The Railway Dog

Tag: British Rail

  • XP64

    Class 47 No. 47853 – formerly D1733 – at Poole in a replica XP64 livery – 14/02/2007

    The rebranding of British Railways to British Rail on 1 January 1965 was coupled with the introduction of an entirely new livery for the modern image locomotives and rolling stock. I have a great fondness for the BR Blue era. This is the story of its inception.

    A mock-up for the BR Mark 2 carriage was displayed at the Design Centre in London between the 4th to 23rd January 1965 as part of “The New Face of British Railways” exhibition. This included many of the features which were later incorporated in the production Mark 2, and trialled in an experimental train designated XP64 – short for ‘Xpress Passenger 1964 project. This mock-up was shown in an orange and grey livery which never actually appeared on rolling stock in service. The XP64 train was used to test technology and carriage arrangements for the planned Mark 2 coaches. The coaches for the XP64 train were painted in a slightly lighter version of what would eventually become Rail Blue, with a 44-inch-wide Pale Ivory stripe centred on the passenger windows, and brown underframe. One locomotive a Class 47 No. D1733 was selected to be painted to match the coaching stock. This established the broad design parameters for BR’s new corporate identity.

    The concept described in period BR literature as “solid blue” for locomotives meant no more two-tone green, white lining or a separate roof colour. Apart from observing compliance with BR’s yellow approach-warning policy, paintwork above the rolling chassis would comprise one block of uninterrupted blue. The shade of blue featured in XP64 had pretty much the same colour mix as Rail Blue, but a higher luminance, which made it a bit paler. The shade was subsequently finalised in 1965 as the darker colour, also known as Monastral Blue, which typifies the UK rail scene of the late 1960’s and 1970’s.

    A rounder Helvetica style font for the application of fleet numbers, which was dubbed Rail Alphabet was also employed to accompany a new double-arrow logo which would become the centrepiece of the BR brand and which is recognisably the symbol for a railway station even today. However, at the XP64 stage, no final decision had been made on how the double-arrow logo would be applied on locomotives and carriages. During the promotional period in 1964 No. D1733 ran with temporary stick-on BR logos in white with a bright red backing. After these logos were removed in the early autumn of 1964, No. D1733 continued to run with no logos at all until it received a standard Rail Blue repaint towards the end of 1969. As XP64 prototype, No. D1733 featured hybrid yellow warning panels which curved round onto the bodysides in the same way that the full yellow ends would. Therefore, XP64 blue did not have the full yellow warning ends eventually insisted upon by the British Railways Board’s accident prevention service, but neither did it have the standard small yellow warning panel being applied in the early 1960’s green livery era.

    No. D1733 would remain the only blue-liveried BR diesel locomotive for more than two years, during which time new-build Brush Type 4 diesels continued to receive the then familiar two-tone green livery. Beginning in November 1966, however, the Falcon Works at Loughborough produced No.’s D1953-D1961 in BR blue with full yellow ends, the final nine Class 47s from a fleet which totalled 512 locomotives.

    Older locomotives began to be repainted in Rail Blue from late 1966 onwards, as well as the final batch of BR/Sulzer Type 2s (later Class 25) No.’s D7660-D7677 were completed in BR blue at Derby in 1967. The last of the English Electric Type 1s, D8178-D8199 and D8300-D8327, followed soon after, also in BR blue from the start.

    In October 1967 the first of what would later become the English Electric Class 50’s, D400, entered service in blue, again with full yellow ends. These being the first new diesel class exclusively delivered in BR blue livery.

    Class 47 No. 47853 – the former D1733 – at Poole in a replica XP64 livery – 14/02/2007

    In 2001, as passenger work for diesel locomotives operated by Virgin CrossCountry came to an end, a number of their Class 47s were painted in heritage liveries that they had carried in the past, including the former D1733, now 47853, which once again carried a near-exact copy of the XP64 livery.

    Riviera Trains Oxford Blue liveried Class 47/8, No. 47839 ‘Pegasus’ seen in the carriage sidings at Poole. This particular length of track is currently out of use. Later sold to Direct Rail Services, although it never worked for the company being used as a source of spares, and was cut up at Eastleigh Works – 14/02/2007
    Class 47/8, No. 47839 ‘Pegasus’ at Poole – 14/02/2007
    Video from 14th February 2007 featuring Class 47 No. 47853 – formerly D1733 – at Poole in a replica XP64 livery
    XP64 appeared on the cover of Ian Allan’s “Combined Volume” c1965

  • Happy New Year

    A Happy New Year to you all! Whatever you’re doing this New Year’s Eve let’s hope for a good 2022. On December 31st 1994, I found myself in Whitchurch, Hampshire awaiting the arrival of a very special train hauled by Southern Railway Merchant Navy Class steam locomotive 35028 ‘Clan Line’; The Auld Lang Syne run by rail tour company Flying Scotsman Services.

    The Railway Magazine dated October 1994 was of the opinion that this tour was part of the best ever programme of steam specials launched since the end of steam on British Rail 26 years previously. It’s amazing to see that steam, now complimented with heritage diesel and electric traction, is still very much in evidence on the main line in the UK.

    Clipping from The Railway Magazine October 1994

    Whitchurch was chosen for a scheduled stop on the tour so that passengers could celebrate the New Year complete with piper on the station platform. I do remember getting lost on the drive to the station, so was pleased and relieved to get there in time to see the celebrations and record this video:

    The next morning I was up in time for the drive from Dorset to Wiltshire to watch Ivatt Class 2 No. 46521 and British Rail Standard Class 4 2-6-4T No. 80079 working a Didcot to Kidderminster special through Swindon. Originally rostered for 5029 ‘Nunney Castle’ the pair of substitute locomotives were called in following the Castle’s withdrawal from the main line duty roster by the Special Train Unit (STU) after she unbelievably ran out of coal while working a London Paddington to Stratford-Upon-Avon Shakespeare Express excursion on December 18th 1994. The locos coal consumption being very heavy and its performance poor resulting in very late running was criticised by the STU and would be ‘actively pursued with the owners and the Great Western Railway Society’.

    I remember arriving at Swindon Railway station just as the New Years Day special was approaching in the near distance and managed to get some wobbly shots of the arrival and departure from both ends of the station as can be seen in the video below.