The Colour Maroon

I’m not sure that I’ve ever got as worked up as some folk about locomotive liveries. Maybe that’s because our time came well after the independent companies had ceased to exist in 1948. I know that the rivalries established prior to that change spilled over into the BR regional set-up amongst those who were already in one camp or another.

My own interest has always been aesthetic, but rather on design as a whole, rather than just colour. Are they nice to look at? In the early days, it was pretty clear that some steam locomotives were a lot more attractive than others and that was also true of the new diesel and electric types that replaced them. Yet, I know that a lot of attention was nevertheless afforded to liveries. I would guess that preferences eventually reflected familiarity.

Our big steam engines were always red or green and so that is how we still like to see them today. I remember the curiosity and even a degree of bewilderment that surrounded the new Western diesels when they started appearing in desert sand and golden ochre, as well as maroon and green – now that did seem to be revolutionary.

We also witnessed the arrival of some experimental engines, which we just viewed as complete curiosities, like Falcon, Kestrel, the all-white Lion, DP2 and GT3 - the box shaped creature with an outline and dimensions more like those of a main line steam tender engine. Most of these became regulars at Crewe. We saw them all at one time or another, but I had no idea what their essential mechanical characteristics were, what it was that made them special, or the ways in which they represented any significant technological advance. For us, they were unusual one off numbers to be spotted and any attraction was in their uniqueness.

The west bound Bristol Pullman in Bath Spa on 7/8/64. These units were known to us as the “blue Pullmans” well before British Rail had its own blue period.