Class 101 on Western Region - first in blue/grey

[fezza]

I know the Western region were the first to paint 101s in blue / grey but does anyone know when they first appeared in this livery?  I think they were painted this way due to their allocation to longer-distance services, but does anyone know which services they were associated with?  I have found a picture of one in Autumn 1974 but with not much more detail.  Obviously, if anyone has data on which actual sets were first painted this way even better!

 

Many thanks!

[Jeremy Cumberland]

I expect you've looked at the Railcar website and seen this picture, captioned with set and vehicle numbers, as well as a wealth of other detail:

https://railcar.co.uk/images/12183

 

There's another picture of the same set in 1975 here: https://railcar.co.uk/type/class-101/later-operations, which gives a little more information that the blue/grey cross country units were set numbers 801-804, later joined by 805 and 806, but this last part does not match up with information available elsewhere on the site, which says that 805 and 806 were formed in 1982 from existing WR sets which had previously been transferred from Scotland, not Tyseley.

 

 

Here is the Western Region formations page: https://www.railcar.co.uk/data/set-formations/western-region

 

Use this page to find individual vehicle allocations (type the number in the search box): https://www.railcar.co.uk/data/allocations/

[Halvarras]

Five of these sets arrived at Plymouth Laira on reallocation from far-away Scotland in Spring 1974. The earliest photo I've seen of them at work is at Exeter dated June but it's likely they were active in May, in time for the summer timetable. Set numbers were P800-804 (one of Jeremy C's links above provides the vehicle numbers so I won't list them again here) and sets P800/1 were in plain blue livery and P802-4 in blue/grey when released to traffic. 

They only seem to have been in the far South West for a short time, I didn't seen one of these during my visits 'back home' in 1975 and the 1976 RCTS Coaching Stock book (correct to 31/12/75) has them listed with B (Bristol) set numbers. I think it unlikely that P800/1 were repainted into blue/grey during their time at Laira as P800 at least was in very good external condition.

Here are a couple of photos I took at the time, a less-than-sharp view of P803 approaching Middleway Crossing on a Newquay - Par working on 27/8/74 (since January I live within walking distance of this spot - rampant  trackside gorse growth makes such photos very difficult now and the track on this stretch looks like somebody's unkempt back yard, despite the branch allegedly seeing two visits by 'weed-killers' this summer.......what are they spraying, MiracleGro?!) and B800 leaving Swindon on a Gloucester line working on 16/10/76, by this time in blue/grey but still with twin headcode panels. I believe this livery/headcode combination was only seen on these five units, as they preceded the refurbishment programme. Oddly enough they would lose this livery in favour of white/blue stripe, only to regain blue/grey again later on!

I have modelled set P803 based on the Hornby ex-Lima model, which needed a headcode modification (4 lamps to 2 plus twin-panel).

[robertcwp]

Here is P804 at Newton Abbot in 1975:

W51523_NewtonAbbot_11-5-75 by Robert Carroll, on Flickr