Why do you model BR Blue?

[Lee m22]

Hey an interesting thread and I've just discovered the BR Blue section of the forum. Being a blue modeller myself, I best contribute

 

I most definatly didn't grow up in the blue era, and to be fair aircraft were my thing while I grew up...it had all gone wrong/private (depending on your slant on things) by the time I got into the railways properly!

 

My Blue modelling came from buying the GF Railfreight sector box set (with the class 47 in RF sector livery) When I got it home, it was in fact a BR Blue loco in the box! I was going to take it back as I'd hoped to go grey, but a good friend pointed out this website to me after discussing the loco livery, and I instantly fell in love with the blue era!

 

I do love br-nse-fan's statement above regarding BR Blue - "it screams of stability". Too true!

 

Regards

 

Lee

[scottishlocos]

Hi all

 

I am all for modelling the BR blue period happend totally by accident tho I had always modelled the mid 1990's to the present day as this is when I grew up.

However I decided I needed a class 26 for my Muirness layout was going to go for the dutch liveried one but spotted a bargin on one of the box shiffters websites and duly purchased 26024 in BR blue (always a good performer at Boness diesel galas) I got the loco and two BR blue MK2 coaches for less than 90 quid and that was the start of my BR blue modeling!

In addition a house move led me to using my Inverknowes Yard layout for the first time this was meant to be a diorama but with the addition of a small board it was fully operational again this was intended to be a mid 1990's early 2000's layout but I found the modern locos class 56,60,66 just too large when shuntting wagons the shorter wheelbased class 20 and class 26 both in BR blue were perfect for the task I have just got a class 06 as well and have purchesed some BR 16t minerals.

 

Nothing looks better than a single class 20 nose first with an open wagon OBA,OCA and a brake van!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

regards

 

Dave

[gridwatcher]

Me? I am old. Born just long enough ago to remember 8Fs on the Tunsteads (from my pram) After that everyting (bar the odd 20 and 40) was blue. Happy childhood memories of days at Guide Bridge, Northwich, Man Picc, Doncaster, Hartford Junction, Warrington, Sheffield. Dabble in all sorts of things but my heart is Rail Blue!

Edited February 11, 2012 by gridwatcher

[TomJ]

Being in my mid 30s its a chance to recreate the trains I saw as a child/young teenager. What I really like about the BR blue eras are the far-flung quieter corners of the network, such as the South West or Scotland, rather than mainlines and grand terminus'. Here you seem to get the mix of modern(ish) traction combined with a steam era infrastructure, semaphores etc. Its that mix I like, and the change to add a few other liveries such as NSE or Railfreight for a bit of colour - and the PO wagons add colour. I also like the fact that its well photographed and its possible, even in N, to model correct train formations for a particular time.

 

Interestingly I was never a 'spotter' or had any real interest in the trains then, it was (and still is) steam when it comes to the prototype. I have very little interest in the current scene but when it comes to modelling I think its a great era to chose.

[James Brake]

Hi all. I was born in '74 and grew up in the North East near Tynemouth. I emigrated to Canada with my parents in '82 and they did a good job of insulating me from the hardship all around. As a result I have unrealistically rose-tinted memories of the time and place. I've been interested in trains, and transportation generally, for as long as I can consciously remember. That's reflected both in my chosen profession and my hobby. I have blissful memories of Saturday visits to my grandparents in Morpeth and a walk down to the station for a hour or two of train watching. Whenever we visited from Canada I would spend hours on the platform, not really number hunting, but soaking up the atmosphere. Even now, if I'm in the North East for an all too rare visit with cousins, aunts, etc. I still try to get out for an hour at Morpeth, now usually with two kids in tow! The BR blue era is a natural for me: a variety of rolling stock plus the last vestiges of traditional operation. A cool, cloudy day, a misty rain falling, the smell of diesel fuel and the sound of doors slamming shut on a class 101. I close my eyes, and I'm there!

 

 

 

 

 

[DavidLong]

Wow, so much nostalgia and for a period that lasted barely more than twenty years. Perhaps asking the reverse question is why you wouldn't choose to model a period in the previous 135 years of railway history? A choice of gauge(s) through most of the nineteenth century (no use for Peco Streamline though. . .). Pre-1923 more liveries and choice of stock than sticks could be shaken at. In the Big Four era there was a collision of 19th century technologies and the brave new worlds of Stanier, Bulleid, Gresley and the like. Look at any large scale old map and realise just how much of the green and pleasant was covered in railways.

