| Ernest F. Carter |  |
Britain's railway liveries, colours, crests and linings,
1825-1948. London, Burke, 1952. xvi, 358 p. + 16 plates. (incl.
8 col.) + folding paint guide. 185 illus. 2 tables.
Britain's railway liveries, colours, crests and linings, 1825-1948.
London, Harold Starke, 2nd ed. 1963. xvi, 350 p. + 16 plates. (mcI. 8 col.)
+ folding paint guide. 188 illus.
Jones stated that this was the only
general work on this subject. Unfortunately, even the railway museums are
doubtful about exact liveries of the older locomotives as they pre-dated
standard colours. Further there was a great deal of variance between the
works of individual railways; in addition weathering produced further changes.
A further examination of the book has been slightly hindered by the absence
of the folding colour chart. It is considered that the two following extracts
may be useful: the Author's Introduction (pp. xiii-xvi) and part of the section
on the LSWR, notably that on Beattie locomotives.
Inntroduction.
It is generally known that a normal individual perceives six colours
or hues in the solar spectrum, viz. red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and
violet; but it is not so widely known. that rarely do two people see a given
colour as precisely the same tint. For example, a certain green may appear
bluer to one individual, and yellower to another; and the only criterion
of an accuracy of match becomes thus dependent upon a general concensus of
opinion on the part of any number of viewers,
Optical experts declare that no less than one out of every five persons has
some form of diminished colour-perception, and that about 3½ per cent
suffer from some form of colour-blindness. Some, however, with little or
no art training, are naturally gifted with a very fine sense of
colour-perception, and can "carry" a colour in "their mind's eye", and effect
a perfect match at a later date without the need for a "matched pattern".
Colour is an abstract, intangible quality which can only be understood and
appreciated by the sense of sight; mere verbal or written description being
utterly useless for matching purposes. Any record—if such it can truly
be called—of a definite shade or tint of a colour, carried only
by word of mouth or by writing, must inevitably be seriously liable to grave
error; this risk being due in part to possible optical disability and in
part to personal bias or prejudice.
The same holds good for such abstract qualities as perfumes, flavours, and
sounds; each of which is incapable of accurate description for matching purposes,
either by the written word or by verbal communication. They can only be truly
matched by actual imitation, using the senses of smell, taste and hearing,
respectively, for the purpose.
In the writer's confirmed experience, the whole question of the' matching
of the colours of older railway rolling-stock is one of the most contentious
of all the many debatable railway subjects; and it is very obvious that our
present-day conception of the colours of rolling-stock now no longer in
existence, and of which no authentic actual colour records remain.
must perforce be purely hypothetical; being arrived at by a complicated process
of verbal communication and that most fallible of all methods of transfer
of knowledge—"common acceptance".
A great many attempts have been made to standardise colour classification
by a numerical system, but the task is almost impossible because the texture
of the material which has been coloured, and the medium used to mix the pigment,
both tend to modify the final tonal value of the colour under review. Similarly,
the number of varnish coats applied to a painted panel will alter its
colour-tone, turning a "cool" green into quite a "warm" one. The effects
of weathering are too well known to railway students to need mentioning.
A colour is said to be "tinted" when white has been added to it, and is "shaded"
when mixed with black—or in any other way darkened. A colour is said
to be "cold" or "warm" according as to whether its "cold" or "warm" constituents
predominate; blue and violet being termed "cold" colours, and red and yellow
"warm". Thus a green is said to be "cold" if it tends towards blue, or "warm"
if it contains a high proportion of yellow.
It is not generally known that colours appear to be lighter in tint when
observed in large expanses, such as the side of an engine or tender, and
even if accurately matched, and reproduced on a small area, the reproduction
will—although of precisely the same shade as the original—appear
much too dark. As an illustration it may be mentioned that the "dark" Caledonian
Railway engine blue appears almost black even when seen on a crest-panel
of four square feet area! Such difficulties of colour-matching are only too
well known to railway stores officials, who are aware that colour shades
and tints vary greatly according to the manufacturer of the paint, and with
each individual batch purchased.
Needless to say it is absolutely hopeless to effect a true colour match from
a locomotive boiler, or to reconcile the colour of the latter with that of
— say—the tender-side panel; for the continual effects of internal
heat and top-surface weathering plays havoc with the best of paints and often
completely alters their shade.
