Class 31 No.31018
in the standard Rail Blue colour scheme
It was decided in 1965 to standardise the BR colours
which became known as Rail Blue. Also known as "Monastral Blue", It
was a dark, greyish blue tone which hid the effects of dirt well. The colour
often appears inaccurately in photographs, generally appearing brighter and
bluer than the real colour.
In
the early years the colour faded quite badly, becoming lighter and paler with
time although this problem had been overcome by the late 1970s. United Kingdom
paint "Ocean Blue" is a good match to Rail Blue.
The new British Rail "double arrow"
symbol were appled to the locomotives and
the vehicle number and other ancillary markings were written in the Rail Alphabet
typeface
The
colour was applied to all the diesel and electric locomotives, with the exception
of the ends, which were painted yellow to improve visibility, and the
underframes and buffer beams which were painted black; As Rail Blue was
introduced, the last locomotive recorded were being outshopped in a previous
livery the Class 43 Rapid which left Swindon Works in August 1968
in maroon.
