I have made a momentous decision: in order to be able to use steam and diesel without worrying too much about hopeless anachronisms, I think I can go with a period of late 50s to mid 60s, which would see some green diesels, black steam including A3s and A4s, and the usual modeller's get out for goods stock: it lasted until it fell to bits.
That leaves me, I guess, with maroon as the coach livery, and that would be OK for Thompson, Gresley and Mk.1 coaches, so giving me a fair pool to draw from. Does anyone know offhand when the last blood and custard were repainted? I have heard that they could be found in service right up to the introduction of corporate blue. Guy
that "the number of Blood and Custard Mk1 coaches appears to have rapidly diminished after 1959", but in some areas such as the South Eastern division and the former-GW they survived until 1963, and odd vehicles could still be seen in 1964. So I'd think you could run them quite OK, excusing them as visitors from the Southern or Western for the later part of the period.
I'm trying to rationalise my disparate collection of european models from t= he 1870 to 1910 period, and from all over the damn continent.
I've decided to write the later history of Ruritania. I'm taking the Antho= ny Hope novels as a starting point, and turning the history inside out. Bl= ack Michael was the popular one with the population, and the decadant Elfhe= im regime was propped by by a british secret service agent called Rudolph R= assendel.
That allows me to postulate a popular revolution some time before the Sovie= t one, wholesale breakdown of law and order and destruction of the infrastr= uture. After order is restored (by the Austro-Hungarians) an international= reconstruction effort involved loaning the Ruritanians hardware, including= railway hardware. But no-one was going to loan them new stuff, so we have= a collection of older equipment from all over Europe, still in its native = livery because it is all on loan[1]. Then, of course, WW1 and the Russian = revolutions break out, and the arrangement is extended into the 20s because= everyone is busy.
Which is why the Breslau-Vienna and Brelslau-Bucharest expresses are appare= ntly anachronistic.
[1] They were supposed to carry the legend Internationale Kommission f=FCr = den Wiederaufbau und Stabilit=E4t f=FCr Ruritania (KWSR) but paint was shor= t, and only a handful were marked.
Yesteday I repainted nine old Hornby teak Gresleys in maroon and applied some weathering. I finally got round to buying a compressor for my airbrush, which makes the whole process much less daunting, no chance of running out of propellant before the job is done and the brush cleaned.
Some acrylic paints don't work well, others do. The bloke in Modelzone suggested using cheap car screenwash as a solvent, he was right, it's excellent, it evaporates much faster than water and seems to mist finer as well. Guy
Given that many modellers (myself included) run trains from a variety of eras with pristine locos and rakes of matched coaches, one could always make the excuse that one is running a preserved railway. Most model layouts bear little resemblance to the dirty and run-down conditions of British Railways in the 1950s or 1960s, except those whose builders go to the considerable effort of replicating such conditions.
The third of my childhood Triang Hornby sets was the Midland 3F goods in weathered black with smoke unit. Ironically, the (rather light) weathering has mostly worn off it now leaving it cleaner than it started !
The Supplement to Keith Parkin's excellent publication "BR Mark 1 Coaches" has, at Appendix 11, some sample train formations. Not all livery styles are indicated but, on 30 March 1961, the 1045 and 1055 from Paddington were both noted as having stock in crimson and cream. In the 1045 service these were BSK W34302 and BSK W34931 while the 1055 had SK W24344. Of the nine vehicles in the 1045 two were in crimson and cream, one in chocolate and cream and six in maroon. The eleven coaches of the 1055 had one in crimson and cream, two in maroon and the remaining eight all in chocolate and cream. The Appendix doesn't state where these two trains were for but does prove that there were still some - probably not many - crimson and cream vehicles in use in early 1961. What Brunel would have said about maroon coaches at Paddington can only be guessed - was either of the train engines perhaps a maroon liveried "Warship" or "Western".
On Tue, 27 Mar 2012 19:48:35 +0100, "David Costigan" wrote: The
His Ghost would have come across similar colours long before that.Despite the image of the GWR as having Chocolate and Cream from time immemorial and a brief renaissance post nationalisation a Crimson Lake was used for a period from 1912 to the early 1920's. The recently restored steam railmotor has been finished in that Livery. I haven't seen it in the flesh but there was another coach at Didcot in the livery some years ago which I did see, it looked quite smart. And even when Brunel was around some of the lines he was involved with beyond the early GWR like the South Devon were using Brown rather than Chocolate and Cream. The complete Chocolate and Cream corperate image came a bit after the Brunel period.
the 1870 to 1910 period, and from all over the damn continent.
nthony Hope novels as a starting point, and turning the history inside out.= =A0Black Michael was the popular one with the population, and the decadant= Elfheim regime was propped by by a british secret service agent called Rud= olph Rassendel.
iet one, wholesale breakdown of law and order and destruction of the infras= truture. =A0After order is restored (by the Austro-Hungarians) an internati= onal reconstruction effort involved loaning the Ruritanians hardware, inclu= ding railway hardware. =A0But no-one was going to loan them new stuff, so w= e have a collection of older equipment from all over Europe, still in its n= ative livery because it is all on loan[1]. =A0Then, of course, WW1 and the = Russian revolutions break out, and the arrangement is extended into the 20s= because everyone is busy.
rently anachronistic.
r den Wiederaufbau und Stabilit=E4t f=FCr Ruritania (KWSR) but paint was sh= ort, and only a handful were marked.
But do you model the Linea Nationale Est Ruritania, or its western competitor Linea Media Stat Ruritania?
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