Great Western loco lettering

[dna]

Hi all,

 

As the thread title says, I'm wondering about the colour of Great Western loco lettering. My period is 1926 so I'm thinking particularly "GREAT WESTERN" as opposed to "GWR" but am interested in both. The reason for the question is because I was browsing the Fox Tranfers website and they sell various versions of lettering.

 

There are six types they make:

 

"GREAT WESTERN" yellow/red (black engines)

"GREAT WESTERN" gold/red (green engines)

"GWR" yellow/red (green engines)

"GWR" yellow/red (black engines)

"GWR" gold/red (greenengines)

"GWR" gold/red (black engines)

 

Looking only at the "GREAT WESTERN" transfers implies yellow lettering on black, and gold on green, but clearly not true for "GWR". I could just not worry about it as none of my engines will have GWR on them, but it has got me wondering.

 

It also throws up the question (to me) of how often the GWR painted engines black. Was this only during wartime or did some lesser engines receive plain black at other times? Was it more common after WW2? If it was only during periods of austerity, why bother with a specfic transfer to go with black paint? For a while Hornby did their 2721 pannier in black (with gold lettering IIRC!). Was this a WW1 livery? There seems to be lots of discussion of WW2 liveries around and about but not much on WW1.

 

Apologies if this is answered somewhere else on the forum, I had a good search and couldn't find it. Any help much appreciated.

 

Cheers,

Nick

[bizerba]

Hello Nick,

I can quote you from my copy of A Livery Register of the Great Western Railway by J.N. Slinn. In 1904 the letters G W R in spartan blocks were painted on the tender, either well spaced along the length or closely cramped in the centre panel. In the same year the gartered arms between the words Great Western became the standard adornment on tenders. In 1906 this was extended to tanks at first without the arms. On all tank engines the space between the words was sufficient to provide for the later addition of a gartered arms but following WW1 this facility was never used and tanks made do with words only. The gartered arms was superseded by the new coat of arms in 1927-28. Under WW1 lining out had gone by 1915 and the body colour was a sandy Khaki shade ( I assume that this is the livery of the 43xx at Didcot ). In 1917 green reappeared without lining and brass work removed or painted over. This lasted till 1923 when there was a return to pre war appearances. Only the Counties, Saints, Stars and Castles were lined out all others were plain green.

Mine is a 1974 copy and I believe this book has been reprinted recently. I have used the HMRS transfers which have all versions on them. Exactly what spartan was I can't say but imagine what you require would be Great gartered arms Western and lining out depending on loco type.

Regards bizerba

[brian777999]

This website should help you. I use it a lot :

 

http://www.gwr.org.uk/

 

You will see a section on liveries. Click on loco liveries :

 

http://www.gwr.org.uk/liveries.html

[Il Grifone]

For 1926, GWR lettering was 'GREAT WESTERN' for tank and tender engines. The tenders were supposedly adorned with the 'Q' crest, but there are examples of tanks with the crest and tenders without. As always, check with photos. Saddle tanks were not lettered.

 

The 'G W R' was a wartime livery from about 1942.

 

I always use HMRS transfers. (You get lots for your money and they stick. My experience with waterslide has not been all that good, but that's probably my incompetence)

 

Some locos were painted black on their last shopping, but how common this was I don't know.

 

During WW I, locos were green, but lost their lining. Later there was some use of khaki and orange buffer beams