Vehicles were turned out mainly in Brunswick Green with three cream bands, one at the bottom edge of the body, the second cutting a line through the window pillars at the base of the sliding ventilator windows, sweeping down at the cab front corners to form a waist height line below the cab windows. The third band was placed above window level as before. Speed whiskers were not originally carried but appeared in time. Later some cars appeared in the more traditional style of lining, with two bands of cream, one broader band at waist height and the other narrower band just above window level.
When new the BR lion on wheel symbol was carried amidships on power cars only, this later giving way to the neater BR roundel, again on power cars only.
Vehicles from 50192 (and partners) were delivered with Blue Squares on the cab front. All others quickly had them added.
As with other units, the early '60s saw the introduction of the small yellow warning panel below the cab windows in place of the whiskers, a practical step towards greater safety.
From 1967 vehicles started to appear in the newly introduced Rail Blue livery, originally with a semi-matt appearance (caused by application by an airless spray) with small yellow warning panel below the cab windows, and umber brown frames and bogies. This was changed quickly to a more glossy Rail Blue and full yellow ends which wrapped around the front of the cab and continued onto both drivers doors. The next variation came about 1970 when the drivers doors were returned to blue livery. The Rail Blue bodysides were greatly enhanced by the polished aluminium window frames.
Refurbishment
In 1974 a class 101 3-car set (51451/59545/51518) was selected as the test bed for the refurbishment scheme. The refurbishment at Doncaster was topped off with the new refurbished livery of white with a blue stripe. The unit had different thickness stripes on each side. On the drivers side of the DMBS was a narrow stripe, the opposite was thicker 12" band which contained the BR or PTE logo. These top of these stripes ran through the door handles.
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The inner ends originally had the livery carried all the way around (left), but quickly had a blue (or black?) area added (right - dated 12/7/74). The far right picture is a production version, although this varied between works (see below "Works Repainting Anomolies"). |
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The production refurbished vehicles adopted the 12" stripe, but this was lowered slightly, the top running along the bottom of the commode handles. The white livery was short lived, being replaced by Rail blue and grey due mainly to the problem of keeping vehicles clean in service.
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Taken in 1975 Burton Lane Junction York is the location of this photo. Being the junction of the branch to Rowntree's & Foss islands. The two dmu's forming a Summer extra to Scarbrough are a 3 car blue & white refurbished class 101 & a blue 4 car class 104. Mike Hudson. |
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This one was taken in the '80s at Leeds. Graham Turner www.railblue.com |
Some units allocated to the Western region were actually repainted from Rail Blue into Blue and grey even prior to refurbishment with two character train describers still in situ. These units were later dealt with at Derby Works during the early 1980s.
The last vehicle to retain the refurbished white/blue stripe livery was 59121, which was repainted blue/grey during overhaul at Swindon works in Spring '84, a few months short of the 10th anniversary of the livery.
Works Repainting Anomalies
Refurbished livery - Derby, Swindon & Doncaster gave the gangway ends a small ‘wrap-round’ with a horizontal top edge (See p55 BM book). Those done at Glasgow had a greater wrap-round with the white following the body end contour (see p54 top).
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Window frames - Glasgow also differed in painting the frames of some units in the body colour. Elsewhere, they were left shiny, although some refurbished livery sets had white surrounds, although again Glasgow differed as they painted the rubbers whereas elsewhere left them black! Left: a close up of the picture on the right, a set which contained both styles of window frames. Alan Rintoul |
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Strathclyde
By the mid '80s four ScR based units received the Strathclyde PTE orange and black livery 'with black cab window surrounds which later spread to other depots' vehicles. These were:
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Vehicle Nos. |
 Above: set 101 304 in Glasgow Queen Street. Andrew McConnell |
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101 304 |
Sc51224 |
Sc59090 |
Sc53241 |
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101 321 |
Sc51249 |
Sc59542 |
Sc53146 |
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101 360 |
Sc53158 |
Sc59074 |
Sc53160 |
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101 363 |
Sc53185 |
Sc59049 |
Sc53194 |
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Plus one extra DMS vehicle Sc51803 which operated in set 107430 |
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The vehicles were eventually dispersed to other depots Chester (CH) and later Longsight (LO) still sporting their Strathclyde orange and black but now partnered by blue and grey DMBSs in the case of 53158 and 53160. Three vehicles from the above list eventually made it into the Regional Railways livery in the '90s 51224 as part of 101679, 53160 as part of the celebrity green set 101685 and 51803 as part of 101676 (all three at LO).
Corkerhill received a batch of facelifted 101 6xx sets in the Strathclyde livery. From 1997 they had the area on the cab above the cantrail stripe painted black.
Network South East
By 1989 the Network South East livery began to appear on the London based Met Camms still sporting black masks and even some cars at CA retaining red buffer beams. Right: L835 51498+51432 arrive at Reading West on the 17:20 Reading to Basingstoke, 29-6-93. Kevin Dowd. |
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Regional Railways
By 1992 the Regional Railways livery began to appear an facelifted sets allocated to CA, NC, TS, LA, LO and HA though units allocated to Glasgow, Corkerhill were turned out in Strathclyde PTE orange and black with new style insignia on the cab front and bodysides for PTE routes. In regional Railways liveries some units had their window frames painted silver.
101 681 at Llandudno in November 1999. Paul Ellis |
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One-offs
Latterly there were two more livery variations. Set 101685 involving vehicles 53164/59539/53160 this unit being painted in a version of the early green livery for working the Conway Valley line. It looked somewhat less than correct with a larger than original yellow warning panel, central headlight and cab front electrification warning stickers above cab window level!
The other unit was Corkerhill's 101692 with vehicles 53253/53170 sporting a version of Caledonian Blue with red and yellow stripes, with full yellow cab front and black window masks. It was repainted for the inauguration of Motherwell to Cumbernauld services in 1997 where this set normally operated.
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Left: 53160 leads 101 685 into the now closed Blaenau Ffestiniog LMS station. Mac Winfield. Right: At Glasgow Central in April 1999. Rob Woods |
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Miscellaneous
By the end of the 1980s, many depots had begun customising their units. Red painted buffer beams appeared on some units based at Cambridge (CA), Norwich (NC), and one or two vehicles at Cardiff (CF), More widespread was the application of black cab window surrounds in the style of the Scottish sets based at ED, HA and AY. The English depots adopting the black "masks" were Tyseley (TS), which also experimented with wrap-around black cab windows extending as far as the driving cab doors. Units allocated to the London division, at RG, OC and CA also acquired black masks, though being slightly different in having square corners as opposed to the radiused variety of the other depots.