British Rail corporate liveries

The history of British Rail's corporate liveries is quite complex. Although from the mid-1960s to the 1980s the organisation was associated with "Rail Blue", a number of other schemes were also used, especially when it was split into operating units or "sectors" in the mid-1980s.

At the formation of British Railways on 1 January 1948, early diesel and electric locos and the gas turbine locomotives 18000 and 18100 were already painted black with aluminium trim, but by the late 1950s this had been superseded by the same shade of green that was used on express passenger steam locomotives, although some locomotives were painted in a two-tone Brunswick and Sherwood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, and 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 carmine and white (nicknamed Plum and Spilt Milk) before Crimson Lake and Cream livery (nicknamed Blood and Custard) was adopted across the network; non-corridor stock was painted plain Crimson Lake.

In 1956 an all-over darker maroon, which more closely resembled the pre-nationalisation LMS livery, was re-introduced, except for the Southern Region, where locomotive-hauled stock was generally painted 'coaching stock' green (from July 1956-on) 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 (dark grey and beige with a red and white waistband) was introduced along with a number of regional colour schemes.

The standard livery for most British Railways steam locomotives was black, often with a thin red, cream and grey "lining" (trim), while express passenger locomotives were painted Brunswick Green, with orange and black lining. This had been the livery of the old Great Western Railway, and the Western Region, which now covered the same area, managed to paint far more of their locomotives in these traditional colours than elsewhere. All Class 42 "Warship" class 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 (other than the Class 42/43 "Warships"). The 25kV electric locomotives were painted from new in a striking shade of bright blue which was known as "Electric Blue". They retained this livery for some years, before being painted in Rail Blue when that became the norm.

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Wikipedia