KNOW YOUR… LIVERIES
PART 6: BR Midland Region – the early years.
Paul Chancellor delves into the archives to chart the transition period between the former LMS and a unified British Railways corporate identity.
The first edict that had to be implemented was the temporary renumbering scheme, whereby the locomotives retained their original numbers but received a prefix letter which, unsurprisingly for the Midland, was ‘M’. The Ivatt ‘4MTs’ were being built as the LMS turned to BR(M) and thus were some of the small number of locomotives that did actually receive the ‘M’ prefix. The size of the prefix was larger than seen elsewhere, but so was the size of the cabside numbers applied to No. 3004 in a non‐standard font. ‘British Railways’ is emblazoned large upon the tender in this view, taken in April 1948.
The renumbered locomotives also received a cast ‘M’ prefix to their smokebox numberplate in most cases.
F. HORNBY/COLOUR RAIL