So exactly what did BR Electric Blue look like?

[Joseph_Pestell]

8 minutes ago, daveyb said:

Were the EM2s painted with the same paint? There are accounts of Longsight mixing their own from Nanking Blue, Deep Bronze Green and whatever they had to make the EM2 'electric blue'. That might account for it's longevity. Applying it with a brush and coating it with a varnish would change its colour, too.

 

I think that it is probably due to a lack of sunshine in that part of the Pennines.

[62613]

23 hours ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

I think that it is probably due to a lack of sunshine in that part of the Pennines.

Weren't they based at Reddish? Manchester, which isn't actually in The Pennines, is comparatively quite dry; the rain falls further East

Edited April 15, 2021 by 62613

[hayfield]

On 11/04/2021 at 14:30, Michael Edge said:

The blue on the AC electrics faded very quickly to a very light shade, it didn't seem so noticeable on the EM2s though.

 

I remember in the days I was commuting at Willesden Electric sheds the older versions looked totally washed out, but was that from the original Electric blue or the latter blue

 

I remember seeing them from brand new as my dad had an allotment at the top of the cutting after Bushey & Oxhey station, I watched the electrification of the line. I still love the original EMU's. My first trip after Electrification was an excursion from Watford Junction to Coventry 

[daveyb]

1 hour ago, 62613 said:

Weren't they based at Reddish? Manchester is actually quite dry; the rain falls further East

Yes, you're half right, of course, I meant Reddish. I've never had a dry weekend in Manchester!!!

[Michael Edge]

10 hours ago, daveyb said:

Were the EM2s painted with the same paint? There are accounts of Longsight mixing their own from Nanking Blue, Deep Bronze Green and whatever they had to make the EM2 'electric blue'. That might account for it's longevity. Applying it with a brush and coating it with a varnish would change its colour, too.

I think that's possible, they certainly never looked as bad as the AL! -5 managed to, all of them worked in and out of Manchester Piccadilly. Reddish also maintained the blue Pullman trains as well as the EM2s.

[rodent279]

On 17/07/2018 at 01:16, E3109 said:

There were no AL6s delivered in Electric Blue, ever. They were all Rail Blue from the start. I will stake my pension on it.

That's apart from the pair that were painted this shade many years later due to railway authors posting nonsense.

 

The vast majority of the locos had blue buffer beams from new too.

Only the first handful from EE/Donny Works had red buffer beams, and it's almost certain that these were the same engines that were delivered without a yellow panel.

In 1987, 86426 was "repainted" into its original 1966 colour scheme, albeit with full yellow ends, to mark the 21st birthday of the InterCity brand. I saw it many times at Euston, and out and about on the WCML-all that appears to have been done is while cab roofs and window surrounds were added, and raised aluminium numbers and lion & wheel.

The result was convincing (not that I remember the originals)-but although the blue is standard BR rail blue, it does look a little lighter, because the white roofs and windows seem to lift the blue a little.

 

 

 

[hayfield]

Did the original livery have warning panels on the front of the locos?

[BernardTPM]

Not always. See earlier in the thread.

[stovepipe]

3 hours ago, hayfield said:

Did the original livery have warning panels on the front of the locos?

 

16 AL6 in total were supplied in the first six months of 1965 in all over blue with red bufferbeams, and no yellow panels.

 

E3101-7 from Doncaster, and E3161-9 from EE.

 

 

Edited April 15, 2021 by stovepipe
clarification

[hayfield]

I have just found my Ian Allan ABC Electric locos, photos of E3001,E3033, E3037E3056 all without warning panels and double pantagraphs (have a memory towards the end they had one removed ?

 

Never realised so many different companies made them ?

[BernardTPM]

Five different classes in the first 100 locos and 40 of them were AL5s. No more than 25 of any of the others, some classes just 10.

[Michael Edge]

4 hours ago, hayfield said:

I have just found my Ian Allan ABC Electric locos, photos of E3001,E3033, E3037E3056 all without warning panels and double pantagraphs (have a memory towards the end they had one removed ?

 

Never realised so many different companies made them ?

None of the early ones (AL1-5) had warning panels when built, all had two pans. As you say one was removed later, the space used for extra air reservoirs - only one was ever used in service, normally the one at the trailing end.