Railfreight triple grey livery without BR logo, ca. 1989?

[railsquid]

Hi

 

Some background - I stopped actively following developments in British Rail (and trains in general) ca. 1988, and only got back into railway modelling a few years ago. I acquired this Dapol Class 58 back when Dapol was selling them off cheaply:

 

Dapol Class 58 (58044) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

It was described as "Triple Grey Unbranded" livery, and I always vaguely assumed the "unbranded" part to refer to post-privatisation removal of BR branding. The other day I was wondering what I might be able to do to it to make it appear as it did in BR days (I'm not interested in anything post-privatisation), and was suprised to find it did seem to be running in this condition in 1989; see following photos:

 

- no BR logo, sector branding or nameplate (Oxford; undated but passing a rake of NSE Mk1s)
- no BR logo, sector branding or nameplate (Crewe, May 1989)
- no BR logo, sector branding or nameplate (Tupton, July 1989)
- no BR logo, sector branding or nameplate (Barrow Hill, July 1989; publicly accessible Facebook picture)
- no BR logo, sector branding or nameplate (Saltley, November 1989)

 

It has acquired a BR logo by December 1990  here (see towards bottom of page).

 

Some research reveals 37104 in 1989 in this livery also without the BR double arrows logo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/queenfanjohn/6754981609/; this was released by Bachmann in OO in this livery.

 

As I'd always assumed that prior to privatisation, all BR locos carried the double arrow in some form, does anyone know why these locos in triple grey were without one at least for some time around 1989?

[rob D2]

There was a few about like that including 37108.

Your 58 has the coal sector flashes at one end so it’s not completely unbranded - I’d suggest unless it was re assigned between sectors a lot ( have no data on 58s), it was purely down to the logos / arrows not being available and then none taking Responsibility for putting them on later .

Edited January 10, 2022 by rob D2

[JDW]

Class 58s were always coal sector locos, so wouldn't have been transferred between sectors or had logos changed. They only carried the Trainload Coal black/yellow logo. If it was running around without it, then the likelihood is that they didn't have any available when it was repainted, as robD2 said.