Stratford Depot's livery additions/modifications

[alexl92]

I've read in a few places that Stratford Depot used to be famous for their love of adding their own modifications, adaptations or interpretations of BR liveries on their diesels. Aside from adding union flags and painting roofs white, what else did they do?

I've only ever seen examples of their 'custom' liveries on class 47s. Did they do that sort of thing to other classes too, and if so do photos exist? I did do a search for 'stratford depot class 37' but it didn't bring anything out of the ordinary.

Cheers!

 

[Pit_buzzer]

They were quite fond of adding double arrows and rail alphabet numbers to locos in green with full yellow ends livery. Black and white photos led people to believe that there were class 15s in standard blue but they were just well presented green licos

 

[Peter Mugridge]

They also applied a cockney sparrow emblem to most of their locomotives didn't they?

 

[70014IronDuke]

Not just diesels - the had the GE Blue J69 (?) pilot at Liverpool Str in the late 50s up to about 61.

 

[hexagon789]

I've read in a few places that Stratford Depot used to be famous for their love of adding their own modifications, adaptations or interpretations of BR liveries on their diesels. Aside from adding union flags and painting roofs white, what else did they do?

I've only ever seen examples of their 'custom' liveries on class 47s. Did they do that sort of thing to other classes too, and if so do photos exist? I did do a search for 'stratford depot class 37' but it didn't bring anything out of the ordinary.

Cheers!

The thing I always remember is their treatment of 47s with light grey roofs - so synonymous with the depot it's often referred to a Stratford grey roofs.

They also had their own depot emblem applied to locos but other depots did that as well so perhaps not exactly a unique attribute of the depot

 

[randyrippley]

The thing I always remember is their treatment of 47s with light grey roofs - so synonymous with the depot it's often referred to a Stratford grey roofs.

They also had their own depot emblem applied to locos but other depots did that as well so perhaps not exactly a unique attribute of the depot

Bit more to it than that - I've seen them white, pale grey, and aluminium "silver"-effect

 

[hexagon789]

Bit more to it than that - I've seen them white, pale grey, and aluminium "silver"-effect

The original was described as 'silver' two locos being treated along with Union Jack emblems for HM's Jubilee in 1977. This was against official policy but proved so popular the roof colour was extended to all/most of Stratford's 47s.

I always assumed they were all the same paint but weathering and cameras of the time just made the shades appear different but perhaps there was actual variation in the paint colour?

 

[randyrippley]

The original was described as 'silver' two locos being treated along with Union Jack emblems for HM's Jubilee in 1977. This was against official policy but proved so popular the roof colour was extended to all/most of Stratford's 47s.

I always assumed they were all the same paint but weathering and cameras of the time just made the shades appear different but perhaps there was actual variation in the paint colour?

I'm certain there was variation.
Even with a lot of fading you could never mix up white for silver, especially on a clean loco

 

[hexagon789]

I'm certain there was variation.
Even with a lot of fading you could never mix up white for silver, especially on a clean loco

I had a gander on Flickr and there is definitely an apparent variation in the colour, tbh they all look whitish grey to me, I don't really see any silver ones

 

[randyrippley]

I had a gander on Flickr and there is definitely an apparent variation in the colour, tbh they all look whitish grey to me, I don't really see any silver ones

Forget the photos. I've seen silver roofed examples.
FWIW this diary of Stratford depot calls them silver

Stratford 47 Depot Diary 1977

Stratford 47 Depot Diary 1977

www.stratford47group.co.uk

A notable year, some for the wrong reasons and some for the right. In June Stratford got brave and started painting loco roofs with silver paint on the home fleet, setting up a difference of opinion with Crewe Works that would last for nearly ten years.

 

[hexagon789]

Forget the photos. I've seen silver roofed examples.
FWIW this diary of Stratford depot calls them silver

Stratford 47 Depot Diary 1977

Stratford 47 Depot Diary 1977

www.stratford47group.co.uk

Fair enough, this photo on Flickr is of one of the original two so treated. The caption describes the roof as silver but it looks light whitish grey to me -

29/06/1977 - York.

