Prototype for everything corner.

[peanuts]

i have posted this elsewhere but think its appropriate here extract from the trb Rochdale 1990 "report of sheep on line between Castleton and Rochdale signaling managers B Wooley and T Shepard in attendance traffic cautioned at RE24 signal untilfurno " 

[Chris M]

Back to Steam Era Blue & Grey. Everything in this pic says early sixties apart from the almost complete blue & grey rake behind the Black Five.

 

Bolton Trinity Street 11 March 1968. by Ralph Ward, on Flickr

 

I think it's new to the thread.

 

P

 

Going on photographs rather than memory the change from maroon to blue & grey for coaches seemed to happen very quickly. In the summer of '66 pretty much all coaches were still maroon but by the summer of '68 there seems to be far more blue & grey than maroon and by 1970 maroon coaches appear to be getting very rare with just to odd one to be occasionally found in a rake of blue & grey. Locos on the other hand seem to have not been repainted anywhere near so quickly as a repaint wouldn't happen until their next major refurb after 1966.

[melmerby]

When the new AC electric services started on the WCML the coaches as far as I can remember were all maroon.

I presume a new livery for coaches had not been proposed at the start of the electric era.

 

Keith

[Colin_McLeod]

If blue and grey had come with the electrics Hornby Dublo would probaby have included them in their SD range.

[Rugd1022]

When the new AC electric services started on the WCML the coaches as far as I can remember were all maroon.

I presume a new livery for coaches had not been proposed at the start of the electric era.

 

Keith

 

Blue and grey had been decided on officially at board level sometime in 1965 Keith, after the XP64 rake had done the rounds, but mass repainting of stock didn't get underway until mid to late 1966. The full electric service out of Euston didn't start until April '66.

[sir douglas]

this morning, an east midlands HST passing through Sandal & Agbrigg with an East coast kitchen car in the middle

[melmerby]

Blue and grey had been decided on officially at board level sometime in 1965 Keith, after the XP64 rake had done the rounds, but mass repainting of stock didn't get underway until mid to late 1966. The full electric service out of Euston didn't start until April '66.

Electric services on the WCML started long before the Euston service, the locos were out and about around 1960

I travelled by train from Manchester to Birmingham before I left school in 1962 and the train was electrically hauled from Manchester to Crewe with 2 locos on the front the acceleration was extremely impressive.

At Crewe the electrics came off and the rest of the journey was behind IIRC a Black 5 and much more sedate!

 

Keith

[great central]

this morning, an east midlands HST passing through Sandal & Agbrigg with an East coast kitchen car in the middle

Been like that best part of a year I think

[jonny777]

Electric services on the WCML started long before the Euston service, the locos were out and about around 1960

I travelled by train from Manchester to Birmingham before I left school in 1962 and the train was electrically hauled from Manchester to Crewe with 2 locos on the front the acceleration was extremely impressive.

At Crewe the electrics came off and the rest of the journey was behind IIRC a Black 5 and much more sedate!

 

Keith

 

 

Yes it was a phased development, with Manchester to Crewe being opened first, followed by Liverpool to Crewe; and then to various loco change points (Stafford, Nuneaton, Rugby) southwards to Euston. 

 

I remember going to Euston at Easter 1967 and filling up my previously blank AM10 page in the unit book because they were running as 12-car formations at the time, presumably to Northampton. 

[TheSignalEngineer]

Model railways should be fun.  Time for more realism on the exhibition circuit?

 

Durham station. Cow on the line! 18-7-84 by locoman1966, on Flickr

I remember back around 1961 the WCML at Rugby being thrown into chaos at Rugby station one busy summer Saturday by an escaped piglet running to and fro across the Down lines.

[rab]

I remember back around 1961 the WCML at Rugby being thrown into chaos at Rugby station one busy summer Saturday by an escaped piglet running to and fro across the Down lines.

According to the recent TV series on NYMR

there's a piglet causing chaos in the workshops.

[carlwooduk]

Class 43 power car waiting to be refuelled- this time at a Shell Garage at Gordano services!

Driver may pick up a coffee to go as well

Edited March 25, 2018 by carlwooduk

[carlwooduk]

Class 43 power car waiting to be refuelled- this time at a Shell Garage at Gordano services!

