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How long did the BR Blue & Grey livery last for?

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SouthEastern-465

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Hello there,

A rather odd topic, but none the less intriguing for myself...

I've been watching a few 'anorak' type videos on YouTube recently, and to my surprise I came across EMUs in BR Blue & Grey livery as late as 1996, freshly into the privatisation era. The units were Class 304s on the Birmingham Cross City line.

So how long did the BR Blue & Grey live for? When was the last documented time it was used in service excluding preservation... If such a thing even exists...

King Regards,
 
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hexagon789

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Hello there,

A rather odd topic, but none the less intriguing for myself...

I've been watching a few 'anorak' type videos on YouTube recently, and to my surprise I came across EMUs in BR Blue & Grey livery as late as 1996, freshly into the privatisation era. The units were Class 304s on the Birmingham Cross City line.

So how long did the BR Blue & Grey live for? When was the last documented time it was used in service excluding preservation... If such a thing even exists...

King Regards,

There were some 304s and 508s still in blue/grey in 1996.

More recently there was the Hull Trains Mk3 rake in 2008, the Chiltern Banbury commuter rake, though they may both have been repaints.
 

SouthEastern-465

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Thank you for your replies :)

I should of been more specificic and have put: Blue & Grey livery of orginal BR application opposed to retro liveries applied after acquiring stock.

Not seen the 508 yet, will have to look around!

Kind Regards.
 

hexagon789

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I should of specified more specifically, the Blue & Grey livery of orginal BR application opposed to retro liveries applied after acquiring stock.

In which case probably the 304 or 508, if we're allowed to link to photos on flickr I can show you the 508 photo? Not mine I hasten to add.
 

SouthEastern-465

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Aye dude feel free, I'd be interested to see! :)

Prior to the 504, I had seen a 4VEP in BR Blue & Grey dated 1995 on a Facebook group.

At the moment it does look like the 504s win having the livery as late as 1996 :)
 

Mogz

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Blue and Grey was introduced early enough to have been hauled by steam.

Some of the Birkenhead-Paddington expresses in the mid to late 60s had blue and grey coaches, usually as part of mixed livery rakes.
 

yorksrob

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Some of the EPB's were in blue/grey up until the end in the mid 1990's.
 

SouthEastern-465

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Some of the EPB's were in blue/grey up until the end in the mid 1990's.

Longtime no hear me old 'mucker! :) Hope all is well. Must of been about 9 years since I was properly active. Hope all is well!

And yes, some EPBs were Blue & Grey up until withdrawal in '95, with only a NSE logo stuck on them!

Kind Regards
 

plarailfan

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The blue and grey livery lasted for around about thirty years, but I would say, it's heyday, was only around ten years, from about 1970 to 1980, as before 1970 there was still a bit of maroon coaching stock and after, or maybe around 1980, the Advanced passenger train (APT) livery started coming on stream, along with the Scotrail variation and large logo, locomotive livery.
 

yorksrob

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Longtime no hear me old 'mucker! :) Hope all is well. Must of been about 9 years since I was properly active. Hope all is well!

And yes, some EPBs were Blue & Grey up until withdrawal in '95, with only a NSE logo stuck on them!

Kind Regards

Indeed - thought I hadn't seen you post for a while !

All is fine - apart from the continuing lack of proper (slam-door) trains of course :lol:
 

yorksrob

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The blue and grey livery lasted for around about thirty years, but I would say, it's heyday, was only around ten years, from about 1970 to 1980, as before 1970 there was still a bit of maroon coaching stock and after, or maybe around 1980, the Advanced passenger train (APT) livery started coming on stream, along with the Scotrail variation and large logo, locomotive livery.

I'd say it was pretty ubiquitous until the mid-1980's.
 

Taunton

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The blue and grey livery lasted for around about thirty years, but I would say, it's heyday, was only around ten years, from about 1970 to 1980, as before 1970 there was still a bit of maroon coaching stock and after, or maybe around 1980, the Advanced passenger train (APT) livery started coming on stream, along with the Scotrail variation and large logo, locomotive livery.
Actually the heyday probably started rather than stopped in 1980, as that was when it was decided all the plain blue suburban/local stock would now get blue/grey. Only main line corridor stock had it until then.
 

RLBH

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Thank you for your replies :)

I should of been more specificic and have put: Blue & Grey livery of orginal BR application opposed to retro liveries applied after acquiring stock.

