BR Regional Colours

I noticed when watching Heartbeat last night that there were no BR totems in sight on Aidensfield station, and there was a noticeboard labelled NER.

And of course a BR Class 4MT hauling a rake of blood and custard Mk 1s in

A lot of NER signage - notice boards included - survived into the 1970s. So far as the NE area was concerned the grouping had added a London branch line to the NER (hence "NE" lettering when cost was a concern) and BR had recognised their superiority by recognising a "North Eastern Region" - so "NER" had never gone out of date. Certainly the lineside signs I remember from growing up on Wearside were still "North Eastern", and had only been modified by not having the "Railway" part of "North Eastern Railway" painted. A noticeboard labelled NER would be pretty normal.

Thanks for that - This is proving surprisingly difficult to pin down, most of my books on on freight stock, the regional colours are mentioned only in passing. As I said everything at my local station (Midland Region) was maroon, I gather the WR people used a lot of chocolate and cream (the GWR used two shades of 'stone' for their buildings). The thing that prompted me to ask was doing a sketch of the parcels office scales in maroon then remembering the box art on the old Airfix 'station accesories' and 'platform lamp posts' where everything (including the lamp posts) was shown green.

I've asked over on uk.railway in case anyone there can remember.

Regards

Mike

Yes, but the lack of any BR identification would't. ;-)

Incidentally, the Worth Valley Railway has adopted the BR sausage totem as its symbol - I wonder what they had to pay in royalties? I suspect the signs left by BR were North-Eastern orange, but KWVR uses maroon as it was originally a Midland Railway line.

It was one of those awkward ones. The regions first followed the railway groups lines North West of Bradford being LMS. Eventually this became North Eastern region as they did some swooping based on drawn lines rather then history. and the Great Northern line from BFD Exchange joined Keighley via Queensbury just up the branch.

They had separate tracks into Platforms 3 and 4, but with crossovers.

The Worth Valley line was built with double track clearance at bridges and tunnels, with the eventual aim of extending the line over the moors to Hebden Bridge. The line remained single track, terminating at Oxenhope.

Went to the library and trawled the books there, rather more colour than in my own collection, basically the rule seems to be there were no rules.

Lot of white being used, in goods yards window frames and doors often all white, white window frames seen on several passenger station buildings but no white doors, all wooden fencing in passenger friendly areas was white. Various shades of dark green and dark brown (possibly varnished wood) used on window frames and doors in all regions. Signal boxes (wood) generally cream as were several timber overbridges, although the metalwork seems to have often been in a darker colour.

Not quite what I had expected, but that explains the confused memories.

One odd one I have not seen the like of anywhere else was Heald Green on the Styal line out of Manchester, rebuilt in the 1950s using what look suspiciously like ex WD metal panels, these were originally (IIRC) plain battleship grey, with a wooden handrail (or protective buffing bar) about eight inches deep and an inch or so wide at about waist height in black. Doors were black or dark grey, on the down platform was a simple shelter, with waiting room equipped with push-button times one bar electric fire, not made out of the same panels, concrete and glass as I remember it. Overbridge and panels backing platforms were concrete (as on Southern lines), as were those on other stations on the line.

Thanks for the feedback chaps, I think that has answered all the questions.

Regards

Mike

Okay I have put up what I have found in the BR sections of the GANSG site - I now realise that I need to do some work to sort out the standard and or typical signs associated with goods yards. Keeps me off the streets.

Regards

Mike

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