So much to model and so little time

 

David

[gridwatcher]

Wow, so much nostalgia and for a period that lasted barely more than twenty years. Perhaps asking the reverse question is why you wouldn't choose to model a period in the previous 135 years of railway history? A choice of gauge(s) through most of the nineteenth century (no use for Peco Streamline though. . .). Pre-1923 more liveries and choice of stock than sticks could be shaken at. In the Big Four era there was a collision of 19th century technologies and the brave new worlds of Stanier, Bulleid, Gresley and the like. Look at any large scale old map and realise just how much of the green and pleasant was covered in railways.

So much to model and so little time

 

David

 

Although a truism to say 20 years or so. You could argue that the blue era lasted 40 years from original dabblings with blue paint in the mid 60s to 08s still running around in blue in the 2000s. Looking back at my history books few if any 'eras' lasted that long. 1923-1947? A big mixture and 20 odd years. 1947- 1968? Again 21 years and 2 distinct liveries and many variations. Since privatisation....forget it! Livery changes every two weeks. Maybe our 20 odd years of blue looks a safer bet?

[Kelly]

I don't presently, but I can see the appeal. There is a certain fondness generally for the 70s-80s period too i find personally. Growing up in the South (near Dartford), EMUs were all I saw as a kid really, however my father being a keen railway fan always planned the family holidays with 2, possibly 3 criteria.

1. Preserved Railway nearby.
   
2. Good bookshops nearby,
   
3. and to appease my mum, a craft shop/fair of some kind nearby too.
   

Consequently as a kid I got dragged along to virtually all of the preserved railways in the country, with a few notable exeptions, one being the SVR, not entirely sure why, but my parents seemed to prefer the NW, Yorkshire or the New Forrest/Ross-on-Wye areas (NW because of my mum's side of family living near Southport and Liverpool).

 

I've been reading about nuclear flask movement recently, and so may do something BR blue period involving those sometime in the future...

[Jon020]

Born in green-blue transition era, all locos were BR Blue as I enjoyed watching them as a small boy.... Grew up with them..? nah, I've no intention of growing up, where's the advantage in that? It was for me a period of Deltics, Brush 2s and 4s and Craven DMUs... and then 312 and 313 electrics... plenty of haulage variety, and, plenty of colour variety too - there wasn't much uniformity once that blue had been in service a few years.

And now.... .... it's because nostalgia has taken hold.

Good enough for me anyway.

[steelergraham]

I had always been a 50's and 60's era modeller with none of those `nasty diesels' However my childhood was spent next to the Midland mainline between Beighton and Kilamarsh between Sheffield and Chesterfield. My childhood memories are of Peaks and 47's, double headed class 20's on coal trains from Spinkhill Colliery, and the odd class 56's from Worksop.

 

When I recently sold the long term resident of my Garage, an 1970's era MGB, I suddenly had an empty space. At the time I had been toying with the idea of converting my large steam era loft layout to DCC, but knew little about it. So I thought I would build a little DCC plank shunting layout in the garage to practice the techniques and principles for DCC. But I needed a DCC loco to practice with, and my local retailer had an old Mainline class 45, that he let me have at a steal of £5! a couple of bits from eBay, a lesson in hardwiring chips and Halfway was born! It now runs around 3 sides of the garage, (would be 4 but the wife's horsey stuff occupies that side, and god forbid that I encroached!) Has 20 locos, half of which are DCC sound, and I am hooked on the blue era all over again!

[DavidLong]

Although a truism to say 20 years or so. You could argue that the blue era lasted 40 years from original dabblings with blue paint in the mid 60s to 08s still running around in blue in the 2000s. Looking back at my history books few if any 'eras' lasted that long. 1923-1947? A big mixture and 20 odd years. 1947- 1968? Again 21 years and 2 distinct liveries and many variations. Since privatisation....forget it! Livery changes every two weeks. Maybe our 20 odd years of blue looks a safer bet?

 

I don't think that it is just a question of the livery which is a representation of an era. Aside from nostalgia many posters have mentioned the variety of stock around in that period but that is usually in relation to the contemporary railway. I was making the point that if you make the comparison backwards in time rather than forwards then the sheer variety available to model, not to mention the amount of railway, increases enormously.

 

David

[duff man]

For me it was just a wonerful time to grow up in. Blue was the only colour I knew as a kid. I spent many happy hours with my dad spoting at Sileby on the midland main line, Peaks,47s,25s, 20s, to name a few. These memories have never left me, so blue it had to be.

[40 058]

Like many others, for me, its the era and livery I remember best.

I remember sitting at places like Doncaster when I was young and watching all the blue trains. I used to live in Bessacarr near Doncaster and could see blue 47s etc going by at the end of the road.

