BR 1990 - 1994 then shadow franchises to privatisation (1997)

[QuoitsPlayer]

I'm developing a model set in the North East around the BR sectors in the early 1990's I'm thinking run down with the first signs of recovery and modernisation. My own memories are some what limited I was 11 in 1994 although Middlesbrough station and the whole railway to a child from rural North Yorkshire seemed run down and shabby especially having witnessed the rationalisation of Esk Valley services and infrastructure.

 

While I can find information about Intercity and regional railways what happened after April 1994? What changes were there that could be replicated on a OO layout other than the Load Haul livery? that would make it obvious that the railway was set prior to the actual sell off?

 

I know this is a a bit of a niche time span but I went on the train to school everyday between 1994 and 2001 and would like to represent the end of BR ownership. I only remember travelling on a Northern Spirit liveried unit once, usually it was 'Skipper/Provincial/TWPTA/RR, the layout will probably be Whitby-ish but assuming that the line to Malton is still open and Whitby is part of the 'Transpennine Express' network, when I have developed it further I will start a thread in 'layout topics' but I'm just looking for information at the moment.       

 

Many thanks,

Matt

[Dungrange]

Matt,

 

The presence of any Load Haul liveried stock would only indicate that you were modelling post-1994: examples of locomotives in Load Haul livery survived well into the EWS era with the last Class 60 only being repainted within the last 12 months or so.  Only the continuing presence of older liveries like corporate blue mixed with some sectorisation stock would imply a pre-privatisation time period.

 

Unfortunately, I can't be more specific, as I am not familiar with the area you plan to model.  My own experience of the very late 1980s in Inverness was that all services were locomotive hauled coaching stock (probably a mixture of Mark 1 and Mark 2) in mainly blue / grey livery.  However, by the early 1990s almost all services seemed to be Diesel Multiple Units (Classes 156 and 158).  Unfortunately, I don't really remember the changeover as I had left home to attend University during this period.

 

Regards

 

David

[Guest Phil]

One thing to bear in mind is that a lot of paint had sploshed around in the previous few years. BR blue gave way to large logo, then a rainbow of colours erupted onto the scene. Although the infrastructure may have been a little grotty, much of the stock had been repainted and the sector locos were being reliveried into TLF companies.

[The Stationmaster]

The TLF successor company liveries (e.g Transrail) did not appear until post the 1994 re-organisation of Tralnload Freight into the three separate companies.

[Dungrange]

I'm not clear from the topic header and original post whether the intention is to try to represent the late sectorisation era (1990 - 1994) or the shadow privatisation era (1994 - 1997).  The three trainload freight companies were created on 1 April 1994, but it was several weeks / months before names such as Load Haul were approved and several more weeks / months before new liveries were applied to any stock.  Most of the re-painting would have been in 1995.  As such, rather than make it obvious that the model represents a period prior to the actual sell off, the inclusion of a locomotive in Load Haul livery would tend to point to a modelling timescale of circa 1995 - 2005.

 

The start date of the period that a model represents is effectivley defined by the newest locomotive, item of rolling stock or livery.  The end date is more vague but would be defined by either the presence of old stock that is about to be withdrawn, old liveries that are about to become obsolete or implied by the absense of key items from the next era.  In this case, by 2000 EWS had taken delivery of all of their Class 66 locomotives and they were seen all over the network.  I'm not convinced that the post-2000 period can be conveyed without at least one Class 66 locomotive.  The delivery of Class 66 locomotives also resulted in the withdrawal of large numbers of heritage diesels and the majority of those that remained were repainted into EWS maroon.  Therefore, it would be the absence of EWS liveried locomotives that would indicate the mid-to-late 1990s (say 1995 - 1998/99) rather than post-2000 (even although Load Haul livery survived after this date).

 

However, whilst the absence of EWS liveries would tend to imply a period before privatisation, this would be strengthened by the inclusion of liveries that were still around in the early 1990s but extremely rare by the late 1990s.  The obviously livery that fits into this category is corporate blue although large logo blue was also disappearing in the early 1990s.

 

I think that the key to representing this period on the freight side would be to have a mix of older liveries (corporate blue, large logo blue, early railfreight grey) and newer liveries (trainload sectors, dutch, etc) and only include a Load Haul locomotive if it is circa 1995/96 that is to be portrayed.

 

Regards

 

David

[Guest stuartp]

In terms of RRNE livery and branding, there was no change to trains or stations after April 1994 and still no change when MTL took over in 1997. The headed paper changed to reflect a new VAT number and registered office address but the Northern Spirit branding didn't come until a year or so later. Uniforms were also unchanged.

