At the formation of British Railways on 1 January 1948, early diesel, electric and gas turbine[a] locomotives were already painted black with aluminium trim.Corridor coaching stock was originally trialled in London & North Western Railway coach plum and off-white (nicknamed Plum and Spilt Milk) before Crimson (carmine red) and Cream livery (nicknamed Blood and Custard) was adopted across the network; non-corridor stock was painted plain Crimson.In 1956, an all-over darker maroon, which more closely resembled the pre-nationalisation London, Midland & Scottish Railway livery, was reintroduced, except for the Southern Region, where locomotive-hauled stock was generally painted Coaching Stock Green (from July 1956 onwards) and a small number of express carriages on the Western Region which were in traditional GWR-style Chocolate and Cream.Due to the consequent muddle of liveries, many trains began to get an untidy, if not tatty, appearance which added to the run-down image of the railway.The coaches for the XP64 train were painted in a slightly lighter version of what would eventually become Rail Blue, with a 44-inch-wide (1,100 mm) Pale Ivory stripe centred on the passenger windows, and brown underframe.[5] As Rail Blue was introduced, the last locomotive recorded as being outshopped in a previous livery was Class 43 D838 Rapid which left Swindon Works in August 1968 in maroon.Accordingly, the three remaining Vale of Rheidol Railway steam locomotives (Class 98) received the Rail Blue colour scheme and the double arrow logo on their side tanks.[7] Corridor coaching stock and certain express multiple unit classes were painted in Rail Blue, with a 44-inch Pearl Grey (BS 2660-9-095) horizontal panel centred vertically on the main windows, outlined by a narrow white line.From 1974, some diesel multiple unit sets, after being refurbished, were painted white with a wide blue band under the windows and full yellow ends.Eastfield TMD, near Glasgow, also embellished a few examples of the Class 37/0s allocated to the depot, with a lower bodyside white stripe in the mid-80s but BR reportedly ordered swift repaints back to the standard blue livery.56036 was painted to test a modified livery[11][12] of all-over Rail Blue with the entire loco front in bright yellow to improve visibility; this extended down the sides of the locomotive to the rear of the cab windows which were, in turn, outlined in black.47170 County of Norfolk, which was allocated to Stratford and a regular performer on trains between Liverpool Street and Norwich, was painted in Large Logo livery.The Class 309 units worked between Liverpool Street and Clacton, occasionally also to Ipswich and Norwich; later, upon transfer, the livery briefly appeared around Manchester and Birmingham.[16] As well as rolling stock and multiple units, a number of Classes 47 and 50 locomotives dedicated to Network SouthEast passenger services were painted in this livery.[citation needed] Upon sectorisation, most secondary passenger routes which did not fall under the InterCity or Network SouthEast banner were redesignated as Regional Railways (originally Provincial).This was later modified for locomotives allocated to the Civil Engineer's department to include a yellow stripe on the upper bodyside, the resulting livery being known as Dutch, due to its similarity to the corporate colours of the Nederlandse Spoorwegen.
A
Class 83
electric locomotive (no. E3035) in
Electric Blue
livery