Still at Pickering for the Diesel Gala last weekend, and here are four more locomotives in use when I was there on Friday. All four are designs from the late 1950s, though some were not built until the early 1960s.
When the first diesel locomotives were built after World War II, they were painted black and silver. By the late 1950s when these locomotives started to enter service they were all painted dark green. By the mid 1960s a new image was required, and the blue of the locomotive on the top left became the new standard, with a yellow front as a safety feature so they could be more easily seen by track workers and others. The blue became standard on all trains for almost 20 years.
Then came sectors, and different colours for different types of service, followed by privatisation when a huge number of different multi coloured liveries appeared - though few now included blue.
Top left is the standard blue colour scheme of the mid 1960s.
Bottom left, the red and gold of the private freight company EWS, first used in the 1990s.
Top right is a main line locomotive in London Transport colours, since in recent years it was used to pull newly built Underground trains from Derby onto the underground network.
Bottom right is a colour scheme brand new this year, for an infrastructure company.
The two shots on the right show locomotives still authorised to operate on the main line.
What does make me wonder though are the shots top left and botton right where the locomotives are fitted with snowploughs. I wonder what this suggests we should expect to happen to our weather as we approach midsummer!
Thank you all for your lovely comments and favs, they are very much appreciated.
Much as I enjoyed my day in Pickering, I prefer to see steam locomotives at work, so hopefully there will be another trip there in September for the annual steam gala!
Ian
June 20th, 2024
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Thank you all for your lovely comments and favs, they are very much appreciated.
Much as I enjoyed my day in Pickering, I prefer to see steam locomotives at work, so hopefully there will be another trip there in September for the annual steam gala!
Ian