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British Railways Regional Paint Schemes & Brand Identity


Steve Taylor

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Paint can be a bit of a frothy subject but hopefully some of you out there can spread a bit of enlightenment! While an indication of pantone references or standard colour references and a painting guide would be very welcome can we start with identifying when and for how long the BR regional paint schemes were in use. My specific interest is in the north-eastern regional (Darlington District) and identifying when the paint schemes were in general application would help narrow down the time frame for my projected model. Moving on from that, did the regional managements issue a document detailing their paint schemes and the application thereof as a sort of corporate branding handbook, and if so does anyone have a copy? ....... and then can we have the details please.

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I don't know anything other than what I have picked up through research and general interest,

From 1948 - (supposedly)1968 the regions had different colours for all the fixed signage -

  • Eastern Region (former GNR/GER area) - Dark Blue,
  • North Eastern region (former NER area) - Tangerine or Orange,
  • Scottish Region (North of the Border - Light Blue,
  • Midland Region (LMS) - Maroon,
  • Western Region (GWR) - Chocolate Brown,
  • Southern Region (SRly) - mid Green.

How-ever there will be variations to the above as regional boundaries changed, and the 1968 Corporate image did not come in overnight, so some regional signs could have lasted well into the 1970's.

 

I would suggest choosing a time frame first.

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ta chaps

 

Catkins - as usual I'm awkward and going about things backside front, however there is a reason....... most pictures of my location fall into two categories of either timber buildings in LNER scheme or BR NE regional, which is how it was left when it closed. The approximate dating of the repaint from one to the other would provide me with my cut off and given a suspicion of a fettle up along the line in the mid 1950's would tie in with some infrastructure detail changes. Pre-fettling I suspect i get a lot of NER fittings while after this mystery point brings in BR tubular post signals, standard stop blocks. As details emerge the window of the modelled time frame narrows and my indecision as to go 1936 to mid 1950's or mid 1950's to 1964 increases.

Andrew ta for the link to the stationcolours site I shall see what else I can glean from there

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ta chaps

 

Catkins - as usual I'm awkward and going about things backside front, however there is a reason....... most pictures of my location fall into two categories of either timber buildings in LNER scheme or BR NE regional, which is how it was left when it closed. The approximate dating of the repaint from one to the other would provide me with my cut off and given a suspicion of a fettle up along the line in the mid 1950's would tie in with some infrastructure detail changes. Pre-fettling I suspect i get a lot of NER fittings while after this mystery point brings in BR tubular post signals, standard stop blocks. As details emerge the window of the modelled time frame narrows and my indecision as to go 1936 to mid 1950's or mid 1950's to 1964 increases.

 

I can see where you are coming from, but again fixed infrastructure, i.e. signals buildings lamp standards would not have been changed for the sake of change, they would only have been changed when repair would have been needed - an example I can quote is at Grantham, on the north end of platform two is an LNER marked fence, that is still doing the job it was designed to do in 1936!!

 

So, I would ask what stock do you intent to run, because that will set the general period, more so than the infrastructure.

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aaah the million dollar question - back to the indecision again. I'd like to look at both modernisation era post '54 with Ivatt 2s & 4s, BR standards and mk1s and the use of the sidings as storage for north road scrap lines and pre 54 with J21s, J25s, A5s G5s and NER & Gresley stock. At some point post '49 and pre '58 there are a number of infrastructure changes which most people looking on wouldn't notice but which with such a small prototype to which I am trying to keep as close to as possible I do, and the painting of the timber structures is the most visible change to the ordinary observer. As far as track goes I suspect I am alright from 1927 to 1964!

It would be nice to read an official instruction on repainting infrastructure for the region - a job note for Broomielaw alone might be too much to ask for :D

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Good subject this :)

 

Four stations had experimental black enamel signage during this period, at least for part of it, Redruth and Liskeard were two of them, not sure about the remaining two though. Whenever any surving signs from these locations come up for auction, they go for silly money!

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Its back up now though.

To twist the question of official policy slightly.... having reinstalled my mac this morning and reinstated my lightroom catalogues I've been re-examining the historical prototype pictures made available to me by a range of sources (thanks to all of you) and I've concluded that though the timber structures at platform level were repainted at some point prior to early 1958, the stair and entrance at road level seems to have remained in LNER brown and cream right up to demolition in 1965. Since one structure is really an extension of the other I would have expected them to have been painted as one. I can understand the economics of repainting and the time consuming process involved so am not entirely surprised that this fragmentary approach has come to light but can anyone else throw any light on policy?

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Guest stuartp

Entirely possible that 'roadside' and 'platform side' painting came out of different budgets, or the person speccing the job simply forgot about the road elevation. This is the same organisation which painted signalboxes and stations due for closure, and they were still at that particular game right up to privatisation.

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  • 3 months later...

WEEEeeeeeeeeeell, ongoing research has thrown up a strange one. It seems Darlington District and surroundings did their own thing with an odd flat bay green being used on some structures in much the same way the NE region used pale blue. in the case of Broomielaw this was not earlier than mid 1955 which coincides with a fettle up and a royal visit to Barnard Castle the following year. Somewhere I've seen Barnard Castle West Box painted this way too.

 

edited to add: http://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/5809378730/sizes/l/in/set-72157626909157358/

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  • 4 years later...

When BR chose the colours for each of the newly formed regions were they based on the colours of the coaching stock of the equivalent Big 4 companies?

 

ie.  London Midland - Maroon  LMS

      Southern - Green  SR

      Western - Brown (Chocolate)  GWR

      North Eastern - Orange (to resemble Teak?)  LNER

 

and used the 2 shades of blue for the 2 other "new" regions, that had been part of the old LMS and LNER (Scottish and Eastern).

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The GWR had begun to use a simplified chocolate and cream paint scheme on structures before nationalisation. Given the ferocious company loyalty, I suspect they were just allowed to get on with it. Their enamel signs were the only ones to have cream lettering. On all other regions it was white.

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