British Railways Mark 1 - Liveries

Liveries

British Railways Mark I coaches have been painted in a wide range of liveries. On introduction in 1951 the carriages were painted Crimson Lake (the official Railways Executive designation), usually referred to as Crimson (BS381C:540 Crimson being the British Standard colour reference) and Cream (the combination often referred to colloquially as "blood and custard") for corridor stock and Crimson for non-corridor stock. Corridor passenger stock was normally also lined out whereas non-corridor stock was not. The term 'Carmine' is often incorrectly used as a consequence of an error made by a contemporary Railway journalist and has, unfortunately, been repeated ever since.

1956 saw the first big changes, with the end of 'third class' and the return of regional colour schemes. The Western Region promptly adopted GWR chocolate and cream livery for vehicles used on its named express trains and maroon for other stock. The Southern Region reverted to green and the other regions adopted maroon. 1960 saw Southern Region adopt the now familiar yellow cantrail above first class and red above dining cars. By 1963 this was found on all carriages. In 1962 the Western Region abandoned the use of chocolate and cream.

With the introduction of spray painting in 1964, the coach ends became the same colour as the bodywork. A year later the ubiquitous British Rail blue and grey was introduced with the British Rail Mark 2, and by 1968 most non-suburban Mark I stock was blue and grey; however it wasn't until 1974 that the last maroon MK1 was repainted into blue and grey livery. The use of blue and grey continued until 1982 when the first experiments in new liveries occurred. During the BR blue period other changes took place - notably the last 'Ladies Only' compartments vanished in 1977.

1982 saw a proliferation of new liveries, including yellow and grey for stock that was requisitioned for engineering and maintenance work. 1985 the reappearance of some carriages in chocolate and cream for the GWR 150th anniversary celebrations, along with a brief Scottish experiment in green and cream. Then around 1988 reclassification of 'second class' as 'standard class' took place.

1983 was the year that the InterCity livery was first seen, 1986 the introduction of Network South East and the end of the Searail livery.

During the 1980s a complete rake of 1950s built corridor compartment second class Mk1s (including a BSK) which operated exclusively on the Glasgow - Stranraer route and connected with the Irish Sea ferries, were painted into a very striking "Sealink" livery of red, blue, and white, and internally the vestibules (but not the main side corridors) were painted bright yellow to match the refurbished EMUs of the period. Being early 50s coaches these had all-timber interiors which lent themselves to painting. Following withdrawal from the Stranraer line towards the end of the 1980s this rake was used by ScotRail on "Merrymaker" charter services, including long-distance trips on the West Coast Main Line, before eventually being withdrawn completely at the very end of the 1980s.

1988 saw the first Regional Railways livery (as well as postal trains and parcels trains turning Royal Mail red).

From 1995/6 private operators began to paint their stock their own colours.