Backscene
CHRIS LEIGH gets the blues about an event that changed the image of British Railways 60 years ago.
Back in 1964 I was 17 years old and my little brother was 14. We were both trainspotters but a bit more than that, we were avidly into railways. We were well aware of the railway’s steam image and that the public viewed it as dirty and old-fashioned. This was, after all, the era of the BMC Mini and new motorways.
We used to imagine what we might do with the railway, and although the whole concept of ‘image’ and marketing was in its infancy, we used to discuss the changes that we would like to see. One of them was the abandonment of dark green locomotives and dreary dark red carriages. We’d seen the new ‘Western’ diesel-hydraulics in experimental liveries – desert sand, maroon and golden ochre. The latter, devised by one of my work colleagues, Brian Haresnape, was particularly attractive. Brian was an avid fan of the London Brighton & South Coast Railway and a member of the BR Design Panel, and he had an ambition to get Stroudley’s ochre onto as many BR locomotives as possible. He managed it with D1015 and also a Class 31. Another Class 31 appeared in pale blue.