A2 60532 Blue Peter

It would seem wise for Blue Peter to be a different colour from Tornado, so how about Great Eastern blue?

 

The same paint job as Tornado is fine by me if its back in action, operational is the priority.

 

I do! It's such a famous combination; surely, sooner or later...!

Sent from my SM-A320FL using Tapatalk

 

I love blue engines, and of course there is the precedent of Edward Thompson having a pacific painted in a GE-like livery.

But any shade of blue still risks confusion with Tornado. Noting that the majority of Peppercorn A2s were based in Scotland, and looking for something that won't be mistaken for any of Tornado's 3 liveries, perhaps an appropriate answer would be North British engine livery?

There is of course a problem, which is what exactly was NB livery? Dugald Drummond apparently imported Stroudley's Improved Engine Green, which then morphed during the Holmes and Reid years through various combinations of yellow/green/brown. A result was that, when I saw Glen Douglas in Glasgow Transport Museum (25-30 years ago), I just gawked in disbelief! I don't think the English language has adequate words to describe the colour that I saw - "greenish-brown" would be my best effort. Of course, it might look totally different in the open air.

 

Gents - it’s BR Green or nothing I’m afraid, if we apply the same consistency for livery/form.

The number plate and lamp iron position and the multi valve boiler type mean BP only really has one option of livery. She was built as a single chimney, standard boiler A2 and her rebuilding into a multi valve example coincided with her change to BR green.

Previously she’s carried LNER apple green as 532 (never happened in service), and the same livery with BR branding as 60532 (lovely but the details above given were wrong).

For the love of all that is holy, no blue on an A2 please. Put Tornado in blue by all means (and sort out the number plate position and refit the stovepipe - but I suspect I’m in a minority of one there!) but leave BP to retain her BR Green.

She’ll look magnificent if Scotsman is any indication.

 

I’m getting the blues reading this...! Coat, got, gone...

 

At least you could take the deflectors off and run it as Gordon at TtTE events!

 

I've heard that Mr Hosking has been in touch with Mr Smith about buying some tins of maroon paint from him.

 

And to think people complain about all GWR locos looking the same.

 

Only black left.....

 

'I've heard that Mr Hosking has been in touch with Mr Smith about buying some tins of maroon

No need, a job lot of 'Cerise' was supplied with Royal Scot.

 

No, Riley has the job lot on that colour.

 

All this froth about paint choice to avoid confusion with 'Tornado' is making my head ache (yes I know I don't have to read it)! At the end of the day, all Joe Public have to do is read the nameplate...confusion over. Simples!

 

It's a pity this new 'reading' the 'nameplate' technique doesn't work with GW engines.

 

Not much option on the livery front though is there?

 

None at all, we're stuffed. All part of a Swindon conspiracy against future generations of railway enthusiasts. That's why all right-thinking people hate them.

 

Ok!

 

I was 5 when BR steam ended. The way I remember Blue Peter and Flying Scotsman best is as 532 and 4472 in "inauthentic" apple green with various forms of LNER branding. That's how they were when they became famous as individual locos, appearing on TV and in newspapers and magazines. Just as for some people the only proper livery is BR green (even for locos that pre-date BR), for me the "only proper livery" for these 2 is the one they wore in the early 1970s. I would love to see them both like that, lined up beside Tornado and Green Arrow, all in matching apple green. FS's 100th birthday would seem the ideal opportunity to do this.

However, as many have said, it will be enough just to see and hear (60)532 alive and working hard on the mainline, regardless of livery. Given all she's been through over the years, that will be a major achievment.

Generally, the important point when restoring and displaying vehicles in questionable liveries, or impersonating class-mates, is to be clear about what's being done and why. "This livery was carried by other members of this class between 18xx and 19nn" or "this livery was carried by this loco before its rebuild in 1952", or whatever

 

I'll go along with that if it is extended to "This livery was never carried by any members of this class but ..." with some explanation of why it has been chosen now, whether that is a mere whim of the owner or a reasonable might-have-been, such as BR experimental blue on a class that never had that but could have had if BR had been so inclined. I understand the argument that loco X had ceased to carry livery Y by the time it was fitted with chimney style Z, but by now that loco probably has some other differences from its condition then, if only the fitment of TPWS etc.
For the particular case of Blue Peter, if it has already carried one inauthetic livery in the 1970s, what would be so terrible about it carrying another inauthentic livery next time it is out and about?

 

While we're debating authenticity (with apologies for continuing that thread drift): what can be said about the WSR's 9351? It is GWR through and through, except that the GWR never built one quite like that.