Not seen the 508 yet, will have to look around!

Kind Regards.
Did it ever go away entirely? That is, was the first vehicle painted that way as a 'retro' thing before or after the last set BR painted into blue and grey was retired or repainted?

Of course, if one counts Class 08s in depots safely away from public gaze, BR blue is probably with us until the British Isles are subducted under the African tectonic plate.
 

MarlowDonkey

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Actually the heyday probably started rather than stopped in 1980, as that was when it was decided all the plain blue suburban/local stock would now get blue/grey.

There was a brief period when at least some of the plain blue went into white/grey with blue stripes. I thought blue/grey looked good on slam door stock with doors to each seating bay.
 

Royston Vasey

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I don't know whether Chiltern's route learner 121022/960014 was ever repainted into a different livery, even well into the last decade (well, the current decade to be numerically and chronologically correct).

Freshly painted as 960014 in 2004:
http://www.departmentals.com/photo/977873b

In storage at Aylesbury:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mk_tom/14114743392

Mainline en route to Tyseley Steam Trust in 2016

It seems likely it would have seen NSE livery at some point, but the NSE flash suggests perhaps not, can anyone confirm?



Edit... nope, it did see NSE!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/21611052@N02/3621150565
https://www.flickr.com/photos/62613295@N05/26557320346
 
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Bald Rick

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The blue and grey livery lasted for around about thirty years, but I would say, it's heyday, was only around ten years, from about 1970 to 1980, as before 1970 there was still a bit of maroon coaching stock and after, or maybe around 1980, the Advanced passenger train (APT) livery started coming on stream, along with the Scotrail variation and large logo, locomotive livery.

The APT ‘Intercity’ livery was the preserve of the APT until early 1984. I remember, vividly, being a small(ish) boy on a train from Brookwood to Waterloo on a Saturday morning in early 1984 when an APT liveried train flashed by going the other way. Initially I thought it was the APT itself, but knew that couldn’t be the case. All became clear a few months later when the Gatwick Express (proper) was launched, with the Intercity livery we all now know. What I had seen must have been a test run on the SWML.

The first trains in NSE livery appeared in June ‘86, there had been a few 4CEPs on the SE division in the Jaffa Cake livery for 6-12 months before that. Jaffa Cake was David Kirby trying to establish the LSE sector, the NSE Livery was Chris Green thinking much bigger. I well remember a PR photo of a then new 317/2 in NSE livery which looked suspiciously pristine, the unit was actually in blue and grey but had been ‘photoshopped’ in 1980s style (literally cut and paste).

The Provincial sector livery (later Regional Railways) appeared later, although IIRC no pacers and sprinters were delivered in blue and grey.

By chance I’ve happened to be on 390155 twice in the past week, which is in Avanti livery. The colours are definitely close to blue and grey...
 

yorksrob

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I vividly remember the short lived jaffa cake livery coming on the scene as a child. Was pleased to see it recently on an MLV at Warcop !
 

Carlisle

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Some of the EPB's were in blue/grey up until the end in the mid 1990's.
True,I seem to remember that for some reason long after NSE livery became the norm they reverted to painting some EPBs in traditional blue grey, no idea why though
 

yorksrob

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True,I seem to remember that for some reason long after NSE livery became the norm they reverted to painting some EPBs in traditional blue grey, no idea why though

I must admit, I wasn't aware they were repainting them into blue grey. It can't have been because they didn't fit NSE's modern image because there were plenty of EPB's in NSE colours.

Maybe it was the unrefurbished ones with tungsten lighting and trojan moquette. I vaguely recall the refurbished ones being more likely painted NSE, but that may just have been because there were more of them left at the end.
 

Peter Mugridge

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The APT ‘Intercity’ livery was the preserve of the APT until early 1984. I remember, vividly, being a small(ish) boy on a train from Brookwood to Waterloo on a Saturday morning in early 1984 when an APT liveried train flashed by going the other way. Initially I thought it was the APT itself, but knew that couldn’t be the case. All became clear a few months later when the Gatwick Express (proper) was launched, with the Intercity livery we all now know. What I had seen must have been a test run on the SWML.

The first train to carry this livery other than the APT itself was a full HST rake that was given a dedicated diagram for a while between Paddington and Bristol; it was advertised as "the executive train". That would have been some time in spring 1984; I rode it in early May 1984 and it had been around in those colours for about a month before that.
 
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