[Ukraine fundraiser] BR 132: not just another blue and yellow diesel

[readingtype]

 

 

I like mugs with trains on them, and so do lots of railway enthusiasts. I want to support the Ukrainians suffering from Russia's unprovoked invasion in February, and perhaps other railway enthusiasts do, too. The other day these thoughts came together and I thought I'd follow them up. Hence the mocked-up mug above (the one in front of the teapot) and a proposal: if there's sufficient interest here, then I will produce it for sale.  All the money that remains once the costs of producing, shipping, delivery and admin have been met will go to the Help Ukraine Emergency Appeal (https://www.gofundme.com/f/helpukraine).

 

To keep the production costs down so that as much money as possible goes to the appeal, I need to put in a substantial order -- at least 100 mugs. This will be a big outlay and I can only really proceed if it looks like I am not going to end up with a lot of mugs gathering dust in my house. If I know I have more takers, I can get a larger order and that will mean for each one sold even more money will go to the appeal.

 

This is where you come in.

 

If you like the mockup shown, you support the appeal, and you are willing to pay at least £10, then please click on the 'Agree' icon below this post (it's a tick). If you want to express enthusiasm etc but you're not sure you want one then use a different button.

 

Once I have enough confidence to proceed, I'll post instructions on how to make your payment. On the other hand, if nobody is interested I'll go back to sleep and there will be no mugs. Inother words: I'm not making any promises at all just yet.

 

To stay up to date, follow this topic by clicking the 'Follow' button in the headline at the top.

 

Update 9 August: for anyone reading now, there are still a small number of mugs available: here's the mug sales web site.

A bit of background

 

The Baureihe (='series') 132/232 is an iconic locomotive design beloved by European railfans, especially in Germany, where it was long ago given the nickname 'Ludmilla' by workers in the Leipzig maintenance depot in reference to its origin in the USSR. But where exactly did it come from?

 

At the end of the nineteenth century, the German engineer Gustav Hartmann set up a locomotive factory in Luhansk. Gustav was the son of the successful locomotive builder Richard Hartmann of Chemnitz, Saxony. This new factory was well positioned to compete with other locomotive suppliers in the Russian Empire.

 

In 1918 the factory was renamed the October Revolution Locomotive Works and it subsequently turned out more than 12,000 steam locos for the Soviet Union. After the second world war it supplied diesel locos to the Eastern Bloc. In the 1970s a good customer of the works was the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR), the state railway of the German Democratic Republic. Under the centrally planned and cooperative economy of the socialist countries, East Germany was encouraged not to develop high powered diesel traction on its own initiative but to collaborate on a project covering the whole Eastern Bloc and centred on the October Revolution factory, and then to buy the resulting products. These included the DR's 120, 130, 131 and 132 series.

 

There was an irony here given the factory was founded by a German who came from the city which subsequently became Karl-Marx-Stadt. In technical respects, it meant a move from hydraulic to electrical transmission, putting more distance between the loco specifications of the two German railway administrations. Nonetheless it was a positive step as the products have generally proven robust and long-lived.

 

The factory suffered from looting after parts of the Luhansk region declared independence from Ukraine in 2014 and it has apparently shut down production.

 

The Baureihe 132 pictured on the mug was delivered to the DR in July 1978. It was initially numbered 132 560-4. After the reunification of Germany it was renumbered into the 2xx series, undoing the historical numbering clash between diesels and electrics on the two railways, as 232 560-3. It was then in service with DB AG until February 2004 when it was sold for scrap. @CloggyDog photographed the loco, freshly repainted, some time around ten years earlier and I've taken one of his photos as the basis of my illustration.

 

These locos are big and still powerful by modern European standards and they have been workhorses of the European rail network for over four decades. They now operate not only in Germany but in Poland, Hungary and Romania. This mug celebrates the loco and pays tribute to the country where it was designed and built: Ukraine. So: click 'Agree' to show your intentions, then buy a mug and support the Ukrainians in their time of need!

 

What does the funny writing say?

 

Well, I have had it checked by a native speaker so hopefully it's not that funny. It just says: Ukrainian product. But it's truthful, and I think cyrillic script always has an interest for those of us who can't actually read it.

 

Sources

 

Finally, thank you to the following sources of information:

 

* Wikipedia, for info on the Luhansk works: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lokomotivfabrik_Luhansk (English: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luhanskteplovoz)
* Die Ludmilla in aller Welt, for info on the life of 132 560-4: http://v300-online.com/0821.html

* Wolfgang Glatte, Diesellokomotiven deutscher Eisenbahnen. Berlin: Transpress VEB, 1981

 

Cheers,

Ben

Edited August 9, 2022 by readingtype
Add mug sales site link for latecomers

[Allegheny1600]

I could hardly do anything other than “agree”

This is one of my favourite German diesel locomotives, which I really love and have several models of. I knew they were “Soviet” built but in my ignorance, I never realised just where they were built, despite fairly well following the news since 2014 etc, I never connected the dots.

