Sub-Sector Customisation

One of the philosophies behind the design of the triple grey scheme was to create a uniform look for the Railfreight fleet with no deviation from the set livery layout. However, as Simon Bendall explains, some depots did not get this memo.

- Simon Bendall

THE first half of the 1980s had been characterised by a rapid expansion of depots sprucing up their locomotive fleets, be it by means of an emblem or, more obviously, paintwork adornments. While some of these were more successful and memorable than others, the often colourful additions were at odds with the new Railfreight brand where a single uniform image was to be projected.

As a compromise, the sub-sector livery introduced the cast depot plaque emblems with each depot being assigned its own symbol to apply to its home fleet. These eventually came to be quite widely used, even if some depots were more enthusiastic in their application than others, but initially a handful of facilities found it hard to resist persisting with the old ways.

This was not helped by disagreements over the appearance of some of the depot symbols, Stratford in particular objecting to the initial cartoon look of its legendary sparrow emblem, while some of the plaque designs were not finalised until some months after the October 1987 launch.