SR EMU Livery

[Jack P]

Hi guys, 

 

Just wondering about the livery of the majority of the SR EMU's. Obviously all of hornbys productions have been in olive green or BR/S green, were any units ever painted in malachite, the same as the coaching stock? prior to 1948? or I suppose, at any point?

 

Cheers!

[Graham_Muz]

Hi Jack

 

Yes some units were indeed painted in Malachite

[phil-b259]

Hi guys, 

 

Just wondering about the livery of the majority of the SR EMU's. Obviously all of hornbys productions have been in olive green or BR/S green, were any units ever painted in malachite, the same as the coaching stock? prior to 1948? or I suppose, at any point?

 

Cheers!

 

Southern EMUs were indeed painted (and lined out) in exactly the same way as conventional coaching stock. As such Malachite would have been used for new units outshoped at the same time as coaching stock carrying said livery.

 

Of course with WW2 getting in the way quite a lot of stuff missed out on Malachite and EMUs built in the late 30s could well have gone straight into BR EMU green from Olive.

Edited May 17, 2017 by phil-b259

[Nearholmer]

Postwar new (well, new-build by SR standards) EMUs, which means mainly 4-SUBs, were very definitely painted malachite, and this continued into early BR days. They looked pretty fine, with "southern" in sunshine lettering on the "forehead", above the cab-windows, and that idea too carried on under BR, when they were turned-out with "British railways", again in sunshine lettering in the same place.

 

There is a photo of one with "southern" lettering here http://www.semgonline.com/gallery/class405_01.html

 

And below is one with BR lettering

 

I was party to, very carefully, stripping the front of one back to this condition, while it was being converted to a de-icer, at Selhurst, in 1977. Stupidly, I never photographed it, but someone must have done, because it stood in the shop in that condition for weeks, while it was re-wired and fitted with all the appropriate de-icing gubbins.

 

Kevin

Edited May 18, 2017 by Nearholmer

[Stefen1988]

Which Livery got the Southern Region EMUs in 1950-1956?

[bécasse]

Some were in malachite, some in the first BR emu green and, in the early part of the period, a few would still have been in the earlier, darker Southern green. Generally emus were revarnished after 3 years, repainted after 6 which gives some idea of how earlier liveries would have lasted; lettering was usually(?) altered to the latest standard at revarnishing.

 

Don't forget that emus, suburban units in particular, threw up a lot of brake block dust, some of which got "absorbed" into the varnish affecting quite considerably the appearance of a unit. This meant that the variations between units in the different greens was much less obvious than one might assume. What did tend to be very obvious was newly replaced doors (they were always getting knocked off, mainly in minor depot side-swipes) and any areas, particularly on the steel-skimmed later SUBs and EPBs, where repair work (and hence patch repainting) had been done.

 

Even in the mid-1960s when all the units were painted the same colour (pre-blue), a newly outshopped unit stood out from the rest livery-wise, not least because those with full width roofs ("all-steel" SUBs and early SR EPBs only had narrow roofs in their early years) had roofs which were almost a silver colour but which toned down to match the rest of the stock within months (an effect obvious on steam coaching stock too).

[Gwiwer]

Don't forget that some of the 1930s main line electrics had their restaurant / buffet cars painted in a different shade of green to the rest of the train.   

[keefer]

Or indeed the CITY and PUL units with their umber/cream Pullman car in an otherwise green unit!

http://www.semgonline.com/gallery/6pul_1.html