Another point often overlooked is that the colour of nearby objects—such
as the upper panel of a coach in juxtaposition to a darker lower panel, will
greatly influence the apparent colour tone of a neighbouring object being
matched "by eye". Even the brightness or dullness of the day has a profound
effect on a colqur, as the writer found when at York Railway Museum; when
nearly two hours were spent before the subtle "Scotch" green of the L.B.
& S.C.R. "Gladstone" locomotive could be accurately determined and
matched.
The risk of bad lining-position errors and omissions, attendant upon the
study of monochromatic prints made from old photographic negatives, mayor
may not already be known. The danger lies in the fact that the earlier negatives
were made before the days of panchromatic emulsions, and thus, being
approximately orthochromatic in their actinic characteristics, they gave
an entirely false monochromatic rendering of the colours of the object
photographed. On prints from older negatives, for example, a red line may
appear black or very dark grey; being often entirely invisible if the background
was not orthochromatically contrasting. Similarly, blues normally appeared
as very light greys or white. On prints from modern panchromatic negatives,
however, red appears as a medium grey; and is usually easily traceable together
with the other shades and tints of colours which are more equably translated
into monochrome—both on the negative and on the print.
All these matters must not be overlooked when an attempt is being made to
match a given colour or to derive lining sequence from a photographic print;
and extreme accuracy can only at times reasonably be assured by careful research
and comparison, using as many independent sources as possible.
Bearing in mind the well-nigh insuperable limitations of written colour
description, colour-chart codings have therefore only been given in the text
in the following cases :—(a) actual existing locomotives painted in
their pre-group liveries, (b) authentic railway companies' colour-crest panels,
(c) models built and painted contemporaneously with their prototypes, and
(d) oil * paintings executed at the time when the subject of the picture
was in existence. In each of these four conditions the colours have been
accurately matched by actual contact and comparison with over four
hundred various paint shades of "railway" reds, greens, browns, blues, and
ochres; and from them the fifty colours in the chart were eventually
chosen.
In these pages no attempt has been made to give any specific indcation of
tints or shades of colours in those instances where they are only known by
written or verbal description. In such cases, all the available written
colour-information has been collected and arranged chronologically under
the appropriate railway company, the colour descriptions appearing in the
text,
In the earlier written descriptions of rolling-stock liveries, the words
"red", "blue", and '~green", were very loosely applied; "red" being often
broadly descriptive of any shade or tint of that colour ranging from vermilion
to maroon, progressing through many tones of crimson, purple, chocolate,
Indian red, and brick red. Such vagueness is very misleading, and often applies
to greens, and in a lesser degree to blues as well; and great care is again
needed to ensure that a correct interpretation is made by the close study
of as many independent descriptions as possible of other contemporaneous
rolling-stock of the same railway company. It may also be mentioned that,
in the earlier livery descriptions, the term "bordering" was often used
synonymously with "edging", and similarly "picking-out" meant what we should
nowadays term "lining".
Where possible a semi-standardised system of colour-description and lining
terminology has been used, and the reader is invited to study the key diagrams
on pages 6, 18 and 29, and Appendix D, which will clearly show the general
methods of nomenclature used throughout the book.
*Old framed water-colour pictures, like that of "Jenny Lind"
in York Railway Museum, have faded badly; greens becoming bluer, and reds,
yellower. They are us unreliable.
Beattie liveries (pp. 128-31)
1850 (c) Locomotives were Indian red, with plain
black bands, and were liberally decorated with polished brass and copper
fittings.
1850 (c) Engines were Indian red with black bands and white lines.
The splasher perforations were picked out with vermilion lines. There were,
however, several variations to this livery. The older engines at this time
had their chimney-caps painted in red, orange or pinkish-yellow to simulate
cheaply the copper tops of the then modern engines. The 4-4-0 "Jumbos" (348
class) had painted domes. .
1853 The engine "Milo" was painted a dull rose vermilion shade as
a body-colour. The smoke-box and chimney were black, as were the axle-boxes,
brake-blocks, track-guards, boiler-bands, and springs. The leading driving-wheel
splashers were brass beaded, and the safety-valve springs were also brass-cased.
The dome was dull rose vermilion as were the wheel spokes, counterbalance
weights and outside cranks. Handrails were steel as were the safety-valve
levers. 1856 (c) The varnished teak coaches of this period continued
in many cases in their original livery well into the '70's. It. appears from
contemporary paintings that the "brown and salmon" livery of later days had
appeared occasionally at a comparatively early period, when there were also
two-colour coaches running with dark olive-green or brownish lower panels
and greenish-yellow or very "dark-cream" upper panels. Brake vans had vermilion
ends.
