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.
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.
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LNER puts remaining ‘91s' into warm store
The ongoing pandemic restrictions and major engineering works have resulted in the complete withdrawal of the last remaining ‘Electras’ from passenger service, although the plan is to resurrect them in the summer.
Mk.1 Restaurant-Buffet (RBR) cars
A SURPRISING number of Mk.1catering cars have survived to see service on the privatised railway, in private operator and charter trains. They may turn up on anything from an enthusiast special to higher-end dining trains and have been formed in trains as prestigious as the locomotive-hauledBlue Pullman’ set, the ‘Great Britain’ tours operated by West Coast Railways and the ‘Northern Belle’ tour train.
Powerscene
Our authoritative class-by-class review of newsworthy locomotive workings.
End for Freightliner Class 86/6s
The company’s Class 86/6 fleet down to just two examples as seven locos are stored.
Service reductions as Covid cases increase
An increase in Covid-19 cases in early January saw the governments in Ireland and Northern Ireland impose stricter lockdown measures that impacted on public transport.
East West Rail funding go-ahead
Although it was expected, £760 million of funding has now been confirmed to build the Western Section of the East West Railway scheme.
Travellers-Fare with Hornby's Mk.1 Restaurant-Buffet car
Hornby expands its range of retooled ‘OO’ gauge Mk.1 coaches with a brand new tooling for the Diagram 24 Restaurant-Buffet car (RB) and the Diagram 33 refurbished version (RBR). It models the vehicles in both original form, finished in BR maroon and Southern Region green, together with the RBR refurbished coaches. They remained in frontline service well into the 1990s, including Cross-Country workings.
Class 92 revolution
Despite its complex shape and high detail ratio compared to other modern six-axle locomotives, Revolution Trains chose the Class 92 to be its first 'N' gauge locomotive model.
Bottling it!
A dig into the Rail Express archive has revealed some rarely-seen photographs of the former rail-connected Express Dairy bottling plant in South West London, which today is the site of a large mosque.
1990s ‘N' gauge Class 950
Work on the ‘N’ gauge Class 950 Track Recording Unit project, a conversion based on a standard Graham Farish Class 150/1 model, is concluded by finishing the model in 1990s condition.
