British Rail Mark 1 is the family designation for the first standardised designs of railway carriages built by British Railways (BR) from 1951 until 1974, now used only for charter services on the main lines or on preserved railways.
144-452: The history of British Rail's corporate liveries is quite complex. Although the organisation was associated with Rail Blue from the mid-1960s to the 1980s, a number of other schemes were also used, especially when it was split into operating units (or sectors ) in the mid-1980s. At the formation of British Railways on 1 January 1948, early diesel , electric and gas turbine locomotives were already painted black with aluminium trim. By
288-461: A " Whites only " recruitment policy for guards at Euston station agreed between the local union branch and station management was dropped after the case of Asquith Xavier , a migrant from Dominica , who had been refused promotion on those grounds, was raised in Parliament and taken up by the then Secretary of State for Transport, Barbara Castle . Passenger levels decreased steadily from 1962 to
432-521: A "network for development"; the fate of the rest of the network was not discussed in the report. The basis for calculating passenger fares changed in 1964. In future, fares on some routes—such as rural, holiday and commuter services—would be set at a higher level than on other routes; previously, fares had been calculated using a simple rate for the distance travelled, which at the time was 3 d per mile second class, and 4½d per mile first class (equivalent to £0.32 and £0.48 respectively, in 2023 ). In 1966,
576-472: A 44-inch Pearl Grey (BS 2660-9-095) horizontal panel centred vertically on the main windows, outlined by a narrow white line. This grey panel finished just short of the end of the coach leaving a small amount of Rail Blue which then continued round onto the end of the coach. Roofs were dark grey and underframes originally brown, but later black. Non-corridor coaching stock and other multiple units received all-over Rail Blue until about 1980, when most received
720-479: A Corporate Identity Manual which established a coherent brand and design standard for the whole organisation, specifying Rail Blue and pearl grey as the standard colour scheme for all rolling stock; Rail Alphabet as the standard corporate typeface, designed by Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert ; and introducing the now-iconic corporate Identity Symbol of the Double Arrow logo. Designed by Gerald Barney (also of
864-522: A barrier in the case of collisions. Mark 1s continue to be used on special charter trains with charter operators including North Yorkshire Moors Railway , Riviera Trains , Vintage Trains and West Coast Railways . The Office of Rail & Road has granted these operators an exemption to the Railway Safety Regulations 1999 to continue to operate Mark 1s on the main line until 2023. Restored Mark 1 carriages have entered service on many of
1008-411: A committee chaired by Sir David Serpell was published in 1983. The Serpell Report made no recommendations as such but did set out various options for the network, including, at their most extreme, a skeletal system of less than 2,000 route km (1,240 miles). The report was received with hostility within several circles, which included figures within the government, as well as amongst
1152-472: A complete break with the past was signalled by the introduction of a blue and grey livery which dominated all passenger rolling stock until the mid-1980s, when a new InterCity livery (dark grey and beige with a red and white waistband) was introduced along with a number of regional colour schemes. The standard livery for most British Railways steam locomotives was black, often with a thin red, cream and grey trim; express passenger locomotives were not painted in
1296-494: A few examples of the Class 37/0s allocated to the depot, with a lower bodyside white stripe in the mid-80s but BR reportedly ordered swift repaints back to the standard blue livery. The first break in the uniformity of Rail Blue came in 1976, with the introduction of the first InterCity 125 (HST). The distinctive angular shape of the HST power cars did not lend itself to applying yellow on
1440-656: A generic symbol on street signs in Great Britain denoting railway stations. The rail transport system in Great Britain developed during the 19th century. After the grouping of 1923 under the Railways Act 1921 , there were four large railway companies, each dominating its own geographic area: the Great Western Railway (GWR), the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS), the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) and
1584-437: A grander logo for the railways. BR's second corporate logo (1956–1965), designed in consultation with Charles Franklyn and inspired by the much more detailed BTC crest, depicted a rampant lion emerging from a heraldic crown and holding a spoked wheel, all enclosed in a roundel with the "British Railways" name displayed across a bar on either side. This emblem soon acquired the nickname of the "Ferret and Dartboard". A variant of
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#17328561099531728-531: A handful of locomotives received the livery, as well as most new multiple units and some existing ones. Scottish rolling stock not covered by the ScotRail livery (generally those on secondary services) received the Regional Railways livery, but with ScotRail branding. Rail Express Systems was the sector of British Rail responsible for transport of mail and parcels traffic. Its rolling stock initially carried
