GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY
CAMBRIAN TAFF VALE M&SWJR S&W B.R.(W) BCR
GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY.
The GWR building livery remained almost unchanged from deep in Victorian times when the first written references are to be found, to the end of the grouping period.
The two basic colours were 'Stone No. 1', or light stone, & 'Stone No. 3', or dark stone. The former was a warm buff colour said to have been a copy of Cotwold stone, while the dark stone was a mid brown with a reddish tint, again a warm colour. The light stone was used for large areas like planking and canopies, and the dark for doors, metalwork and the like. (Stone No. 2 was a greyish shade and was the undercoat, which has caused a lot of confusion over the years......see below.)
In 1931 the first change was made to the livery when a maroon was introduced for guttering, downpipes and hardwearing areas like steps on footbridges. Everything else remained as it had always been; I do wonder if they had a lot of 'Coach Lake' left at Swindon works, and had to find some use for it! Window frames & glazing bars were always painted white.
GWR poster boards were black with the beading painted in white, as was the lettering; station signs were the same, and cast iron notices were also black & white. Platform barrows were a 'milk chocolate' brown with black wheels & lettering in straw/cream......the restored examples on the SVR are a good reference. The brown seems to have been a shade used only for barrows; it was lighter than coach brown and totally unlike Stone No. 3.....see the photo below.
In a few places such as Hungerford, early enamelled signs survived over doors or as running in boards; these had dark blue lettering on a white background, or could be white on blue. Late surviving buildings in GWR paintwork were the stations on the Chard branch, & Newent station.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
GWR Stone no. 1 was a Cotswold stone buff, a warm, creamy colour. Stone No. 2 was a greyish shade. Great Western Way (HMRS) states that Stone No. 1 was an undercoat and that the top coat was always stone no. 2 - THIS IS NOT CORRECT!
It should be the other way around, Stone No. 1 was the top coat colour. The book gives a colour patch for Stone no. 2 but not for Stone No. 1, and even now you still see models at exhibitions painted in this awful colour. If you don't believe me, look at the dozens of colour photographs taken in the 40's and 50's of buildings in the GWR colours - every single one shows the correct light stone, Stone No. 1. Look in 'BIg Four in Colour', and on the cover of 'GWR Country Stations Vol 2'. Colour capture wasn't perfect in those days, but if the sky is blue, the grass is green, then there is a fair chance the paintwork is pretty close too. I surveyed Hatch & Ilminster stations, which closed in 1962 still in GWR paintwork which remained in place in the early 1980's when I visited the sites; believe me, they were painted in Stone No. 1.
The GWR would never have painted its buildings in an unattractive murky grey, which looks even worse alongside Stone No. 3.....see the colour picture of Churston at the bottom of this section.
Right, rant over! (In late 2009 a new volume was published updating 'Great Western Way' and I believe that the information in this is accurate).
Some wooden goods sheds were not painted but the wood was finished with preservative such as creosote which gave a black shade when newly applied which weathered to a mid grey over time. Doors & windows etc. were still painted in the usual way - B&W photo's make it easy to identify sheds finished like this.
PAINTS FOR MODELLERS: Presision GWR Light Stone & P22 GWR Dark Stone. For the maroon I use Precision GWR Coach Lake.
BEST PLACE TO SEE IT: Didcot.
Looe station, giving a good impression of light & dark stone.
Signal boxes at the GWS, Didcot; perfect recreations of GWR livery. The Light stone is not grey!!
GWR PLATFORM BARROW ON THE SVR AT KIDDERMINSTER (Photo by Mick Yarker).
NEWQUAY STATION
TIVERTON STATION.
SWINDON STATION - THE DARK STONE ON THE WATER CRANE IS A GOOD MATCH, BUT IGNORE THE GREEN BRACKET ON THE LEFT!.
OAKENGATES GWR/LNWR JOINT STATION, SHROPSHIRE.
CHINNOR STATION; a beautifully recreated GWR station, but the 'light Stone' is far too dark a shade.
FINALLY............HOW NOT TO DO IT! THIS IS PAINTWORK AT CHURSTON STATION ON THE PAIGNTON & KINGWEAR LINE AND IT IS WRONG! THE TRAGEDY IS THAT MODELLERS SEE THIS AND COPY IT....THE DEAN FOREST AND THE SOUTH DEVON ARE JUST AS BAD. THIS GREY SHADE WAS THE UNDERCOAT, IT WAS NEVER INTENDED TO BE SEEN.
CAMBRIAN RAILWAYS
The Cambrian inhertited a cream & brown scheme from the Mid Wales railway, but by the late 19th Century had settled on an attractive livery of cream & green, with the green as usual for the doors, metalwork, etc. I imagine the green would have been the same shade as used on the coaching stock, in which case it was an olive green.