Best viewed Original size (1280 x 720 pixels). In 1977 Stratford depot adorned two of its Class 47s (47163 & 47164) with a modified version of Rail Blue livery featuring silver roof and fuel tanks along with a stylised Union Flag on their bodysides in commemmoration of the 25th Anniversary...

flic.kr

That's my opinion anyway, some might call it silver

 

[randyrippley]

Fair enough, this photo on Flickr is of one of the original two so treated. The caption describes the roof as silver but it looks light whitish grey to me -

29/06/1977 - York.

Best viewed Original size (1280 x 720 pixels). In 1977 Stratford depot adorned two of its Class 47s (47163 & 47164) with a modified version of Rail Blue livery featuring silver roof and fuel tanks along with a stylised Union Flag on their bodysides in commemmoration of the 25th Anniversary...

flic.kr

That's my opinion anyway, some might call it silver

Thats aluminium paint - as used for protective metal priming / undercoat
In the real world its shiney silver

 

[Cowley]

Stratford also painted a few of their 31/0s with silver roofs. There were quite a few 47s with it in the end and they ended up being spread far and wide as first off their steam heat 47/0s lost passenger work followed by the same thing happening to the 47/4s a few years later.
The Stratford cockney sparrow was definitely one of the earlier depot motifs but I’m not sure when they first started doing it?

 

[pdeaves]

The Great Eastern blue 08 was nice, especially when clean and in good lighting. Pic I found online: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nigelmenzies/33121825438/

Of course, lots of other depots 'did up' their shunters in some way or another.

 

[Cowley]

The Great Eastern blue 08 was nice, especially when clean and in good lighting. Pic I found online: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nigelmenzies/33121825438/

Of course, lots of other depots 'did up' their shunters in some way or another.

That was lovely and a had a nice lineage from the J69 that @70014IronDuke mentioned.

 

[John Webb]

Not just diesels - the had the GE Blue J69 (?) pilot at Liverpool Str in the late 50s up to about 61.

There were two steam station pilots at Liverpool Street Station. The J69/1 was 68619 done out in GE livery and was quite a sight. Three of us in the Fourth year (around 1960/61) at a school near New Cross Gate station used to go and eat our sandwiches on the platform and trainspot. One day we nearly fell off the platform when this loco came through from Liverpool Street on the Metropolitan Line with a short train of half-a-dozen goods vans. No cameras then, of course, to capture the unusual vision!
A view of it from 1948 (click on picture to go to the larger original):
Resplendent J69 0-6-0T on Station Pilot at Liverpool Street

© Copyright Ben Brooksbank and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

The other was:
Resplendent Station Pilot at Liverpool Street Station

© Copyright Ben Brooksbank and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

 

[AM9]

There were two steam station pilots at Liverpool Street Station. The J69/1 was 68619 done out in GE livery and was quite a sight. Three of us in the Fourth year (around 1960/61) at a school near New Cross Gate station used to go and eat our sandwiches on the platform and trainspot. One day we nearly fell off the platform when this loco came through from Liverpool Street on the Metropolitan Line with a short train of half-a-dozen goods vans. No cameras then, of course, to capture the unusual vision!
A view of it from 1948 (click on picture to go to the larger original):
Resplendent J69 0-6-0T on Station Pilot at Liverpool Street

© Copyright Ben Brooksbank and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

The other was:
Resplendent Station Pilot at Liverpool Street Station

© Copyright Ben Brooksbank and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

It's such a shame that there weren't many pictures in colour then, - they must have looked fantastic in royal blue!

 

[John Webb]

It's such a shame that there weren't many pictures in colour then, - they must have looked fantastic in royal blue!

They did!

 

[PeterC]

Were the full height double arrows a Stratford initiative? I can only recall seeing them on the GEML but, apart from commuting into Liverpool Street, I was making little use of rail at that time.

 

[randyrippley]

There's a colour photo of one of the J69 in one of the old "Observers Book of Locomotives"
1964 edition from memory

 

[AJM580]

47583 had a special livery for Royal wedding in 1981, full height logo, plus red white and blue stripes along bodyside