 

I really can not see why anyone could think it was the boring era at all, if anything the boring era is now!

The blue era allows many differant classes and types of diesels and electrics, classic multiple units and the trains themselves are made up of a huge variety of old steam era rolling stock mixed in with newer air braked wagons.

I remember seeing grubby class 40s on heavy freights, class 56s, 47s and pairs of 20s on MGR runs, the woodhead electrics were still going strong, down south still had its classic slam door electric units, the (at the time) new intercity 125s were like nothing else, class 55s still roaring up and down the ecml...

Even the livery itself was far from boring, granted its not anywhere near as extreme as it is nowadays but there was BR blue, large logo, and all the differant variations like stratford silver/grey roofs etc.

Theres really nothing today that can even come close to it for sheer variety and interest.

 

That being said, I do have a soft spot for the sectorised era too, alot of the 'classic' diesels and electrics were still just about hanging on but the new class 58s and 60s were turning up more and more and then there were the second gen dmus, after the railfreight sector era ended, for me was when I started losing interest in going out 'spotting'.

[MJI]

I remember it well, too many locos went at sectorisation.

 

You can run a lot in TOPS blue era, vacuum and air braked wagons, Mark 1s to HSTs, some pre nationalisation designed parcels stock. Lots of steam locos as well.

[crompton 33]

for me it was a time when my life changed gave up train spotting sold all my models . went out and got a motorbike . going to night club's . then got wed had kid's . started spotting and modeling again in the 1980's when the boy's got older. it was a time i missed out in.

[Gummy-Joe]

Unlike many others here, BR blue was not a feature of my childhood; the locos I grew up with were 3/4 scale versions of EMD and GE products. So that kind of nostalgia is not a factor.

 

Price and availability means most people over here model either the UK or US scene. When I was 12 I got a Hornby Flying Scotsman train set, and for years after, I was only interested in things LNER. As I got older, I gravitated more towards diesels. I like the Blue period because, colour aside (and I think the colour is actually a really spiffy bit of design), it was a really diverse era: I'm mainly interested in the 1970s period, and so much was happening in this time. TOPs, headcodes, no headcodes, three different marks of standard coaching stock by the latter 70s, a fair bit of pre-nationalisation NPCCS and the odd buffet knocking around in blue/grey, heaps of different classes of loco and unit, each with their own geographical sphere...

 

The Blue railway, for all its problems, was still a real railway. Locos hauled passenger trains, and range of freight still travelled by rail. Loose-coupled unfitted freights and revenue earning HSTs coexisted for a while. Blue provided the impression of a cohesive railway network with a bit of permanence. There is a lot of scope for things in the Blue era!

[MJI]

for me it was a time when my life changed gave up train spotting sold all my models . went out and got a motorbike . going to night club's . then got wed had kid's . started spotting and modeling again in the 1980's when the boy's got older. it was a time i missed out in.

 

I used mine to go spotting!!!!

 

Also it was Mod revial time to used to pick on scooters as well, for some reason non of the spotters liked scooters, quite a few liked bikes.

[Eggesford box]

For me, nostalgia for a simpler time free of mortgages and family commitments. Lets not forget that much of what we like to model remained owing to a lack of investment and the railways where in decline. But even so, looking through the carriage window passing a forest of semaphores, past yards full of archaic looking wagons and obscure branchlines curving away tantalisingly out of sight into cuttings. More personally for me, growing up and starting work on a branchline where nearly everyone had worked together for years. The end of a summer Saturday with the station gone quiet apart from the cooing of wood pigeons in the rock cutting and strange reflections on the canopy from the hosed down platform. Being given the flag by the guard, a youngster of my age, with instructions to see the train away whilst I check the tickets. Waving the train away from a sun drenched Umberleigh. Settling down in the guards chair, feet up on the desk and the inward swinging door wide open. A dragon fly buzzing into the compartment for a minute before heading out again as we rattled down the beautiful Taw valley, nearly home. Bliss!

[young rail]

HI ,I have just found this topic. It was a great time For me, Left school ,Started my first job two weeks later on br, working for the s&t department . still have a lot of frends form

the railway to this day?? so many different class of loco's not like today. there used to siganl boxs and semerphor signals,all round the area in the north west that i worked on now its all lights and power box Thanks guys a good time brought back

[87 101]

For me its about reliving my youth. Born in 68 about 3 weeks before the end of steam by the time I got intrested in railways in the mid 70's almost everything was blue. My spotting days started about 82 when a few of us used to cycle down to an overbridge on the ECML every night after school. If I had to narrow my modelling down to a couple of years it would proberly be 83-84 although I actualy model 80-88 WCML. Looking back the blue livery might have been dull but the memories definatly wern't.

