KNOW YOUR… LIVERIES
PART 15: Early BR Eastern Region steam
Paul Chancellor examines the liveries carried by ex-LNER steam traction during the early days of British Railways.
LNER Class A2 ‘Pacific’ No. E531
Tehran
was one of a very select band of engines built just after nationalisation, yet adorned with the number and livery of the LNER. Apart from the large BRITISH RAILWAYS applied to the tender, the only nod to the nationalised railway was the application of an ‘E’ prefix to the cabside numbers. The number also appeared on the front bufferbeam, although it’s unclear if an ‘E’ prefix had also been applied here.
COLOUR RAIL
In previous editions, we have seen details of pre-nationalisation liveries and how, for instance, the Southern Region interpreted the new directives issued immediately after January 1 1948. Here, we turn our attention to the former LNER traction fleet, which was split between the Eastern and North Eastern Regions. Livery instructions in those early days were fairly minimal, although they did dictate that ‘BRITISH RAILWAYS’ should be applied in full to tender or tank sides, while the locomotive’s number should be formed of Gill Sans numerals.