 I wish your positive contribution well.

John

[readingtype]

Thanks for Agrees so far and thanks @Allegheny1600 for your kind words. I've edited the title because I realised the teaser wasn't cutting it.

Ben

[John Tomlinson]

In a shameless plug for my own pictures, this link goes to some snaps I took in Luhansk Works, and around, in 2010. Click on the somewhat shocking picture to reveal all!

 

My understanding is that the Works was seriously damaged in fighting in 2015, and I guess it's about to get a lot worse. There's a bit in this month's Lok Report (which I can't read too well as I don't speak German) to this effect.

 

Nice idea by the way. I've ticked "agree" but would like two mugs please.

 

 

Edited April 7, 2022 by John Tomlinson

[Barclay]

I hope you don't mind me giving this one a 'bump' to put it back at the top. I wonder if Andy would consider pinning it for a while to help ?

 

[readingtype]

Thanks to everyone for the interest shown over the last four weeks. I think the time has come to move things closer to production. I will get started as soon as I can. Please do let others know. If they're not on RMWeb they can contact me by email: ben-132mug (at) readingtype.org.uk

[Rob Cope]

MRC Bulletin arrived this morning so just read this on Carnivore's page.  What a good idea so have ticked for one please. Hope other MRC members will be opening their envelopes and offer support.

 

Rob

[readingtype]

I've been talking to the mug printer. Naturally as a graphic designer I have come up with pretty much the most technically challenging design possible. It's going to be fun figuring this out. A couple of highlights:

• the background is a flag. We want this to be printed the boldest, brightest, thickest possible. But I have placed lettering over the flag, both yellow on blue and blue on yellow. If either colour is slightly overlapping or mis-registered we could end up with green fringes as yellow is generally almost transparent to anything under it.
• although the illustration is basically a line drawing, the loco's shape is given by colouring the various panels in shades of the blue and yellow, showing highlight and shadow. This potentially requireds extra screen printing layers to reproduce.

So, watch this space. Some headaches likely, but we'll get there.

 

There's still plenty of time to show your support by the way -- read the first post to find out more (TLDR -- click 'agree' and be prepared to pay for a mug when they're ready).

 

Ben

Edited May 4, 2022 by readingtype
typo

[readingtype]

I've been working on the artwork to make it suitable for a real-world mug.

 

Firstly, although they look dark on screen, I'm using the 'official' Ukrainian flag colours according to Wikipedia: RAL 5019 Capri Blue and RAL 1023 Traffic Yellow. BR blue is down as RAL 5020, incidentally, though it had its own designation in the hallowed BR Corporate Identity manual.

 

Secondly, I am hoping I can use some halftone screen tricks to keep the number of colours reasonable. Everything should come from yellow, blue or black -- and not forgetting the absence of all ink, in which case the white of the china mug will show through. I'm trying a couple of variants to see which bring out the contours of the loco better (I'm thinking the one where the side is darker and the front is lighter is the better one).

 

Thirdly, there's the option of switching the lettering to white so there is less chance of a green fringe around the letters. Make things easy for your (mug) printer and they will be able to give you a good result: that's the thinking.

 

Here's a screenshot from Scribus showing work in progress (the original idea at the top).

Ben

 

 

 

Edited May 8, 2022 by readingtype
Editor puts in two copies of the image, only one needed really.

[Michael Hodgson]

The white lettering looks like a much better bet if you're worried about a green fringe.  It show up more clearly against the blue than against the yellow though.  Would that give you the green fringe problem though?

 

I don't know what colours Ukrainian locos wear (yellow ends?), but the blue front end and yellow buffer beam look a little odd using the darker blue.  I realise you won't want to add any extra colours, but if you swapped the colours just on the front of the loco, might that look more plausible without destroying the flag? 

 

 

[John Tomlinson]

13 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

The white lettering looks like a much better bet if you're worried about a green fringe.  It show up more clearly against the blue than against the yellow though.  Would that give you the green fringe problem though?

 

I don't know what colours Ukrainian locos wear (yellow ends?), but the blue front end and yellow buffer beam look a little odd using the darker blue.  I realise you won't want to add any extra colours, but if you swapped the colours just on the front of the loco, might that look more plausible without destroying the flag? 

 

 

 

 Remember this isn't a Ukrainian loco, it's a German railways loco built in Ukraine at Luhansk.

 

An example of a loco in the livery as delivered is here, pictured on shed in Saalfeld, eastern Germany in November 1992. The Diamond plate in the middle upper of the bodyside is the worksplate from Luhansk. These locos were originally delivered to East Germany, the DDR, when the country was spilt. On re-unification in 1990 East diesels which had a number starting with a "1" were renumbered to start with "2" to bring them into line with West German locos;

 

 

 

The nearest you get to a Ukrainian diesel that is similar is this, the TEP 70. I think however these were built at Kolomiya in Russia. If that sounds a bit odd these all date to Soviet days, when it was all one country governed from Moscow. The picture below is in Kharkhiv in May 2010.