[andyman7]

If you haven't read it yet you might want to check out the thread in UK prototype questions

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/53870-br-bluegrey-is-it-now-classed-as-a-heritage-livery/

 

A definite reminder that this period can polarise opinion!

[Crepello]

I was about 21 when it came in and what an inspiration--it coincided with long-welded rails and overhead wires--the very elements of the modern railway; great design too--a lovely typeface for all the station signs, modern staff uniforms too. Then there was the publicity--Inter-City--City to City--Heart to Heart. The colour itself was striking in comparison to what we had before--and the superb new logo--and the subtle use of rail red too. I remember running parallel with newly blue Class 302 unit number 272 which really looked flashy compared with its dark green companion. To tell you the truth, it still inspires me--to the extent that my garage door is painted in Precision rail blue!! My railway has steam, green and blue diesels--I restrict it to the end of 1981 when the Deltics finished. Not much liverywise has inspired me since--the original Freightliner was the best--and those 70s aren't bad too, trying to outdo the Deltics with noise and smoke.

[Earlestown]

I was born '63 but remember traveling from Warrington Central to Manchester Pic/Vic? pulled by tank engines . and also seeing steam engines pass through the "Gullet" .. There was and still is footsteps leading down from Bewsey Rd to Froghall Lane .. Basically the WCML from Winwick junction to Warrington Bank Quay.

As soon as I could explore alone I became a "trainspotter" from the mid '70 to early '80 when my first child was born.

 

We used to get the "Mersey rover" quid fifty . from 6pm Friday thru 6 Sunday .. Then get a "Midland rover" from Crew . lol/

 

All the way from Earflestown to Derby for 3 quid as many times as you liked .. or untill the cheese butties ran out.

 

So mid '70 to early '80 was my blue hunting ground.

 

Dave/

[rob D2]

Wow, you are all preaching to the choir here....

Similar route....Hornby HST as a five year old in 1977 running on the carpet......Dad's N gauge models......trips to Maidenhead and Reading to 'spot'.Although strangely I wasn't much into numbers possibly because I had no friends at all who liked trains....

 

Away days to Weston super mare on HSTs, getting my first 'BR diesels on shed -WR' signed by Rex Kennedy at the Marlow modelrail show.I even had a poster of 47484 at canton on my wall...

 

It's a mix of nostaligia for my/our/the industrial past and the yearning that those years, were more innocent and the world was a better place...

 

I have tried modelling mid-late 90s, and still have some EWS stock - this is already nostaligia as my best years, but keep retunrining to BR blue .Also from a practical point it's less expensive to model because how many blue 37s do I really need ...?

[Guest]

Were I to be told to model a specific time period and a specific railway, it would be BR Blue. Why? Because that was when we had a real railway. No, I'm not reopening the old Nationalisation/Privatisation sore, it was when (to me) the railways had character.

 

Those were the days (I'm talking early 70s here) when I would hop a Paddington bound train at Reading and be whisked down to London behind a Brush Type 4. Even as the train squealed to a stop beneath that great, sooty overall roof, I would be off and racing to the end of the platform to scan the boards for the first train back. I remember once getting a Western, hung out of the first window of the second coach (first was a BG) and listening to those Maybachs scream. She had trouble on the way, seemed to be struggling a little. Got to Reading and as we rolled along the platform, I could see staff pointing at the BG and shaking their heads. I got off and watched as every man-jack of them then proceeded to unload the BG and dump the sacks on the platform. Then Western and BG were uncoupled and she (1048 Western Lady) drew forward and shunted it into the bay on Platform 3. Never did find out the problem but it was great to watch these guys doing their utmost to minimise delay. So much for the then much-maligned BR.

 

Those were the days of 3-car DEMUs on our local line. You probably knew them as Thumpers, we knew them as Bog Units on account of there being only one toilet for the entire (non-corridor) train. Could be a little lively at speed but, by God, we loved them. Something seemed to die on that line when the Turbos came along. There were some good model shops in Reading at that time, too - Eames (of blessed memory) and Reading Model Supplies (under Chatham Street car park). I used to make the journey from Basingstoke just to buy model railway equipment, used to time it so it was there on a Bog Unit, back on a Fast - the Cardiff-Portsmouth cross-country run, usually a Crompton turn from Reading though I do remember once getting a Hymek on the front end.

 

REP units on the main line to Bournemouth, Warships running through to Exeter, standing in a Mk.1 corridor at speed - damn, I miss it. All of it.