarily at Swindon. With mid-chrome green weathering to black anyway, it wouldn't be so obvious when the later finish began to wear through. 1401 in the Tifield Thunderbolt is a good example of a hasty 'rebranding'; I've often wondered if this was done specifically for the film on the insistence of BR.

 

Hornby had a black tender on a green locomotive:

 

This unlikely combination was a temporary phenomenon for the 1948 locomotive interchanges. As there were no water troughs on the Southern Region, SR tender locos didn't have a water scoop, so the Bulleid Pacifics selected for use on the WR, LMR and ER were paired with Stanier tenders so they could top up from the troughs and thus omplete the long non-stop runs. A rather odd looking combination, but - for a brief period - authentic.

(I know this is accurate, even though my surmising about 30072 being painted green on page 1 of this thread turned out to be unfounded - thanks to Mr Togormaig for correcting me.)

 

I read that when BR decided to paint locos blue, Polmadie found a supply of Caledonian blue paint and turned one possibly two of their LMS pacifics in full lined out Caledonian livery.
When one of these arrived at Euston, the higher authorities soon "slapped some wrists" and that livery was short lived.

 

That seems unduly curmudgeonly. If the intention was to assess various possible liveries, including a blue one, before making a final choice, one version of blue should have been as acceptable as another.

 

I have to admit to being a bit dubious on that one. All the Pacifics, even the ScR ones, were overhauled at Crewe and I can't see Polmadie - a running shed - doing a full engine repaint.

 

Got to be photo charter worthy with 34081 surely........

 

I heard this story many years ago but it sounded dubious on the highly unlikely chance of a few tins of Caley blue paint kicking around at a shed for nearly 30 years

 

Talking of Caley blue.....