GWR wagons red livery

In an attempt to lose the liner scrap yard look of Bewdley car park, we are planning on giving these wagons a cosmetic restoration.



The 4 Plank Open was built in 1890, so I'd like to paint it in GWR 19th century red livery.



So far, I have only found three photos of GWR wagons in red; at Tenbury, Bridgnorth and Bromyard. All these will have been hand tinted, so allow for artistic licence.



There's an article with references at http://www.gwr.org.uk/liverieswagonred.html
Has anyone got any clearer photos or other references?

 

Photos not showing here, but AIUI the gwr.org article represents the sum total of knowledge gleaned so far. You **might** find an overlooked snippet or two from a trawl around the RMWeb forums, as it's been discussed more than once.

I'd be very wary of hand-tinted photographs, there's one that shows some GW opens in green!

Assuming it's 41277, I'd throw caution to the winds & give it a coat or three of red oxide, letter it & sit back and wait for the howls from the armchairs. You never know, it might result in further **real** info coming forth. (That said, I'd run the scheme past Pat Goss and/or @nick813 first as it's a Fund wagon).

Pete S.

 

I've discussed this with Pat and with Steve, our head of department.
The two relevant points we all agree on are that the SVR as a whole is not recreating a specific point in time. Each wagon is an exhibit in its own right, so there's nothing wrong with having a wagon in 1890 livery next to, say, a 1960s tank wagon.
Secondly, with so many wagons unrestored, if someone wants to put the work into painting one, it's up to them what livery they choose.

The only difference of opinion comes with the Brecon & Merthyr 4 plank open next to 41277. It would be nice to paint the only surviving complete vehicle from the Brecon and Merthyr Tydfil Junction Railway in B&M livery, except that it was 'modernised' by the GWR, so would never have carried that livery with those buffers and axle boxes.

 

I would say 'does it matter about the buffers and axleboxes?' At the end of the day, how many vehicles can be said to be truly authentic to the livery they carry. Usually something has been changed for ease of use, modern safety standards or simply because there's no record of how a particular part looked.
If the majority of the wagon is B&M then I think that justifies the B&M livery. Other opinions are available...

 

That's pretty much how I see it. There's a BR ballast wagon at Arley in GWR livery and a couple of BR built coaches in LMS livery in the LMS set and no one's complained yet. And as for the diesel locos...

 

I wonder if the prospect of restoring it back to its B&M condition (if possible) might be something that could attract funding as a project? ie restore unique vehicle to original condition - even if it were just a cosmetic restoration, might attract more attention the eyeballs of potential donors.

I'd be in favour of painting it in B&M colours, and then if someone complains that the buffers and axle boxes are wrong I'd tell them that I would welcome their funding and physical contributions to restoring it to its original condition, if not they can jog on. But then this is probably why I am not in fund raising

 

Some info here on Victorian period colours, note the section on oil-based paints.
http://www.terracedhouses.co.uk/index5-paint.html

 

With HST powercars in the sidings and gigantic exhibition/carriage sheds (all for legitimate reasons I hasten to add!!) I think you can be forgiven for a few axlebox/buffer livery discrepancies

Sent from my moto g(8) power using Tapatalk

 

Powercar singular - we're down to one now

Patrick