British Rail corporate liveries
The history of British Rail's corporate liveries is quite complex. Although the organisation was associated with Rail Blue from the mid-1960s to the 1980s, a number of other schemes were also used, especially when it was split into operating units in the mid-1980s.
Pre-corporate liveries
At the formation of British Railways on 1 January 1948, early diesel, electric and gas turbine locomotives were already painted black with aluminium trim. By the late 1950s, this had been superseded by the same shade of green that was used on express passenger steam locomotives, although some locomotives were painted in a two-tone Brunswick and Sherwood green livery; Southern Region electric locomotives were painted a light shade of malachite green. Multiple units were also generally green, although this tended to be a lighter and bluer shade compared to the colour used on steam and diesel locomotives.Corridor coaching stock was originally trialled in London & North Western Railway coach plum and off-white before Crimson and Cream livery was adopted across the network; non-corridor stock was painted plain Crimson.
In 1956, an all-over darker maroon, which more closely resembled the pre-nationalisation London, Midland & Scottish Railway livery, was reintroduced, except for the Southern Region, where locomotive-hauled stock was generally painted Coaching Stock Green and a small number of express carriages on the Western Region which were in traditional GWR-style Chocolate and Cream.
With the reorganisation of British Railways in the mid-1960s, a complete break with the past was signalled by the introduction of a blue and grey livery which dominated all passenger rolling stock until the mid-1980s, when a new InterCity livery was introduced along with a number of regional colour schemes.
Early liveries
The standard livery for most British Railways steam locomotives was black, often with a thin red, cream and grey trim; express passenger locomotives were not painted in the former middle chrome green colour of the Great Western Railway as is often stated, but were painted in British Standards: BS224 Deep Bronze Green also known as Land Rover Deep Bronze Green LRC001 with orange and black lining. This error in colour identification comes from an article and question published in a model railway magazine in the 1950s, where the responding editor made the error and it has frequently been repeated since then. This has been confirmed by records held at the National Railway Museum.All Class 42 Warship diesels were delivered in green, but some Class 52s were delivered in maroon to match the then-standard coaching stock livery. This livery suited these diesel hydraulic classes and allowed the Western Region to once again show a degree of independence; it was not applied to any other diesel or electric classes.
The 25 kV electric locomotives were painted from new in a striking shade of bright blue, known as Electric Blue. They retained this livery for some years, before being painted in Rail Blue when that became the standard.
In 1964, as part of a plan to develop a new corporate image for British Railways, a number of experiments were tried:
- Two Class 31 diesel locomotives were painted in trial liveries. No. D5578 was painted in an unlined Light Electric Blue, and No.D5579 was painted in a colour variously described as Bronze Gold and Golden Ochre.
- The first Class 52 Western, no. D1000 Western Enterprise, was painted in a pale brown livery known as Desert Sand when it was first delivered in 1961.
- Another Class 52, no. D1015 Western Champion, was delivered in another, darker yellow/brown colour described as Golden Ochre, though somewhat different from that applied to D5579. These non-standard liveried Western diesel hydraulics were also fitted with the cast aluminium lion and wheel emblem that was standard issue on the 25 kV electric locomotives.
Coaching stock from 1948
The second phase
From 1956, maroon was adopted as the standard colour for coaching stock, with corridor coaches lined and non-corridor plain initially; later, all stock was lined. There was a return of some regional schemes; the Western Region turned out some Mark 1 sets for named expresses in chocolate and cream, similar to that used by the GWR before nationalisation. Until the introduction of Mark 1 catering vehicles in the late 1950s, these trains had matching former GWR catering vehicles. The special saloons and a few other special coaches were also repainted in chocolate and cream but regular former GWR coaches carried maroon. From July 1956, the Southern Region began using a coaching stock green that was somewhat darker than the malachite green colour of the old Southern Railway and this extended to former Southern vehicles as well as Mark 1 stock.For cost reasons, liveries were usually changed piecemeal, when coaches came in for scheduled maintenance. Coaches from different regions could also often find themselves coupled together and trains of two or three mixed liveries were not uncommon. Due to the consequent muddle of liveries, many trains began to get an untidy, if not tatty, appearance which added to the run-down image of the railway. The rebranding of British Railways to British Rail on 1 January 1965 was coupled with the introduction of an entirely new national livery.
XP64
A mock-up for the British Railways Mark 2 stock was displayed at the Design Centre, 28 Haymarket, London, in 1964. This included many of the features which were later incorporated in the Mark 2 and trialled in an experimental train designated XP64. This mock-up was shown in an orange and grey livery which, however, never appeared on rolling stock in service. The XP64 train was used to test technology and carriage arrangements for the planned Mark 2 coaches. The coaches for the XP64 train were painted in a slightly lighter version of what would eventually become Rail Blue, with a Pale Ivory stripe centred on the passenger windows, and brown underframe. One locomotive, Class 47 No.D1733, was painted to match the coaching stock. In 2001, as passenger work for diesel locomotives operated by Virgin CrossCountry came to an end, a number of their Class 47s were painted in heritage liveries that they had carried in the past, including the former D1733 which once again carried a near-correct version of the XP64 livery.Rail Blue
Eventually, it was decided to standardise on a colour which became known as Rail Blue. Introduced in 1965 and also known as Monastral Blue, the colour was defined by British Rail standards BR28/6001 and BR28/5321. It was a dark, greyish blue tone which hid the effects of dirt well. In the early years, the colour faded quite badly, becoming lighter and paler with time although this problem had been overcome by the late 1970s. European paint code RAL5020 is a good match to Rail Blue. There is also a British Standard paint colour BS381C 114 called Rail Blue, which was introduced in 1964. The new British Rail double arrow symbol on locomotives and the vehicle number and other ancillary markings written in the Rail Alphabet typeface were other integral parts of the livery. This style of livery was also used by CSX Transportation.Locomotives
This colour was applied to all diesel and electric locomotives, with the exception of the ends, which were painted yellow to improve visibility and the underframes and buffer beams which were painted black; the paints being to BSS 2660-0.003 and BSS 2660-9.103 respectively. As Rail Blue was introduced, the last locomotive recorded as being outshopped in a previous livery was Class 43 D838 Rapid which left Swindon Works in August 1968 in maroon.The Vale of Rheidol Railway remained steam operated past the general end of steam traction in 1968. Accordingly, the three remaining Vale of Rheidol Railway steam locomotives received the Rail Blue colour scheme and the double arrow logo on their side tanks. The smokebox, running plate and running gear remained black; the bufferbeam remained red.
Coaches and multiple units
Corridor coaching stock and certain express multiple unit classes were painted in Rail Blue, with a 44-inch Pearl Grey horizontal panel centred vertically on the main windows, outlined by a narrow white line. This grey panel finished just short of the end of the coach leaving a small amount of Rail Blue which then continued round onto the end of the coach. Roofs were dark grey and underframes originally brown, but later black.Non-corridor coaching stock and other multiple units received all-over Rail Blue until about 1980, when most received the same blue/grey livery as corridor coaching stock.
The 4-REP and 3/4-TC electric multiple units were a notable oddity, initially receiving all-over Rail Blue despite being express corridor stock. They were repainted into blue/grey in the early 1970s.
From 1974, some diesel multiple unit sets, after being refurbished, were painted white with a wide blue band under the windows and full yellow ends.
From 1966 until withdrawal, Pullman Coaches were also painted in the reversal of the normal coach livery, with the blue and grey areas transposed. The Blue Pullman sets retained their livery of Nanking Blue until 1969, when they were repainted in the reversed grey and blue livery.