A green K1

[strang steel]

A recent message on the M&GN Circle's e-mail group attracted my attention.

This was a reminiscence from a South Lynn driver that one day during the early 1950s, his job involved taking two K2s to March, as they were en-route to works for overhaul, and returning with green liveried K1 number 62039 which was then used in trials on a fast goods train to Norwich City.

Was there a policy of painting K1s in green at that time? Or was this a one off?

I must admit that I did not see many of the class where I lived, and the ones I did see were all painted black.

[sawdust]

I seem to recall reading that NELPG's 62005 was delivered in LNER green but lettered BRITISH RAILWAYS.

Sawdust

[strang steel]

There is a photo here,

http://www.nelpg.org.uk/images/stories/ ... rge-19.jpg

but I looked at that and assumed it was black.

Maybe I should not jump to conclusions.

[S.A.C. Martin]

There is a photo here,

http://www.nelpg.org.uk/images/stories/ ... rge-19.jpg

but I looked at that and assumed it was black.

Maybe I should not jump to conclusions.

But that is clearly the mixed traffic lined black.

[strang steel]

And the caption says "a few days old in 1949", so I presume Sawdust's source of information was incorrect.

[sawdust]

And the caption says "a few days old in 1949", so I presume Sawdust's source of information was incorrect.

More likely my memory! Maybe I was confusing it with the A2.

Sawdust.

[S.A.C. Martin]

I'm more convinced, realizing that if it were apple green, the boiler bands would be lined white/black/white similarly to everything else (and are not), and that the white line along the running plate would be red, not white, and therefore not as prominent, that the photograph linked above is indeed the LNWR styled mixed traffic black livery.

[Blink Bonny]

Ay up, all!

A further pointer to green livery would be the differing shade on the boiler casing to the smokebox. Its in analysing these "tonal values" that I was able to distinguish the fact that, when built, No 10000 not only had black wheels, frames, cab roof, tender top and smokebox front but that the frames were spray painted. Under magnification, the "orange peel" effect was very clear.

So far as I'm aware all the K1s were delivered in black but I could be wrong. I've certainly seen a piccie (I forget where) of Blue Peter in apple green with BR lettering though.

[S.A.C. Martin]

So far as I'm aware all the K1s were delivered in black but I could be wrong. I've certainly seen a piccie (I forget where) of Blue Peter in apple green with BR lettering though.

All of the Pacifics post 1945 would have been painted in apple green up until 1949/50 when the Express passenger blue and dark green started to take over. Blue Peter would have been in the BR branded apple green when built as she was the first (I think) of the A2s outshopped after nationalization.

[Blink Bonny]

Ay up!

Thanks for that, Mr Martin!

[S.A.C. Martin]

Ay up!

Thanks for that, Mr Martin!

No problem. Just found this quote on the engine's wikipedia entry (converse to the normal opinion of wikipedia, the railway entries seem to be more accurate because railway enthusiasts modify them to be accurate!)

60532 was built at Doncaster Works and out shopped by the newly formed British Railways on 25 March 1948. The initial livery was LNER apple green with British Railways on the tender sides.

[majormagna]

Although the K1 was a Thompson design, according to the book "Gresley Locomotives: A Pictorial History" by Brian Haresnape, a number of LNER classes seemed to have ONE example in Apple Green post WWII, whereas the remainder were in LNER Black.

I'm almost certain that at least some of these locos carried green during the time where locos had "BRITISH RAILWAYS" stamped on them, though the K1s were built AT the end of the war, could this be one of them?

Another possibility, depending on the date, is that it could have just been BR experimenting with liveries, I mean there was Blue, Dark Green, even one or two examples of "purple" right?

[strang steel]

The report mentions 62039 as the green locomotive, so it would have been delivered rather later than the time that British Railways was being applied to locomotives, I would have thought.

I dont have any magazines from the 1950/1 period in order to check for any observations.

[Blink Bonny]

Ay up!

Just struck me - could it have been a misprint? Several K2s in the area were painted apple green.

[Green Nigel]

As regards the livery of the Hush Hush Lawrie Loveless and William Brown conducted extensive research into this locomotive, there is no evidence that the locomotive appeared in the livery you describe. The Loveless 0 gauge model is the most accurate recreation of this Locomotive you could hope to find.