In Steam World No. 262 (April 2009), under the title “Paint It Black”, I analysed the selective use of lined black livery by the Western Region on some tank engines and some mixed traffic tender classes in the early years of British Railways. I offered tentative suggestions as to why the WR was more sparing in lined black than the other five Regions. The article ended with a mention of the gradual change in BTC policy from 1955 to allow lined green livery on classes that had previously been lined black or plain black. I now wish to explore this change, particularly in the first few years while engines still carried the BR early emblem (EE) of the lion astride a wheel rather than the later crest (LC) of the lion holding a wheel.
There are several reasons why this period from 1955 to 1957 is interesting.
Light at the end of the tunnel?
By 1954/5, the railways were emerging from the period of real austerity that had far exceeded the six years of war. Rationing had finally ended and shortages of steel, coal, and other materials were largely overcome. Recruitment was still difficult in many areas, but some parts of each Region had a reputation for well-maintained (if sometimes scruffy) locomotives, and one could find clean engines even in London (e.g. Stewarts Lane or Kings Cross). On the Western Region, this reputation included Canton, Landore, Worcester, and Aberystwyth (with apologies for some omissions).
The state of infrastructure had recovered enough for Regions to vie for the greatest accelerations to ‘mile-a-minute’ speeds, with the ‘Bristolian’ and other WR expresses competing with similar accelerations on the East Coast Main Line, especially between York and Darlington. (It is easy to forget that the North Eastern Region was a separate and very enterprising Region.
From 1956, carriages appeared in new liveries, as related in SW282, gradually replacing the cheerfully gaudy ‘carmine and cream’ on mainline gangwayed stock, although plain carmine suburban coaches had looked very dull. (I use the