Poster boards were all over green with 'CAMBRIAN' in white on the top panel.
PAINTS FOR MODELLERS: Cream - Precision SR buildings cream. Green - Precision Cambrian coach green.
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TAFF VALE RAILWAY.
The Taff Vale used a very yellow looking buff for the majority of the paintwork on buildings, with ironwork on canopies painted white and the lower sections of canopy colums in black, probably a protective measure. Doors on stations were varnished oak, so a dark brown on a model would be appropriate.
Poster boards appear to have been black with white lettering.
PAINTS FOR MODELLERS: Buff - I would use GWR light stone with added yellow.
Mountain Ash Taff Vale station.
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BRECON & MERTHYR RAILWAY
The B&M used a colour described as 'Salmon Brown' for the bulk of the woodwork on buildings, with framing painted black and white window frames. Salmon Brown does not appear from black & white photo's to have been a dark colour, and SR Light Stone would seem to be a good ap
Notices, including signal box nameboards, were enamelled, with white lettering on a dark blue background.
PAINTS FOR MODELLERS: Salmon Brown - Precision SR buildings light stone.
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OTHER WELSH RAILWAYS.
Nothing seems to have been recorded about colour schemes on any of the other Welsh lines - unless you know different, of course.
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MIDLAND & SOUTH WESTERN JUNCTION RAILWAY.
It seems appropriate to include the M&SWJ here as the GWR took it over, though the directors might have preferred it elsewhere!
Buildings were painted in buff & brown in the usual way, often with the canopy valencing picked out in alternate stripes.
Poster boards seem to have been brown, lettered in cream or buff.
PAINTS FOR THE MODLLER: I would use Precision GWR light stone & LMS buildings brown.
Chedworth station in a painting.
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SEVERN & WYE RAILWAY.
All the buildings on the line were wooden; the planking was painted cream with the framing, doors etc. in mid brown. Station interiors are known to have been painted in a pink shade, presumably not too bright a pink! The Severn Bridge was painted in Chocolate Brown for the piers and Cream for the girders, and this probably indicates that structures on the S&W were painted in these colours....the picture below shows the bridge and the station to be in the same colours.
Station nameboards were cream with the name painted in black, shaded in red to the right & below. Poster boards were brown all over.
The Dean Forest railway have painted their buildings in what they claim is S&W livery, but I cannot agree; the greyish colour they have used for the walls is far too dark to my eye when compared with black & white photographs.
PAINTS FOR THE MODELLER: Cream- Precision SR buildings cream. Brown - Precision LMS buildings brown.
The Severn Bridge in the early 1890's; the bridge, station and the signal box are painted cream and brown.
Lydbrook viaduct in the 1890's, showing that the girders were either red oxide or brown.
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BISHOP'S CASTLE RAILWAY
Not a GWR line, I know, but it did join the GWR at Craven Arms so it seems sensible to include it here.
The BCR station at Bishop's Castle was recorded in 1955 as being white & red oxide; it is thought that the white was actually a very faded cream and that the actual scheme was pale cream & red oxide with white window frames. Fencing was cream.
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BRITISH RAILWAYS WESTERN REGION.
The standard painting scheme for the Western Region of BR was the standard cream with a mid to dark brown for the doors, ironwork, etc. Unlike other regions, this livery spread quickly so that few stations survived in GWR colours beyond the mid 1950's. BS381C colour references are shade 369 Biscuit and 414 Golden Brown; follow the links on the 'Colours' page for BS colour patches.
Poster boards were brown, lettered in cream unlike the white of other regions, and station signs followed this pattern, including the enamelled metal ones.
Photographs show that the colours could vary quite a lot, especially the cream, which could be a rich Cornish ice cream colour on one station, and very pale on another. Are we back to the man mixing his paint by eye on site, even at this late date? The paint was very matt in finish indeed, but seemed to wear well.
The GWR was actually in the process of introducing a similar livery in 1947 to replace the light & dark stone, though of course this never got far before Nationalisation, so perhaps the BR scheme was just a continuation of what the GW intended to do anyway.
PAINTS FOR THE MODELLER: Cream - Precision SR buildings cream. Brown - Tamiya flat brown.
BEST PLACE TO SEE IT; Llangollen Railway, Bodmin & Wadebridge Railway.
BODMIN GENERAL STATION, B&WR.
7mm scale model of Yelverton station showing B.R.(W) paintwork.
Further information ; 'GREAT WESTERN WAY' HMRS J. SLINN 1978.......but ignore the comment about Stone No. 2!