Class 08 D3052 that never received BR Green

[Fredo]

Bachmann are making a model of 13052 which became D3052 but never received BR Green livery, a model they previously released for Model Rail Magazine. Does anyone know why when the loco received wasp ends it was not painted in BR green. Thanks Fred

[Nearholmer]

Wasps were a safety addition, so sometimes added as part of a smaller job, whereas a full repaint mostly went with a complete overhaul. Did it have front ladders? Could the wasps have gone on when they were removed?

 

I used to see this loco at Willesden quite often, and it never stood out as being black - it just looked dirty like all the others!

 

 

Edited January 5, 2021 by Nearholmer

[Fredo]

Thanks for the explanation Nearholmer, will look into the ladders.

[Yardman]

Stripes were started to be added to 350's from around 1962. Ladders weren't normally removed until 1965. However with such a large class of locomotives there would inevitably have been exceptions.

[Halvarras]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

Wasps were a safety addition, so sometimes added as part of a smaller job, whereas a full repaint mostly went with a complete overhaul. Did it have front ladders? Could the wasps have gone on when they were removed?

 

I used to see this loco at Willesden quite often, and it never stood out as being black - it just looked dirty like all the others!

 

 

 

I'd agree with this, the safety aspect also applied to mainline locos which received full yellow ends on patched-up green and maroon liveries. I think it's a reasonable assumption that D3052 lost the ladders when it gained wasp stripes, until/unless evidence arises to the contrary.

It was due to be renumbered 08039 but never made it that far. A black 08 which did was Carlisle Kingmoor's D3170, this became 08105. I thought D3291/08221 did too but it turned out to be green.

I recall reading in a mag in the early 70s that Stratford's D3248 was still in black livery, I was a little disappointed to find it on shed not long after with green paintwork under a liberal coating of oil and dirt! Clearly never diagrammed as Liverpool Street pilot (it got leapfrogged by D3555 which was reallocated to 30A all the way from Inverness in late 1972, cleaned up and was shunting stock at Liv St on 27/1/73).

A very small number of 08s in distant corners far from overhead wires were renumbered with ladders still in place - 08928 at Penzance (two photos on the Cornwall Railway Society website) and St Blazey's 08840 in green for sure/08931 probably (it still had them in the summer of 1973, again two photos as D4161 at BZ on the CRS site). Were there others I wonder?