B17s in LNER green in the 50s

[Ocean Swell]

Hi,
I have recently been looking through Peter Swingers book the power of B17s and B2s. Particularly a picture of 61602 apparently in LNER green (the photo is black and white) with the Lion and Wheel emblem dated as the early 50s. Could anyone tell me which B17s/B2s still carried these colours in 1951 and if they had the emblem or 'British railways' on the tender.

Cheers in advance

[65447]

The relevant volume of Yeadon's Register - if no one else gets their reply in first I'll concoct a list for you...

[Ocean Swell]

Cheers 65447,
I have the yeadons for J15s, B12s, N7s & D16s but not B17s/B2s its another in a long list of books that I need to order in from the UK. Although the occasional book in the sieres will show up at the main model railway show here, unfortunately its not for another four months.

[65447]

The Register for the B17s & B2s is number 5, and was originally produced by Irwell Press. That means that the format in the introductory chat is different to the more recent Registers and, IMHO, more useful.

Starting with the B17s:

The first point of interest is that 2 of the class participated in the livery trials in 1948. 61661 was painted in a 'very light green' with yellow lining that was later changed to off-white/yellow/red while 61665 was painted LNER green but also with off-white/yellow/red lining. These were both transferred to Yarmouth (South Town) and hauled a train of chocolate and cream carriages (65447 goes for a long lie down in a darkened room...).

Late in 1948 maintenance of the B17s was switched away from Stratford to Darlington where, pending the decision by BR on the new standard livery, the following 10 were out-shopped in LNER green with the normal black & white lining - 61611 (the only one with cylinder wrappers painted green in Darlington fashion), 61622, 61627, 61628, 61634, 61635, 61638, 61641, 61646 and 61659 (still with its streamlined casing). They all would have carried BRITISH RAILWAYS on the tender. After that B17s were outshopped in black until the new Brunswick Green livery was adopted as standard. 61661 and 61665 were finished in the new livery but still with BRITISH RAILWAYS on the tender, while 61613 when out-shopped had nothing on the tender, pending the arrival of the new totem transfers. Yeadon does not describe subsequent changes to tender detailing for the above, so guesses would have to be made by checking subsequent shopping dates.

I'll put the B2 information in another post...

[65447]

Now for the B2s, where Yeadon presents the information in a different and far more useful format:

61671 (previously lined green)
23/9/48 LNER green with the normal black & white lining but black cylinder wrappers/BRITISH RAILWAYS
13/5/50 LNER green as before but cylinder wrappers now green/totem
14/3/52 BR livery

61603 (previously unlined black)
16/1/49 LNER green with the normal black & white lining but black cylinder wrappers with red lining/BRITISH RAILWAYS
22/12/50 BR livery

61617 (previously unlined black)
29/6/48 Unlined black/BRITISH RAILWAYS
8/10/49 LNER green with the normal black & white lining but black cylinder wrappers/totem
4/8/51 BR livery

61644
24/3/49 LNER green with the normal black & white lining including cylinder wrappers/BRITISH RAILWAYS
22/12/50 BR livery

61616, 61639, 61615, 61632, 61614, 61607 - Black

[Ocean Swell]

Thanks for looking that up 65447,

I have been searching through all my mags, because I'd seen a colour photo of a BR B17 in LNER green somewhere. As it turned out it was in a loco livery supplement from model rail the loco is 61661 in the experimental green with British Railways on the tender and without the Sheffield Wednesday colours on the splasher. In the background are some of the experimental chocolate and cream coaches although the cream appears white.

Interesting that 61602 was not on the list of locos painted LNER green at Darlington in 1948-1949 I can only assume that it is BR green in the photo I was looking at but just appeared lighter because of the vageries of the light and old black and white photos.

The B2 list is useful and shows that some locos were still LNER green in 1951 with the BR emblem and British Railways on the tender. I can only assume that will be true for some of the b17s also. I will have to get Yeadons vol 5 and look up the relevant workshopping dates.

All in all, a (possible) handy bit of colour variety for my 1951 based model layout & I guess the same can be said for Hornby in 4mm with their new B17 also.

Cheers