 

What did happen between 1994 and 1997 was that the bits which became infrastructure companies and Railtrack lost the RRNE branding. If you want to set it firmly in the 1994-7 era then units / stations in Provincial / Regional Railways colours and road vehicles in Railtrack or Jarvis colours would do it. New or repainted Railtrack vehicles were white with dark orange branding (or dark green ?), Jarvis were maroon with the company logo on the side. There were still plenty of yellow vans and busses around with the BR or RRNE stickers removed and Jarvis stickers stuck over the top. TOC vehicles were unbranded, apart from the cleaning gang vans which carried WY Metro or SYPTE livery (not applicable to your area, except that one of the Metro Transits finished up at Heaton as the fitters' runabout / mobile skip).

 

If you want to be really particular, between 1994 and about 1999 the RRNE York HQ pool car was a completely knackered white Peugout 309. The Area Managers' and on-call cars were dark blue 309s, all unbranded.

[QuoitsPlayer]

Sorry if my loose description has caused confusion.

 

What I have at the moment is a very small 'second' layout set firmly in the early 90's swallow liveried IC stock and Reggie Rail units, what i'm looking at doing is building a new main layout set again in the 90's but i want it to be capable of being run up to about 2000ish. I was wondering if there was anything obvious other than liveries that changed between the break up of BR and the completion/ early years of privatisation?   

 

Certainly at the moment a Class 60 is the newest loco, while I get the impression that for late 90's a single Class 66 will be the start of the new era.

 

The reason for the mentioning the Load Haul livery is i have this abiding memory of a LH56 running on the Esk Valley on number of winter Sundays with a train of Seacows in a mix of liveries this would be about 1995/6 and never seeing a BR liveried one.

 

When did 'Northern Spirit' livery begin?

Also did ICEC or GNER remove the swallow form HST power cars? Were GNER painted MK3's mixed in with swallow liveried sets? 

Additionally were the former Intercity adverts continued after 1994 but branded as 'Intercity East Coast'?  

 

 

Many thanks everyone, the contributions so far have been very helpful.

[Guest stuartp]

When did 'Northern Spirit' livery begin?

 

Erm... good question. I think it was late 1998, I'll have to check but most of the NS brand identity stuff went in the skip under Arriva, and the rest went when we moved out of Main HQ and into Northern Towers. The franchise changed hands in May 1997 but MTL didn't change anything brand-wise at first. The first reliveried units were a 156 in green/turquoise and a 158 in maroon, timed to coincide with the start of the 'First Class' on transpennine service. They never repainted everything though, a lot of stuff went straight from RR/Provincial livery into Arriva.

 

I might have something at work with the date on but I'm rapidly running out of people to ask who were there at the time. You could probably get just as accurate a date by looking at the dates on Flickr collections.

[Alcanman]

'Northern Spirit' was certainly in evidence in 1999 when I took these pics at Newcastle Central

 

Sounds like an interesting project.

 

 

 

 

Mal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[QuoitsPlayer]

Many thanks stuartp and Alcanman.

 

I remember the first day of privatised operation beginning and thinking this is no different to yesterday I was though a 14 year old school boy at the time, I left school in 2001 and genuinely don't remember travelling on anything in NS livery although some RR 142's were refitted internally, out went 2+3 benches and in came tiny proper seats, which I recall the younger kids found the head rest cushions of ideal as missiles, in about 3 mins every seat was missing its cushion until the conductor came along!

 

Biggest change we had was the replacement of two 142's with a single 3 car 144, and in later years of 142 operation us kids being banned from 1 coach on the 142's so it could be reserved for adults.

 

I think though its ironic that given its short existence NS still survives in terms of the interiors of some 156's, in the last couple of weeks in Whitby some the 156's still have the cab door notice 'Authorised Personnel Only - Regional Railways North East'  

 

Did NS rebrand any stations like Northern have with a corporate color scheme?

 

This is a slow burn project as I want it to be built to a high standard, and 1994 -2001 was the time I was on the school train and what I remember although as I said in the OP I definitely want some sectorisation era capability.       

[Guest stuartp]

The first day was hilarious. I walked into an office with 12 desks and chairs, no telephones and no computer. The first day was spent trying to blag a desktop PC from somewhere, the rest of the week was spent trying to find someone who could work it and stealing furniture from other departments. A lot of the roles were duplicated between the TOCs and Railtrack, and in my case all the people who knew how to do my new job had legged it to Railtrack and taken all their stuff with them. It only worked at all because we all knew each other in the first place.

 

The 142 refurb was ... er ... interesting (as was the Whitby school train generally) - those headrests had a couple of sturdy spikes underneath to hold them into the seat frame, and a convenient handle on the side so you could get a really good swing at whoever's head you were trying to stick it in.  They got modified quite quickly.

 

The 'Authorised Personnel Only" signs lasted because they had a really useful drivers' fault-finding guide on the other side, they're also quite well stuck on !

 

I really can't remember if NS rebranded any stations or not - I will try to find out.

 

This is the problem with being there at the time - I could tell you in detail what the Employers' Liability and Public Liability insurance arrangements were for the whole period from 1994 to about 2006 because I had to know them inside out, but the rest was just 'stuff' which was going on elsewhere.