 

 

John.

Edited May 9, 2022 by John Tomlinson

[readingtype]

Thanks for these comments and suggestions. To agree with @Michael Hodgson and @John Tomlinson as succinctly as I can: yes, the colours are a bit strange but, indeed, they're not intended to represent a livery. I'll keep thinking -- but I do want to get into production soon. With luck perhaps in time for Globalrail in Didcot, on 18 June (disclosure, I'm a German Railway Society committee member).

 

Cheers

Ben

 

[doctor quinn]

The colours of the loco seem familiar, did (old) Piko release a version in pale blue as a demonstrator or industrial unit?

[readingtype]

7 hours ago, doctor quinn said:

did (old) Piko release a version in pale blue

Now there's a question :-)

 

Perhaps it was Roco's T3109 017? http://www.modellbau-wiki.de/wiki/Datei:T3109_017_Roco62861.jpg

 

Many, many more colourful varieties are at http://www.modellbau-wiki.de/wiki/DR-Baureihe_130

 

Meanwhile here's an update. Testing out the 'official' RAL blue showed it was probably going to come out impractically dark, so I have found some new colours using my trusty Pantone swatch book (this entailed a bike ride as I have lent it to a friend...). I also talked to the mug printer today and he feels colouring the different parts of the loco will look bad because the halftone screens he can use with the solid colours will be fairly low-quality. I'm experimenting with some shading using only the black -- you can see work in progress on the driver's side buffer (our left).

 

Ben

 

  

[Barclay]

Looks good to me.

[Michael Hodgson]

That looks much better than the "correct" shades of colour you posted earlier. 

 

It's still obviously the flag, but I suppose flags fade over time when exposed to the sun anyway.  The loco now looks more like a black outline of a loco superimposed on the background whereas the darker shades made it look more like a flag-coloured loco.  Even the "Product" and DR class info seem clearer on this version - which is not what I would have expected; maybe that's just the larger image however.

 

Funny how fairly minor changes make such a big difference.

 

Flying a national flag upside down is a sign of distress so painting the world's largest aircraft with their national colours the other way up proved prophetic ... best not put this mug upside down in the dishwasher !

 

[readingtype]

@Michael Hodgson Thanks. I agree on the subtleties of the effect of the colour change, as they relate to the legibility of the text. I did have that in mind when choosing the new colours. And I'm hoping not just the print but the entire mug is dishwasher-proof...

 

On that point I'm expecting colour chips to arrive at the end of next week to confirm those two colours. Then we can press the big green ceramic screen printing button, I hope. Here's the current, hopefully, final, form of the artwork. I now have the approval of the mug printer that this will (a) be practical to produce (with a total of four tones, it needs three screens) and (b) come out looking nice and even: the halftones should, he thinks, look alright.

 

 

Cheers

Ben

[readingtype]

I've just got the glaze sample chip in the post and I'm inclined to think the colours will do very nicely. So we move on to finalising the artwork...

[readingtype]

Spoke too soon. Colours thought too far off by a Ukrainian. I must defer to that opinion, as without a credible flag we have no project. More colour samples, requested last week, are on their way...

[readingtype]

 

New colour samples arrived this morning. Here's the pragmatic design revision, with the text on the sunflower half in black -- Ukraine's yellow is very lemony. Comments welcome of course.

 

Edited May 26, 2022 by readingtype
Comments welcome

[Michael Hodgson]

Defintely an improvement and the blue looks a little darker too, and the whole closer to the flags I;ve seen.  The black lettering stands out much more clearly against the yellow than white did. but whte is still preferable against the darker blue.

[readingtype]

Thanks for comments/likes on the (second) colour revision. The yellow will be paler than it probably looks on your screens I'm afraid, but (as noted) the change to black lettering means we will be able to read the text! It's been interesting to learn that when I send a colour spec. to the mug producer, he looks it up in the colour reference and then goes to his store of glazes to see which is the best match. There is no possibility of exactitude. Glazing is the right way to make something that will last well and keep its colour (witness all the amazing multicoloured ceramics from hundreds of years ago) but it's not computer-age button-clicking flexible.

[Michael Hodgson]

The apparent colour fastness of ancient ceramics might be down to them not having dishwashers!

 

When I visit a preserved line I tend to buy a souvenir mug from the shop; unfortunately after a few years they tend to lose the image.  So looking at the mugs in the cupboard, I can see it's high time I went back to the KWVR, the SVR and the lines in the west country.

[readingtype]

I've now adjusted the artwork for the final mug dimensions (for some reason it took a while to find out what these were). That's meant a bit of tweaking to keep the loco facing one way and the text the other. We are now moving towards production: the artwork has gone to be assessed to check it's technically OK and I am expecting a proforma invoice so I can pay and get the kilns warming up.

 

I welcome further support of course! I'll post details of how you can donate and receive your mug here as soon as I can.

 

Ben

[readingtype]

Proof approved. We're in the hands of the mug printer!