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From when was British Railways known as BR?


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An interesting aside to all this is when the words 'British Railways' first came into use and did people at that time start referring to 'BR'?  The words were definitely in use on posters during WWII as exampled below but I suspect the big four company initials were too deeply embedded  in peoples' minds to change at that time.

 

 

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I thought it was always 1948......my Uncle joined LNER as a engine cleaner 6 months before the “amalgamation” and retired 50 years later Top Link at the +..........he always said he couldn’t stay any longer as the franchises were killing the spirit of the railways.....I thought 50 years was long enough :lol:

 

RIP Uncle Ron.......

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Quick google search reveals a poster on Pintrest that shows British Rail was used officially from 1st January 1965, part of the corporate image project. 

 

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/59672763785538652/

 

 

Further more information is on this website -

 

http://www.doublearrow.co.uk/?LMCL=SGNWVi

 

HTH

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10 minutes ago, MyRule1 said:

Although doesn't answer the question about the common adoption of the abbreviation BR is does talk about the 1960's rebranding

 

https://www.creativereview.co.uk/british-rail-logo/

Very interesting article, it does mention BR/British Railways both ways several times but the jist of it certainly is around that time.

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22 minutes ago, Simon Lee said:

......... British Rail was used officially from 1st January 1965, part of the corporate image project.  .........

But that was only a marketing name for the British Railways Board and didn't signify any change in the organisation - other than, arguably, recognition that the 'old' BR image was rather past its sell by date.  

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I would have thought people would have used the shortened form straight away. People said GWR rather than Great Western Railway for example.

 

Tony Hancock uses BR quite a few times in his series and that was mid 1950s. Often in a derogatory way.

 

 

I remember my nan still using the term LMS when getting the train well into the 1980s. As opposed to getting the LNER train which was a different route. My nan was mid twenties when BR appeared so wasn't an oldie who was set in her ways. 

 

 

Jason

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3 hours ago, Wickham Green too said:

But that was only a marketing name for the British Railways Board and didn't signify any change in the organisation - other than, arguably, recognition that the 'old' BR image was rather past its sell by date.  

 

THe OPs question was the more common use of the term BR, so how would you define the date of organisational change ?  Marketing names were more along the lines of Inter City, Freightliner. 

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The mirrors originally fitted in Mk.1 coaches had an engraved B R monogram formed with the B reversed and abutting the script 'R'. Sorry, haven't got a photo' to hand but do have such a mirror that survived past all of the later 'arrows of indecision' branded replacements.

 

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3 hours ago, PenrithBeacon said:

I don't have the 1948-49 issues of RM but the index of the 1950 bound volume makes free use of the abbreviation 'BR'.

The 1948 Railway Magazine index also uses the abbreviated term 'B.R.' quite freely as it does just about every other pre- and grouping Railway you can think of ..... but I've not spotted its use in the text yet ( unlike many of the others ). 

 

 ( Wonder where HGR got his 'B reversed R'  mirror from - I think mine came from a 4EPB.)

 

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Officially ? I expect an early official use of the term was for cataloguing stationery, forms etc, BR.29964, BR.3185 etc. Every bit of stationery on the railway had a catalogue number so you knew exactly what you were ordering.  I have a sheet of BRITISH TRANSPORT COMMISSION headed memo paper in front of me with a "BR 2/7" cat number on it.  

 

Unofficially, from the time the first civil servant / railway clerk / officer had to write down the name of the new organisation and decided to abbreviate it. At the very latest I would say about 10 past 9 on whatever the first working day after 1st January 1948 was. 

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Nationalisation was a political decision following a general election and the Party presumably campaigned on a platform (groan!) of "our" British Railways quite some time before the Act came into force.

 

Before the war, the big four were campaigning for a "Square Deal Now", which didn't mean nationalisation of course. 

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