GWR and BR(W) building colours...

[LarryG]

No doubt many modellers have noticed the variety of colours seen in GWR albums in BR days, as well seen on historical models and heritage lines depicting GWR days. I have tried to apply some logic to it all and failed! Even two model paint manufacturers cannot agree on light and dark stone.

Many buildings carry what appears in print to be cream or custard. It could of course be faded light stone, but in pictures that include blood & custard coaches, it is obvious that both 'creams' are similar. Then there is the variety of 'dark stone' shades. Considering the Big Four companies were able to buy ready-mixed colours from at least the 1920's, there is little scope for saying paints were mixed by hand in the 1930 onwards. Or did this continue for some reason?

On Cambrian lines for instance, many buildings were a reddish mid brown and what looked like bleached cream. They were maybe faded GWR Light & Dark stone. True BR dark brown & cream colours are distinctive and could not be mistaken for other colours.

 

[simond]

I can't help on the original colours, on my models I have tended to Precision Paints' enamels in light and dark stone for my buildings (and those I purchased from Larry and backdated to GW days) but I would love to find a suitable source of acrylics - the likes of MIG and Vallejo seem to be happy to use military names and the Warhammer style of supplier uses fantastical (and potentially scary) names such as Hobbit-Gore for a decent signal red..., logical for each of course given their key markets.

Acrylics are so much easier to use indoors.

If anyone can offer an equivalence between the typical paints we might use, and some of these military and fantasy colours, that would be excellent - there is a table relating railway colours here, https://www.westernthunder.co.uk/re...t-colours-and-the-closest-modelling-paint.17/ and my post from '21 which links a range of sources

https://www.westernthunder.co.uk/threads/paint%E2%80%A6.10611/#post-250675

Perhaps it could be updated.

atb
Simon

 

[J_F_S]

there is little scope for saying paints were mixed by hand in the 1930 onwards. Or did this continue for some reason?

I could not offer firm proof, but I would be pretty certain that they were tinted by hand much later than this. The reason is to avoid the keeping of stock - just a few tins of white lead and three bags of pigment is enough to mix hundreds of different colours. This would be particularly true of site-work (unlike in a main works for example) My local B&Q mixes paint on site for exactly that reason. (5k+ colours in seven different finishes)

Colour is always a bit contentious, however, I do claim to have seen, in the flesh, a station painted in GWR colours. Caveat:- I saw it at least 40 years after it was previously painted!!!

I did take some colour photos and although colour imaging is another minefield, these are Kodachrome slides which have always been regarded as both true to life and stable over time. FWIW, I do seem to remember it "looking like this" ...

Here are few images and I look forward to hearing what people make of them. It is clear that there are at least three and possibly four different colours in use (notice the "maroon/brown" front door).

I took one or two of the signal box on my first visit but the images are taken into the sun and the colours show indistinctly. Unfortunately, by the time of my second visit, it had been burnt down. I do however seem to remember its colours looking a lot more like a very faded version of the brown and cream of the Western region so possibly the S&T had repainted it early in WR days.

In theory, this building still exists, but the last time I visited (about 10 years ago) virtually everything had turned to dust.

Watlington, 1973 / 74



Those give the flavour, but I do have several others if they would be of interest.

Hope that is of helps!

Best Wishes,
Howard

 

[LarryG]

Thank for posting these images Howard. Definitely could be taken for Dark and Light Stone similar to model paint by Phoenix Precision. Both are faded. The darker coloured door is familiar to me, as I have seen similar on other photos.

 

[Tim V]

I too took colour pictures of GWR colours in the 70s, Bovey Tracey, Brixton Rd, and here of Coalport (SVR) and Rowden Mill. Both have subsequently been restored.

 

[LarryG]

Thanks Tim. The Coalport (SVR) bleached light stone showing under the dark stone could be replicated by using cream. Howes Railmatch 425 New Stone, or 426 Weathered Stone would fit the bill.