Natural Wastage

How long will it be until the trainspotters from the peak years of the late fifties/sixties cease to be holding sway on our preserved lines and the younger set assume the reins?

You see, the old guard are (I assume) the ones who like to see everything in BR livery whereas there is hope that the youngsters, who know nothing but preservation , will hopefully be more catholic in their livery tastes.

About another ten years would you think?

Even Didcot, bastion of all thing GWR and therefore pure and holy, have several locos in BR guise nowadays.

Down with this sort of thing!

 

When I come to power...

I definitely prefer the earlier liveries. I've said before that I reckon that if each loco wore the earliest livery accurate for it then there would still be plenty of BR guises, but there would at least be more variety and interest. even lined black is more exciting than just plain!

 

I think the question of liveries will be the least of their problems just getting enough volunteers will be a bigger issue although some railways do have a few youngsters on their books a lot more are struggling to fill roles and are having to use paid staff i presume groups like the ivatt trust realised that if they left it much longer they would not see the locos they saved all those years ago working. More groups will go down this road in the future it is allready happening with diesel groups selling locos back to mainline operators to raise funds.

 

The latter point is mainly due to shortage of main line locos at present, albeit there will undoubtably be a thining of the numbers in years to come.

 

Repainted for photocharters, which paid for it and made a healthly profit from it

 

6023?

 

Well, I want born until after mainline steam was done, and I prefer British Railways era/liveries generally.

 

I wasn't born until the late 1980's and I prefer BR liveries (esp the early unicyling lion logo).

 

1466

BR Crests were put on 3822, plus a some others, not sure they all remain.
5322 has stayed in black with BRcrests longer than originally envisaged.

 

far from who will look after the locos... what about the stock and the track..or even the signalling...these are a little less glamourous

 

I too am an 80's baby and generally prefer BR liveries. This is predominantly for 2 reasons.

Firstly I haven't grown up with steam on the main line but instead reading books and watching video's of days past. With there being far more material available from the BR day's (particularly in terms of colour photography) this is what I'm interested in.

Secondly accuracy! I personally like accuracy and would much rather see a locomotive a correct livery for its preserved guise than a inaccurate combination of livery against condition. Royal Scot has always looked more like a pantomime dame to me in its various shades of pink (not even the correct shade of red would make a difference to my opinion to me), and I'd have no intention of going out my way to see it. In green or black its a completely different story however.

This isn't to say that I don't like grouping liveries, for example I think a Maunsell locomotive looks absolutely stunning in olive green, but the surroundings have to match! The Bluebell and IOW Railways (to name a few) do a superb job of replicating the whole scene. Sir Lamiel in olive green or Leander in red on a train of MK1's just don't work for me, sorry!

(Apologies for getting drawn into a livery debate! On the plus side, I've recently been very impressed by the numbers of young people in the workshops and crewing our preserved railways! And the fact that they are showing up the old boys who think they know better! ;-) )

 

I am post steam too. I have no problem with BR liveries, but like to see some variety. After all we have precious few pre grouping operational locos in particular and never having them telling the older history of our railways is rather perverse.
As to colour photos being almost all of BR, this is of course true and a major influence. I can most heartily recommend The Big Four in Colour by David Jenkinson fir some amazing pre nationalisation colour images.
Finally, accuracy - all very well, but we can't really manage to do more than evoke a vague era (except certain loco and stock combinations at very particular locations), so let's not make ourselves hidebound chasing a chimera.

 

exactly my point, thanks. Those days are now a part of History and increasingly will feature in the memory of the persons controlling our railway heritage. What price King George V and an accurate train re-enacting the return to steam special that I took a day off College to see all those years ago?

 

The earliest railway memory I have is me standing in front of 5690 at Carlilse on that S&C trip where it rescued a class 40 (I have pictures of that event too).
I was apparently on a trip behind 6115 in LMS black, but that would make me about 2 or 3 years old.. its stretching my memory to remember that !

I do however remember rainhill trials 1980 that is !

I remmeber in the 1980s Blue and Greys on preserved railways was seen as a scourge and something that must be gone as soon as possible.. but to me Blue / Greys on mainline steam and many preserved railways is something I relate to.. Indeed with diesels in the future seeing a class 50 on Green Mark 1's at the MHR makes no sense at all... so if anything more mainline steam as it was in the 80's and a few more mark 1/2s in Blue / Grey would be a little welcome.

 

My first brush with steam was a GWS open day at Taplow and I think that's why I am a GWR fan AND a Hydraulic diesel fan ,they were hammering past a few feet away all day and I couldn't help but be impressed! (Taplow goods shed was right next to the Down Main)

Caveat: I don't really care that much what livery is used, I love seeing them all in all their variations.

 

Courtesy of the Bristol Evening Post:

http://simonwhittinghamphotography.zenfolio.com/p54241887/h10b03aa4#h10b03aa4

 

I think this was one of the most accurate renditions of modern railways in preservation..

it was however 20 years ago and at a time when you could wander down to London and see other members of the same class still doing the same thing on the mainline with the same stock too !

(oh for a diesel gala with stock like this...)



when old stock is in modern colours, and locos are pre-grouping liveries.. the 1990s can be recreated...

 

I think the devotees of sludge green and black have a bit of life in 'em yet. Life expectancy is 81 and rising, You can have real and cherished memories of the last decade of BR steam but still be in your early sixties and only just begining to forget where you put your reading glasses . Reading General is probably right that we have another decade of it - cold weather kills the aged but not as quickly as it once did. Meanwhile, creeping up almost unseen are a new generation of ex-baby-boomers who only remember heritage steam and we have heard from some of them. For those who share an interest in the heritage of Heritage Railways (and tramways), this from 1964, is quite fun;