Correct underframe color for blue/grey mk1's

[Class 74]

Hi there...

 

I have a question, I can't find it out on my own. So here we go:

 

What is the correct color for the side of the underframe for a mk1 in the blue/grey livery? Is it blue (like the Bachmann/Farish models) or is it black (or dark grey, like the 7mm models from Heljan).

 

I think I saw both variants in prototype pix. Or was the underframe so dirty that it just look like black? Or did the paint scheme changed over the years...?

 

Thanx for your help!

 

 

Regards

 

Simon

 

[Legend]

Sorry Simon

 

I'm going to add to confusion by saying it was brown. I seem to remember this from a review of Mainline Mk1s a long long time ago which stated that the underframe was correctly brown. I'm sure someone out there will be able to clarify

[Gwiwer]

I'm sure it changed from time to time and place to place as most other paint specifications did.  Let's be clear also as to what is meant by "underframe" as the term has a specific meaning.  It includes the entire structural assembly beneath the vehicle floor and is comprised of the sole bars, headstocks and all other structural parts which form the whole.

 

Some vehicles would have the entire underframe painted in a dark colour, others may have had the outward-facing parts of the sole bars and possibly headstocks painted in the main livery.  

 

In model terms most are now represented in black though Airfix used a mid-brown for the mouldings beneath their Mk2 air-cons (not strictly the underframe as that is integral with the structure on those vehicles but sometimes erroneously referred to as such).

 

In normal use anything which wasn't already black swiftly became dirtied but not necessarily to black.  Brake dust and fine ballast powder which arises naturally from a railway formation in use can cause underframe dirt to appear grey, brown or even (and especially on the SR EMU fleets for many years) a distinctive orangey rust shade.

[Class 74]

Wow, thanx guys!!!!!

 

I just want to be sure that I don't have to paint that part for my whole MK1 fleet, hehe! So I will just add some dirt!

 

(And yes, I mean the solebar)

 

Simon

[SRman]

In the early days of BR blue liveries, many of the parts that were traditionally black were painted an umber brown colour. This was later changed to black, again.

 

I'm not sure when but certainly later in the blue era, solebars on passenger stock were painted blue to match the sides but tended to trap dirt so could appear almost any shade of dirt from grey to brown to black anyway!

[Class 74]

@SRman

 

Yeah, I thought they changed it to match the mk2 stock (especially the BG and Buffet coaches).

 

Thank you again, very helpful!

 

Simon

[Gwiwer]

Step boards were also painted blue for some years on some stock again to match the sides but also became dirty very quickly in use.  More recently still some steps have appeared in bright yellow.

[45125]

Hi all,

 

when blue and grey first appeared bogie brown was the chosen colour for underframes on stock ( a few 08s got the treatment too). By about 1980 a change was made to return to bogie black. I was told the brown was used as after a while vehicle frames ended up brown. Some the early mk1 repaints got the solebar painted brown but this soon chaged to rail blue, was this change due to more works using air less sprays?. Although dmus kept a brown or black solebar.

 

Al Taylor

[brian daniels]

I took this coach at around 1980 when the solebars and bufferbeams were blue.

[MJI]

Solebars normally blue but whole underframe normally a dirty dusty brown colour from track dirt

[talisman56]

My recollection of the passing of new 4CIG/4VEP units on Friday morning running in turns from Selhurst to Brighton in the early 70s was the underframes were painted a Dark Plum colour. Obviously this degraded to dirty grey/black within a short period of time as they got used...

[Andy1963]

Hi, I worked at Wolverton works in the 80's, as stated earlier the sole bar and step boards were painted blue and the bogies and rest of underframe was black.  The whole of the underframe and bogies quickly became covered in a rather nasty brown grime, some of which no doubt came from the shute goinf through the floor near inside the bogie area from the toilet at either end.  Working underneath changing the shute or the flexible pipe attached to it was never a nice thing to do, or a nice place to be.  With reference to paint application, I worked in the works up until 1989 and although expirements had been carried out with spraying some time in the 70's, all stock then was still being brush painted at Wolverton.  I know they were carrying out trials on Mk3's spray painting in the then new intercity livery.  From memory, the body panels were painted by a skilled painter, and the sole bar down by a lower grade painter. Also, at that time, all the numbers were hand painted by sign writers, no stickers were used as far as I can remember.

[Class 74]

Thank you all, thank you Andy

 

Interesting answer(s)!

 

Cheers

 

Simon