GWR - Railcars, Autocars, DMU's

[The Johnster]

7 hours ago, Huw Griffiths said:

Also, I'm not sure how dark the red was, when ex-GWR railcars were repainted into BR colours.

 

It was a lot lighter than either LMS crimson lake or the later BR maroon, and as a hue, I'd say brighter than GW chocolate.  It is a difficult colour to pin down, though, as it faded over time and looked brighter on the non-gangwayed stock it was applied to as there was no cream for it to look darker than, if you see what I mean.  It also faded differently on wooden bodied stock than it did on steel or aluminium. 

 

It was introduced in June 1948, and any WR stock repainted in the first 6 months of that year was in GW choc/cream with BR Gill Sans lettering and numbering, so choc/cream stock could be seen well into the mid 50s on the basis of a repaint about every 7 years.  The WR painted it's auto trailers in crimson/cream (blood & custard) between June 1948 and late 1949, when, according to legend, Mr Riddles saw one at Paddington one day and sent off a tersely worded letter asking the region to explain why his best main line express livery was being used on a lowly auto trailer, which put an immedieate end to the shenannigans.  The railcars, however, continued to be painted in blood and custard despite the lack of gangways and against Riddles' instruction. 

 

AFAIK none of the gangwayed auto trailers were given blood & custard after the 1949 letter, and none of the gangwayed twin set razor railcars ever had blood & custard or plain crimson livery; they would theoretically have been entitled to blood & custard...

[peterd777]

I recall spotting in Slough about 1957/8. The three car GWR railcar set was sometimes on the up stopping line in the early afternoon (just as we had to get back to school).

According to my Ian Allan ABC I marked it as W33W and W38W.

My memory suggests it was crimson and cream. I have no recall of it being different from the single railcars which were then crimson and cream.

However it was long time ago.

[ThePipersSon]

There are some pictures (two in B&W - one in colour) of a twin-set in blood and custard in MLI no242.

 

Tom

[Mike_Walker]

On 05/12/2021 at 19:43, The Johnster said:

AFAIK none of the gangwayed auto trailers were given blood & custard after the 1949 letter, and none of the gangwayed twin set razor railcars ever had blood & custard or plain crimson livery; they would theoretically have been entitled to blood & custard...

Oh yes they did!  Well W33W and W38W at least.

 

 

Edited April 7, 2022 by Mike_Walker

[Miss Prism]

Great pic, must admit I too had previously thought the 3-car version had always been in green.

 

[The Johnster]

Johnster gets it wrong again; never mind, it's worth it sometimes if you learn from it.  The 3-car set looks very good in the livery, which, like Ms P, I'd always thought was lined green with speed whiskers.  The difference in profile between the slab sided razors and the Collett trailer is very apparent here, more so than in the green livery, because of the brighter colours.

[MidlandRed]

There are also photos of it in lined green in various on line sources. Presumably, as with some of the single cars, it got repainted in lined green with speed whiskers later in the 1950s? However W20W appears to have been withdrawn in 1962 in crimson and cream - being noted at Worcester out of use as late as 1965. 

[Hal Nail]

A bit more on here including another crimson and cream pic. Don't think I've actually noticed single cars running as a pair before seeing this.

 

 

[Killybegs]

11 hours ago, MidlandRed said:

 However W20W appears to have been withdrawn in 1962 in crimson and cream - being noted at Worcester out of use as late as 1965. 

 

...and will be appearing on Worseter in due course in this livery!!!