Contents Listing - Articles & Features in this issue
LNWR TRAIN SERVICES OF 1905 - Cecil J. Allen THE "SUPER Ds" - J. W. Gahan ALL IN A DAY'S WORK - Photo feature THE READING, GUILDFORD, REIGATE - J, Spencer GUks WEST COUNTRY WINTER - Photo feature HORWICH WORKS - PART II - John Marshall GW DIESEL RAILCARS - Michael Farr CHIMNEYS - R. E. G. Read and Gordon Biddle PENRHYN CASTLE SWISS STEAM SPECIAL - G. Hoare LIGHT RAILWAY NOTES - W. J. K. Dories RAILWAY MISCELLANY . THE VI AND V3 2-S-2Ts - Photo feature LETTERS TO THE EDITOR BOOK REVIEWS CLUB NOTES FRONT COYER: The last of the LNW 0-8-0 freight locomotives was withdrawn last month. No. 49361 is seen in the depths of winter at Sutton Park on January 16, 1963.
Article Snippets
N the 140 years of railways, locomotive and rolling stock liveries have been multifarious in their variety, for every locomotive and carriage builder had his own ideas on colour and finish. Early railway carriages often had the bright liveries of the road carriages which they succeeded, while loco- motives sported nearly all colours of the rainbow. By mid-Victorian times colour schemes had become established and often allied to particular companies. Locomotive and carriage livery became a trade mark and identified the particular railway from its neighbour. Some liveries were long lived: varnished teak, for example, already well-used for carriages of the East Coast route by the 1880s, lasted until the early 1950s, and Brunswick green or Middle Chrome greena€call it what you will - for many years the standard colour employed by the Great Western for its locomotives, is still with us on steam and diesel locomotives. Mention crimson lake and, automatically, one thinks of the Midland; purple-brown and spilt milk is synonymous with the London & North Western, umbera€"the Brighton, and bluea€"the Great Eastern or the Caledonian depending on which side of the border you live. Even after the Grouping, colour still distinguished locomotives and stock of the "" Big Four "" companies. True, three of them used green for locomotives but the shades were as different as they could be; while the LMS at first perpetuated the glorious Midland red it later adopted a more sombre maroon. Yet crimson lake, maroon or red, whatever the shade, was established as the colour by which the LMS was known. Pre-grouping companies also had their coats of arms painted on locomotives and stock, and cast in iron on gateways or buildings, but economies of the 1920s and 1930s virtually put an end to such luxuries. In their place came the company monograms; the circular GWR motif, with letters carefully shaped inside the circle, and the LNER's oval-shaped device mounted outside stations and carried on certain locomotives, become as much a part of these two companies as their distinctive liveries. Best known of all the transport motifs is London Transport's bar and circle device. And what of British Railways? Standard liveries have come and gone in quick succession. a€Ã