British Rail - Express Passenger Blue Locomotives

The Didcot blue gala started a conversation at the weekend regarding which locomotives carried the BR Blue livery. I believe it was only class 8?

A1
A3
A4
Kings
Duchess
Merchant Navy

Did anything else carry the livery? (Hopefully no smart arse will say Thomas).

Its a shame the Lord Nelsons never did as 850 would look great in blue!

 

I believe it was applied to a couple of Jubilee Class locos

 

60113 may have carried blue livery, but that piccie is definitely photo-shopped!

 

Come on, what's an extra pair of wheels between friends?

Seriously - Hurricane, I think you've been had! The source of that "photo" was from a gallery of "might have beens" by well known railway artist Matthew Cousins.

See http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/image/39414-thompsons-great-northern-2-8-2/

See http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/album/1412-alternative-design-history/ for the complete gallery.

And see http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/image/44541-bullied-2-8-2/ for what OVSB actually wanted to build! (in blue…)

Tom

 

Oooops that will teach me for only thinking about liveries not all the other variables, however it does sum up my point nicely! Does anyone have the definitive list of which classes of loco wore the blue?

 

It was only the Class 8s that received it. All the Kings wore it - incidentally the only complete class to wear it. The Merchant Navies wore it, the Duchessess and Princesses wore it, as did the A4s, A3s and A1s. Other than that, as far as I know, no others wore it. Class 7s and below were - initially at least - to receive "Pea Green", which was a bilious shade of apple green. This unfortunate colour was made all the worse by the lining - somebody somewhere thought Red, Cream and Grey would set it off nicely! I suppose, in their defence, it was the late 40s...

The Pea Green was sported by one Castle, one "Light Pacific" (Only in the paintshop and never on the road, as far as I can tell), about three Jubilees, about three Rebuilt Scots and the same number of Rebuilt Patriots, and perhaps a handful of B17s. I'm prepared to be wrong on this one, my knowledge of "Pea Green" is much less than my knowledge of other liveries.

Hope this helps!

Tom

 

If The Bluebell fancies a frankenstein conversion, that P class "double fairlie" looks interesting

 

From the book "The Big Four in Colour", page 186 has a pic of 34011 TAVISTOCK at Exmouth Junction shed, June 1949. "Finished in early BR experimental green (often described as Apple green) with two bands of red, cream and grey lining. Four light pacifics were painted in this livery, Nos. 34011/56/64/5." "In December 1948, three new BB Class 4-6-2's, Nos.34086-8 appeared from Brighton Works in experimental green livery,... etc etc, ...were allocated to Ramsgate Shed to work experimental liveried services during summer 1948."

Hope this bit helps!

 

It looks as though the name plate has slid down the side of the Merchant Navy…

Simon

 

Im devastatated, i thought that some of the w/c Battle of Britains had worn this - perhaps it was in preservation.
As the nearest thing left to a Merchant Navy one would hope that if one if one of the smaller Spam Cans were thus painted today it would be considered acceptable...

 

You maybe thinking of 35005 Can Pac which carried the blue livery but in re-built form..... I am not sure of any of the WC/BoB that have worn it in preservation.

 

That's not right - if you allow pedantry to win out Every member of class A1/1 wore it. Granted there was only one member of this class but still…!

I'm fairly certain all 49 Peppercorn A1s wore it too. I know not all carried apple green but certainly those that were, were repainted into the express blue pretty quickly. All having been built by the end of 1949, the vast majority were delivered express passenger blue (I think 60127 may have been first to be delivered in blue off the top of my head).

 

The pea green lives on in only a few pictures and that Mainline model produced a few years ago… would be nice to see a jubilee resurrect this livery just once.

 

Wrenn also did a Castle in Pea Green and one in Blue as well; not to mention a Rebuilt Bulleid in Malachite....yuk.

 

There is a difference between the 1948 experimental liveries and BR standard blue.

In 1948 three Black 5's were painted shades of green; GWR, Southern and LNER, with lining only on one side.

Shortly afterwards, the official livery trials commenced, meant to spur public comment. A small number of Kings, MN's, A3's, A4's, Princess Royals and Princess Coronations were painted ultramarine blue (purple) with white and red lining, BRITISH RAILWAYS on the tender, the exception being the MN which had three red stripes and the cycling lion logo. A small number of Castles, Light Pacifics, Lord Nelsons, B17's, Royal Scots/Patriots and Jubilees were painted apple green with white and red lining, BRITISH RAILWAYS on the tender. Coaching sets for each region were painted plum and spilt milk or chocolate and cream. There are a small number of colour pictures available from Colour Rail. Other experimental liveries were variations on black for mixed traffic or freight locos.

Come 1949 the official liveries were chosen, remaining as such for the life of BR's steam history with the exception that class 8's (Kings, MN's, A1's, A3's, A4's, Princess and Princess Coronations) went blue (a different shade to ultramarine) with black and white lining, main line coaches went blood and custard and suburban stock was crimson (both later changing to maroon). Blue was rejected after 1951 as the pigment in the paints used did not wear well and it proved almost impossible to touch up damaged paintwork.

In preservation a rebuilt MN (non-prototypical but very nice indeed), King, A1 and A4 have gone blue. I would dearly love to see some other variations of the above (Duke of Gloucester in blue would I suggest also look veeeerry nice). Reference is made in an earlier post to a blue Jubilee. The LMS painted a Princess Coronation and a Jubilee in experimental bluey grey post WW2 but I don't believe that this ever left the paint shop.

Hopefully this is of help, more info can be found in Colin Boococks book on BR liveries 1948 - 1968.

Regards

JP

 

In spite of officially being only a class 7, the A3s were painted blue also.

 

Was the turbomotive ever painted in the express passenger blue? It occurred to me today that it's the one "one off" not mentioned in the lists above.

 

No, (4)6202's liveries were LMS red, LMS black, BR black. BR green on rebuilding.

Also it's not "Princess Coronation Class" but simply "Coronation Class", as JWP Rowledge points out.

 

Don't you mean 35005 Canadian Pacific. saw it once going round the West Curve at Didcot in Blue