Pre 1859 Engines were Indian red with black banding.
1859-70 Engines were chocolate coloured and lined out in black and
white. Black, white and vermilion lining was used for express engines.
1860 (c) "Herod" had a purple-painted chimney, probably for working
the funeral train of a notable person.
1860 (c) The engine "Ariel" (No. 70) was (38), described in sources
as chocolate, with black boiler-banding with white lining on each side of
the black. The splasher edging was white-blackr white. Cab side-sheets were
chocolate with a black outer edge with orange, black and white lining within,
and orange lining outside the panel. The slits in the driving-wheel splashers
were lined out individually, white within and orange outside. Sandboxes were
lined out orange, black, white; the orange being on the outside. The name-plate
was rectangular, with the letters in raised brass on a black background.
Smoke-box was black, as was the chimney, the latter having a copper top.
Safety-valves had brass casings. Underframes and valances were chocolate,
lined out in orange and white only. Immediately under the foot-plate edge
was black. Cylinders were chocolate lined out with white, black and orange,
the latter colour being outside. The front sandboxes were lined out in white
only. Buffer-beams were red, lined out with white, black and white; and carried
the number in gold, shaded with black to the right and below. Wheels were
chocolate, and the feed-water heater pipe along the boiler was black. All
injector piping was polished copper. Date-plate was oval brass, and appeared
on the cab side-sheets. There were brass beadings round spectacle windows
and round front of fire-box.
Early 1860 The locomotive colour was changed to (38), described in
sources as chocolate, with black lagging bands, edged with white. Splasher
beadings black with a fine white line on each edge. Around splasher slots
was a fine white line outside which was a fine vermilion line, the space
between being black. This same lining was on the panel-plate and on the
rectangular panel of the cylinders. The front of the panel-plate had only
a narrow black edge with a fine white line dividing it from the chocolate
panel. Most of the passenger locomotives were thus lined out, but a few had
white lines on both the edges of the black panel band; this slight modification
also applied to goods and tank engines of the time.
Buffer-beams were vermilion, with a black edge, the latter being separated
from the vermilion panel by a fine white line. The ends of buffer-beams were
chocolate, edged with black, round which, on the outside was a fine vermilion
line, and inside, separating the black line from the chocolate, was a fine
white line. The letters "No." and the engine number were in gold, shaded
with black, placed one on each side of the drawbar hook. The stiffening ring
on the smoke-box door of some engines was polished, as also was the strip
of brass or iron along the top edge of the cylinder casings. The domes and
safety-valve casings were of cast iron, and were ,painted in the body-colour.
1862 The long-boilered engines Nos. 1 to 7 (the latter being ex S.
and D.J.R. No. 14), and Nos. 8 to 15 were painted green.
1863 Locomotives dark brown. Polished brass. (Beattie 2-4-0T.) (see
plate 8, facing p. 192.)
1863-78 All engines built by Beyer, Peacock & Co. between these
dates, as well as the first lot of their goods locomotives (1866), had the
outside of their frames painted vermilion. The inside of frames of all
locomotives was also vermilion" as were the outside cranks.
1865 The later Beattie locomotives had polished brass domes and
copper-topped chimneys, whilst the older ones had not. The standard colour
was then chocolate brown.
1866 The first batch of Beyer Peacock engines had vermilion underframes.
Their domes and safety-valve casings were normally painted over, but were
often divested of their paint and brightly polished by their crews.
1868 The J. Beattie engines Nos. 95 to 100 inclusive had slight variations
in their number-plates, "Plutus" (No. 98) had "98" in large brass figures
instead of the number-plate. "Pegasus" and "Castor" had their original plates
slightly altered. The Adams rebuilt "Stromboli" (No. 116) also had the number
in large figures instead of on the name-plate. A small oval rebuilding plate
appearing under the "116".
1868 All the new locomotives and many of the older ones had copper-topped
chimneys and polished brass domes and safetyvalve covers (which were previously
present on those purchased from Beyer, Peacock & Co.). Some of the
double-framed engines had the outside frames painted vermilion. On some engines
which had iron chimney-caps, the latter were painted to resemble copper-some
a salmon shade, some bright red or some orange. 1868 Engine "Python", No.