[QuoitsPlayer]

The 142 refurb was ... er ... interesting (as was the Whitby school train generally) - those headrests had a couple of sturdy spikes underneath to hold them into the seat frame, and a convenient handle on the side so you could get a really good swing at whoever's head you were trying to stick it in.  They got modified quite quickly.

 

Thanks for your help.

 

I genuinely had no idea that the Whitby school train attracted attention from headquarters, it was always presented to us pupils as being something to do with Middlesbrough or even Newcastle and that those in charge didn't really understand that they should be grateful for having all the kids on the train, for instance how dare RRNE alter the times of the train so as to connect with trans-pennine services! I remember one of our Headteachers causing a rumpus in Whitby by suggesting pupils would arrive more promptly if the train was replaced by a bus - it caused quite a stink at the time with parents up in arms about the threat to the school train.

 

I think there was a suggestion at one point, possibly the signalmens strike 1994/5(?), that due to the rail service being suspended if RRNE didn't provide a replacement bus then the schools/council would and the pupils would never go to school on the train again. 

 

I know as a kid the refurbed 142's really were a new playground as the head rest  cushions definitely made good missiles, but the seats were too close together so no leg room or worse no 3 seater bench to use as a settee to put your feet up on and worst we lost our end compartments so no plotting/chatting up girls could be done although by the time the refurbed 142's arrived I must of been in 6th form as I don't remember our group wrecking them but by then most of the lads had settled down and were trying to be 'mature' as girls were more interesting than rioting on the 16:05 all stations from Whitby.  

 

The biggest change we had was the replacement of the 142's with the 3-car 144 and then 156's taking over - the guards always threatened to bring a single 153 tomorrow -  that would of been interesting!

 

2 Hornby 142's have already been lined up to represent what was charitably described as the 'Hooligan Express' and eventually a Realtrack 144 will like the real thing takeover.  

 

I know this is going a bit off topic but I would love to know how the school-train was seen from the other-side as it were.

 

Matt

[Guest stuartp]

The Whitby School Train was the primary reason the branch was/is still there, and at the time it was generally seen as a PITA.

 

The day to day management was done from Middlesbrough by the Conductor Team Manager there, an excellent chap called Terry Graham with a fund of funny stories (including one on the perils of fly-shunting brake vans without first checking that the brake rigging was actually connected up and not lying in bits all over the van floor). He was responsible for rostering the conductors and, when he could get hold of any, putting an RPA on the train to try and keep order (there was little point trying to do actual revenue protection as I believe you were all on Local Authority passes anyway). Most of the time it was fairly uneventful if a bit lively, although things did occasionally get out of hand. Usually this resulted in Terry popping next door to the BTP office and a couple of bobbies putting in an appearance after which things generally calmed down. I suspect Terry was largely responsible for MBO conductors never actually refusing to work it, as happened elsewhere. Terry reported to Newcastle who did most of the admin and local authority liaison. Fleet availability was tightly monitored by York so taking a unit out to refit all the headrests and clean it up impacted on availability and showed up very quickly. Taking the same unit out several times to clean it up after working the same service was likley to result in the Fleet Director pointing out loudly at the daily performance conference that it wasn't his people who kept breaking it so would Retail like to do something about it please instead of moaning at Fleet. All the conductor incident reports from the whole company finished up on my desk to be filtered for anything which needed reporting to HMRI, the rest went into a database which monitored several things including on-train vandalism and disorder. You figured quite highly on occasions.

 

I rostered the MTL Security Team up there a few times, more to provide staff reassurance than anything else and to give them an excuse to turn out in full drag with their Big Dog (they spent most of their time skulking about in the bushes looking for cable thieves). They briefly fell within my remit for reasons which escaped me at the time, let alone now, and they were even more fun than Terry. (Ten scousers with no necks, all with the same haircut and 'tache, and nearly all ex-military).

 

The 144 appeared because the 142s could be used to operate or strengthen two services in the peak, there was a real shortage of units and tying up two for both peaks caused a real headache. NYCC did occasionally get silly, they insisted at one point that the trains should be fitted with seatbelts because that was their bus policy, but they knew as well as we did that any withdrawal of funding would leave the branch with one off-peak return service a week (MTL had no obligation to continue to operate a local-authority funded service) and they would have to explain that to their voters. We were being caned for lack of units and cancellations elewhere and apart from the school trains the Whitby branch carried very few regular passengers.

[Guest stuartp]

I remember those rather well, and thinking how useful they could be in certain situations

 

I once sat in on a presentation by some bloke whose company made tri-colour LED torches (when such things were in their infancy) and was pushing them as a replacement for Bardics. He had patiently explained how they worked, how much longer than a Bardic the battery lasted, how they had no moving parts to break and how much lighter they were, then invited questions.

 

"They don't look very robust" says the conductor management person, "and there's no handle".

 

"Oh they are, they're made from high quality ABS plastic, and they don't need a handle because they fit comfortably in the hand"

 

"That's what I mean. How are my lads supposed to fend off a drunk with that ?"

 

[62613]

Oh, what fun!