Andy M Posted October 31, 2009 Share Posted October 31, 2009 Hi All, I'm having a bit of a diversion from my main theme at the moment and putting together a Western Region Travelling Post Office rake circa the late 1950's. A Southern Pride Mk1 Dia.720 has been completed and will soon be joined by 247 Developments brass kits for the GWR Dia. L22, L23 and Hawksworth L25. The question I have is does anybody know a source for the 1950/60's TPO Red paint? I have tried the usual suppliers but have so far drawn a blank. It is a distinctly different shade to standard BR Coach Maroon and Precision only seem to do the 1988 Post Office Red. Just incase anyone thinks I am being a total biff, the Southern Pride kit has ready printed sides so spraying the brass kits is my first foray into finishing such vehicles. If anyone knows of a suitable supplier/shade or has experience of such a project I would be pleased for your guidance. Regards.........................Andy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy M Posted November 1, 2009 Author Share Posted November 1, 2009 Following posting this yesterday I have discovered that I am actually a biff, and noticed that Railmatch do Early Post Office Red (329) in a jar! I have tended to stay away from Railmatch paints following an annoying experience spraying a D8xx Warship a few years ago but will give them another try. It would still be interesting to hear from anyone who has built a TPO rake as they are very rarely seen in model form, and I will post details of my efforts as the project comes to fruition. Regards..................Andy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest stuartp Posted November 1, 2009 Share Posted November 1, 2009 I was a bit reluctant to post earlier as I don't have any references for the Western Region, but ScR/LM practice was only to paint the new BR Mk1 stock in bright red and leave pre-Nationalisation TPO stock in maroon. It might pay to have a search on the old forum, I think it's come up before. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy M Posted November 1, 2009 Author Share Posted November 1, 2009 Stuart, Thanks for the info. I did a search of the old site for references to TPO's but found nothing specific to livery details. As you point out the new Mk1 stock received Post Office Red from construction in early 1959 but in Peter Johnson's book he states it was also applied to some of the pre-Nationalisation vehicles still in service. As I want to model my rake in 1958/59 condition I think it is certain the ex-GWR coaches would only be painted lined maroon. As usual it is hard to be definative using monochrome images although I do have a colour image of W799W at Newton Abbot in what definately looks like standard coaching stock maroon. Maroon it is then! Regards..........................Andy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Pulham Posted November 4, 2009 Share Posted November 4, 2009 Following posting this yesterday I have discovered that I am actually a biff, and noticed that Railmatch do Early Post Office Red (329) in a jar! I have tended to stay away from Railmatch paints following an annoying experience spraying a D8xx Warship a few years ago but will give them another try. It would still be interesting to hear from anyone who has built a TPO rake as they are very rarely seen in model form, and I will post details of my efforts as the project comes to fruition. Regards..................Andy. Andy, while a rake may be taking it a bit far I have recently built an LMS TPO and a WCJS Postal sorting van in LMS livery to go with it. these are from 247 kit (with a few 5522 extras) and a David Geen kit once again with the underframe modified using comet parts Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy M Posted November 5, 2009 Author Share Posted November 5, 2009 Nice work Rob. Very interesting prototypes and I do like that LMS livery, in an 'If it ain't Chocolate and Cream it should not be seen' kind of way! How did you find the 247 Developments kits? This is my first build from them and I must admit I am particularly looking forward to something a bit different from the usual Comet Models Collett's and Hawksworth's. Regards, Andy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
charliepetty Posted July 30, 2010 Share Posted July 30, 2010 We do Transfer Sets for BR Early livery. See www.dckits-devideos.co.uk. Ta Charlie P Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coachmann Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 Big Four design TPO vehicles were not painted Post Office red in BR days. Only BR built Mk.I TPO vehicles carried red. I have sprayed a good many over the years for customers using plain 'ol red, a celulose tinter colour that was nuitral. As regards Railmatch spraycans, I feel you would be far safer going along to some place like Halfords and buying a spraycan of red. This is acrylic based these days and dries quickly and rock hard. While there, pick up a tin of red oxide primer too. I note your coach is brass. If you ever spray a plastic coach, Halfords also sell primer specially formulated for plastic. Larry G. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted July 31, 2010 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 31, 2010 Stuart, Thanks for the info. I did a search of the old site for references to TPO's but found nothing specific to livery details. As you point out the new Mk1 stock received Post Office Red from construction in early 1959 but in Peter Johnson's book he states it was also applied to some of the pre-Nationalisation vehicles still in service. As I want to model my rake in 1958/59 condition I think it is certain the ex-GWR coaches would only be painted lined maroon. As usual it is hard to be definative using monochrome images although I do have a colour image of W799W at Newton Abbot in what definately looks like standard coaching stock maroon. Maroon it is then! Regards..........................Andy. Andy, If it helps (well you never know) the first mainline diesel I ever saw was D601, which was only a few weeks old, working the Up Postal past St Budeaux and if there had been anything bright red in the train it would have stuck in my memory as much as the diesel. I saw various Postal vehicles around Devon and Cornwall that summer and again have no real memory of any sort of 'coach' (as I would have so regarded them at that time ) being in any sort of unusually different or brighter colour. Sorry it's a sort of youthful memory thing which I realise is hardly decent evidence but it might be useful to you. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy M Posted August 1, 2010 Author Share Posted August 1, 2010 Gents, Thanks for the recent postings on this resurfaced thread. Following my initial post and following much further research, it appears all pre-nationalisation TPO vehicles were finished in standard coaching stock lined maroon by British Railways and as stated only the post 1959 Mk1 vehicles ever received the brighter red livery (as per Bachmann's delightful new Dia.720). It was the comment by Peter Johnson in his book on the subject that planted a seed of doubt. I have made some progress on my West of England TPO project and the Hawksworth L25 is now built and awaiting primer and the L23 is on the workbench. The Mk1 vehicles may not make the cut unfortunately as their 1959 introduction is a little too late for my time scale and their standard central gangways would mean no consist running with an off centre gangway ex-GW diagram. Other interesting vehicles to be included though are a Collett K40 (W39W) with converted gangways and a pair of converted Siphon G's. Regards, Andy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coachmann Posted August 1, 2010 Share Posted August 1, 2010 New TPO vehicles built to LMS design after Nationalization were painted carmine red with single gold & black lining at the waist and along the cantrail. Ex LMS and GWR TPO vehicles repainted between June 1949 and mid 1956 were also given lined carmine red. I cannot speak for ex SR and LNER TPO's. BR coaching stock maroon was not introduced until mid 1956. Larry G. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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