0100 (2-4-0 tender) had numberplates wherein the name appeared in a curved
panel, the words "No. 0100" appearing above and "July, 1868" below in contiguous
oval panels. The lettering was very deeply recessed on a black background.
The plates were mounted on the cab sidesheets. There was a wide brass beading
round the front drivingwheel splashers, and white lines round all splasher
cut-outs. Splasher lining; (see Fig. 18, p. 29.)
The letters" SWR" appeared widely spaced on the tender, shaded to the left
and below.
The engine "Sussex" (2-4-0 tender) had the same type of number-plates as
"Python", and also the wide brass-bead round the forward driving-wheel splashers,
but the splasher frets were not lined out with white; nor was there any lettering
on the tender-sides. Both engine and tender were completely devoid of all
lining and panelling.
1869 Polished brass domes and safety-valve covers became more general
and continued thus for some eight years.
1870 (c) W. G. Beattie altered the engine lining to bands of yellow
ochre with a white edge.
1871-77 Some changes were made in locomotive styles. The body colour
remained chocolate shade, but the cab-splashers and panelplates were edged
with yellow ochre, separated from the chocolate panel by a fine white line.
Boiler lagging bands were yellow ochre, separated from the chocolate body
colour by a fine white line on each side of the yellow ochre. Passenger engines
were devoid of any polished metal-work.
1872 Newly-built passenger stock was brown, with upper panels of cream
of a dark-greenish hue. Van ends were vermilion and remained so for years.
Second class and first class coaches had lemon-yellow window frames. 1872-78
Engines were dark greenish-brown. .
1875 The lining was changed on express engines to dark yellow edging,
divided from the chocolate by a thin white line. 1875 The special
locomotives of the Civil Engineering Department were painted green, whilst
all Beattie engines were chocolate.
1875 (c) Engines were painted a greenish (dirty) brown, with a lining
of green, red and black for passenger types, and a lining of dark green only
for the goods engines.
1878 Locomotive livery was changed to umber with black bands and orange
and bright green lining.
1878 Mr. Adams adopted umber instead of chocolate for locomotives,
with black banding and fine orange and pea-green lines. The buffer-beams
lost the previous black and white edging used by Mr. Beattie. The Beattie
engines still running were either painted black or a very dark green.
The railway encyclopaedia. London, Harold Starke, 1963.
[viii] , 365 p.
The entries are brief and of type appropriate to glossaries rather
than encyclopaedias. Alphabetization is poor. Sources are rarely quoted.
Sometimes inaccurate and not up-to-date. Diagrams and illustrations are also
lacking. Unfortunately, it is listed in Walford's Guide to reference
material. The following review appeared in
Rly Wld, 1963, 24, 239
by "HS":
An encyclopaedia in which it is hard or impossible to find the information
one seeks is, at best, annoying; but one which is inaccurate is far worse.
This farrago-the outcome, one Imagines, of not too many hours with scissors
and paste-offends in both ways. Here as an example is a list of entries on
p. 30: Blucher (correct, as to Stephenson's first locomotive); Bluebell
Railway (said to have been "opened" in 1960 by the present exploiters);
Bluecoaster Limited (a reference to a "beaver tail" in the R.H.D.
train, but without explanation); Blyth and Tyne Railway; Blyth
Harbour; Board ("railwayese in some parts of the country for a
signal arm ");"Bob Tails" (L.C.D. Class "R" engines); Bobby
("general railwayese for a signalman", followed by inaccurate statement
on railway "policemen "); Bo-Bo (no reference to articulation or
otherwise); Bodmer Engine; Bodmin and Wadebridge Railway Coach
(reference to one vehicle, presumably one of those preserved at York);
Bodmin, Wadebridge and Delabole Railway; Bodorgon Tunnels;
Bogie (no date when first fitted to locomotive Earl of Airlie);
Bogie Coach, First G.W.R. (no mention of first bogie coach in Britain,
which is mentioned, however, under Bogie Passenger Coach). The reasons
for omissions and inclusions have defied my imagination. Did the compiler
start with any clear idea of the kind of information which "railway enthusiasts"
(for whom the work is avowedly published) seek? And did he, as one, in the
words of his publishers, "of the best- known living authorities on railways"
trust too much to his memory for facts?.
Unusual locomotives. London: Frederick
Muller, 1960.
Contains some errors: "Hagens" for Hagans
2014-04-16