Yellow Lettering on BR Blue?

[54Strat]

Hiya, I'm looking for a bit of help on the correct (ish) markings for a livery / era as I'm a bit out of my depth here.

 

I'm working on an N gauge Fruit D and I'm just in the process of painting it BR Blue to portray a vehicle in the 70's. A while back I bought transfers (modelmasters sheet 2424, 1MMX98 Br Parcels Vans, CCT, Guv and Fruit D) and they're yellow. Were yellow marking used solely on a maroon livery?

 

I'm guessing I've bought completely the wrong transfers, unless someone knows if yellow markings were ever used on BR Blue? Or, if I repaint, would a Fruit D have survived into the 70's in maroon?

 

Paul

[Colin]

I've definitely never seen a normal service passenger or parcels vehicle with yellow lettering over a rail blue base colour (that's not to say one never existed of course!) Coaching/NPCCS stock was always lettered white IIRC and the font was changed at the same time (someone else will have to give the names of the fonts BTW!)

I think you'd probably get away with a maroon (heavily weathered) Fruit D up to about 1971-2, in the mid 70s a few were still about but the only ones I saw were shabby patch-painted rail blue and in Departmental/Enparts service.

I do have the RCTS Coaching Stock book somewhere if you'd like me to find out if any were running in 1976 - happy to take a look.

[Pennine MC]

Hi Paul, you're a (relative) stranger these days

 

 

Were yellow marking used solely on a maroon livery?

 

I'm guessing I've bought completely the wrong transfers, unless someone knows if yellow markings were ever used on BR Blue? Or, if I repaint, would a Fruit D have survived into the 70's in maroon?

 

 

Never say never, but I dont know of any examples of yellow lettering on Rail Blue (correctly, I think the colour used on maroon was actually straw or cream, although it could of course discolour in use). Most Fruit Ds in blue had the 'boxed' style of lettering as used on wagons, viz this pic

(unfortunately not the clearest view from that end) - I'm not familiar with all of MM's output but I'd think that if they're not like that, then they probably are the wrong ones.

 

There might have been the odd Fruit D in maroon til about 1970ish but after that, the majority of parcels stock was blue (apart of course from the Southern's fleet of BY/CCT/PMVs in its unique shade of grot).

[54Strat]

Thanks Colin and Ian for the quick replies.

 

It seems like I'm out of luck with these yellow ones then, so after reading your replies I've mailed Modelmasters, Fox and Cambridge about what set of decals would be appropriate. (Modelmasters only do exclusive N gauge decals for the NGS). I've found that one issue with purchasing decals without any previews is, and I've bought 3 (yellow) sets for this and an Ex SR CCT I'm doing in BR Blue too, is that they'll be described as 'Ex S.R. 4 Wheel B.Y, C.C.T, and P.M.V.S', but not dated or the dates are too loose.

 

No matter, I'm learning and I'll probably use them up if I decide to do a rake of Maroon ones, or sell / pass them on if not.

 

I do have the RCTS Coaching Stock book somewhere if you'd like me to find out if any were running in 1976 - happy to take a look.

 

Thanks for the offer Colin, I think I'll see if I get any info from the three companies first but I'll let you know if I need the info.

 

Hi Paul, you're a (relative) stranger these days:)

 

 

Oh I'm a daily lurker mostly , though most of my modelling time in recent years has given way to my toddler and a spell of bad health. I'm now getting some free time, getting my finger out and doing it rather than thinking about it. I've even got one of them there blogs on here, so at least I'm giving the impression I'm serious about it.

[Colin]

Just a quick point before you repaint any SR utility vans into maroon - with few exceptions, in the 50s/60s they went from BR early red to BR/SR green rather than maroon IIRC. According to Mike King in his "Illustrated History Of Southern Coaches" some crimson lake (not maroon) vans survived into the 70s but were so grimy they often went unnoticed. Like the Fruit Ds they were mostly repainted rail blue in the late 60s/early 70s (repainting commenced 1967) but IIRC were far more numerous and widely distributed than the GWR vans (they were seen on lines in northern Scotland, for example). I saw several in parcels trains at York and Bristol in 1976/77.

I did see at least one surviving green PMV at Waterloo in about 1976, but it was so darn filthy (all over "track colour" matt brown) I had to look very closely to determine the livery! From even a short distance it looked like it was in freight bauxite. The lettering was all but completely illegible.