Driver may pick up a coffee to go as well

[johnlambert]

Class 43 power car waiting to be refuelled- this time at a Shell Garage at Gordano services!

Driver may pick up a coffee to go as well

I bet filling the loco would earn you more than a couple of sherry glasses.

[leopardml2341]

I bet filling the loco would earn you more than a couple of sherry glasses.

Still wouldn't get you a full set of world cup coins though; oh hang on wasn't that Esso?

[Trog]

I was on a job once where the ballast cleaner started to run out of diesel, and we were trying to keep it running by shuttling to and from the nearest garage with a load of one gallon cans. They must have wondered what we were doing with so much diesel, and I am surprised that we were never questioned by the transport people as to why we had used the fuel card so often in one night. We had to give up in the end though as the cleaner was burning the stuff quicker than we could fetch it.

[TheSignalEngineer]

When the new AC electric services started on the WCML the coaches as far as I can remember were all maroon.

I presume a new livery for coaches had not been proposed at the start of the electric era.

 

Keith

There would still have been the odd blood and custard about when the first ac electrics started service

[The Johnster]

The blue/grey livery was tried out on the experimental 'XP64' set in 1964, along with Class 47 D1733 which was turned out in an all over blue livery with SYP, and the new double arrow symbol in white on the background of a red panel which covered the cab side between the door, bottom of the side window, and the warning panel.  

 

New coaches continued to be produced in maroon livery, or malachite green for the Southern, until 1966, including very early mk2s, all FKs IIRC.  None of these were built for the LMR to my knowledge.  The Euston-Birmingham-Manchester-Liverpool electrification was not completed until 1966, but the locos had all been built up to AL6 (later 86) by then, in 'Electric Blue' livery with white cab roofs, earlier locos appearing without SYP warning panels.  AFAIK no AL6s were turned out without warning panels.

 

The new 'Corporate Image' (what a stirring concept that was...) was introduced in 1966 with the double arrow symbol, a new typeface, and liveries along with house colours for buildings, advertising, marketing material.  Ships had a new livery as well.  Blue/grey coaches appeared on all regions at this time, but the LMR concentrated it's allocation on the 25kv services initially, and these were being marketed very hard with timetable reductions and more trains, so awareness of the new livery was influenced by this in the early period.  By mid 1967, most main line trains featured at least some blue/grey stock in the rake, and by 69 they were pretty much in the majority.  But maroon mk1s could be seen into the early 70s.

Edited March 25, 2018 by The Johnster

[melmerby]

Still wouldn't get you a full set of world cup coins though

No there were always a few sent only to Wick or Thurso or such like!     

 

Keith

[jonny777]

There would still have been the odd blood and custard about when the first ac electrics started service

 

 

Now that is a challenge I have never thought of. 

 

A blue AC electric loco in the same photo as a blood and custard (or crimson and cream if you prefer) carriage. 

[newbryford]

Now that is a challenge I have never thought of. 

 

A blue AC electric loco in the same photo as a blood and custard (or crimson and cream if you prefer) carriage. 

 

 

Blue AC electric with almost a full rake of blood and custard.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wulfruna_kid/14874514624/in/photolist-oEpLYG

 

Cheers,

Mick

 

edited as deliberate mistake spotted below.

Edited March 25, 2018 by newbryford

[melmerby]

Blue AC electric with a full rake of blood and custard.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wulfruna_kid/14874514624/in/photolist-oEpLYG

 

Cheers,

Mick

That's Cheating! (Also the two on the back aren't Blood & Custard)

 

Keith

Edited March 25, 2018 by melmerby

[DavidB-AU]

Talk about a motley scratch set.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/36034969@N08/4677824651/

 

Cheers

David

[jonny777]

Blue AC electric with almost a full rake of blood and custard.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wulfruna_kid/14874514624/in/photolist-oEpLYG

 

Cheers,

Mick

 

edited as deliberate mistake spotted below.

 

 

 

Hmmm......, although that illustrates how difficult it must be to find an AC electric in original 1960s BR livery with a blood/custard coach in the shot. 

[leopardml2341]

Hmmm......, although that illustrates how difficult it must be to find an AC electric in original 1960s BR livery with a blood/custard coach in the shot. 

If he tried