1872-414: A lack of standardisation. At the same time, containerised freight was being developed. The marshalling yard building programme was a failure, being based on a belief in the continued viability of wagon-load traffic in the face of increasingly effective road competition, and lacking effective forward planning or realistic assessments of future freight. A 2002 documentary broadcast on BBC Radio 4 blamed
2016-416: A pair of arrows. Doors were provided with frameless droplights manufactured by Beclawat; these were supported by a spring-loaded lazytongs mechanism inside the lower part of the door, and the top of the window had a sprung metal clip engaging in slots on either side of the window opening. The original vehicles had timber veneer interior finishes, and on the main line vehicles small plastic labels were fixed to
2160-536: A perceived resemblance to the internal appearance of a Jaffa Cake . Variants where the band was blue (outer suburban) or green (inner suburban) instead of orange were planned, but never implemented. The livery was applied only to some Class 309 Clacton units on the former Eastern Region and to a few of Classes 411 (4-Cep) , 419 (MLV) and 421 (4-Cig) on the former Southern Region. The Class 309 units worked between Liverpool Street and Clacton , occasionally also to Ipswich and Norwich ; later, upon transfer,
2304-622: A plain darker grey was created. This was later modified for locomotives allocated to the Civil Engineer's department to include a yellow stripe on the upper bodyside, the resulting livery being known as Dutch , due to its similarity to the corporate colours of the Nederlandse Spoorwegen . British Railways British Railways ( BR ), which from 1965 traded as British Rail , was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally
2448-457: A plastic screen at Doncaster Works on 9 December 1982. While this livery had much in common with the Large Logo version of Rail Blue livery, including the yellow cabs and larger logo and numbers on the bodyside, the main colour was grey rather than blue. A later version added a red stripe along the lower edge of the locomotive bodyside. When British Rail operations were divided into sectors in
2592-470: A platform of revising many of the cuts, Tom Fraser instead authorised the closure 1,071 mi of railway lines, following the recommendations from the Beeching Report even lines not considered closing. After he resigned in 1967, his replacement Barbara Castle continued the line and station closures but introduced the first Government rail subsidies for socially necessary but unprofitable railways in
2736-722: A private heritage railway. Other preserved lines, or heritage railways , have reopened lines previously closed by British Rail. These range from picturesque rural branch lines like the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway to sections of mainline such as the Great Central Railway . Many have links to the National Rail network, both at station interchanges, for example, the Severn Valley Railway between Kidderminster and Kidderminster Town , and physical rail connections like
2880-525: A programme of closures began almost immediately after nationalisation. However, the general financial position of BR became gradually poorer until an operating loss was recorded in 1955. The Executive itself had been abolished in 1953 by the Conservative government, and control of BR transferred to the parent Commission. Other changes to the British Transport Commission at the same time included
3024-517: A proliferation of new liveries, including yellow and grey for stock that was requisitioned for engineering and maintenance work. In 1985 some carriages reappeared in chocolate and cream for the GWR 150th anniversary celebrations, along with a brief Scottish experiment in green and cream. Then around 1988 reclassification of 'second class' as 'standard class' took place. 1983 was the year that the InterCity livery
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#17328561099533168-518: A requirement to replace the Mark 1s, thus hundreds of new multiple units of classes 171 , 375 , 376 , 377 , 444 , 450 and 458 were introduced by Connex South Eastern, South West Trains and Southern between 2001 and 2005. A similar story took place in Scotland, with the last of ScotRail's Mark 1 based Class 303 multiple units surviving until December 2002. The use of Mark 1 stock on postal trains
3312-494: A small number of very destructive accidents has serious body damage of the kind that inevitably leads to fatal accidents been observed and there have been several remarkable instances of high-speed derailments in which no personal injuries have occurred." Although construction of Mark 1 passenger stock ended in 1963, multiple units and non-passenger carrying stock based on the Mark 1 design continued to be built until 1974. The 1988 Clapham Junction rail accident highlighted that by
3456-633: A striking shade of bright blue, known as Electric Blue . They retained this livery for some years, before being painted in Rail Blue when that became the standard. In 1964, as part of a plan to develop a new corporate image for British Railways, a number of experiments were tried: Discussions on the livery for British Railways coaching stock in 1948 eventually settled on a network-wide two-tone livery of crimson and cream for corridor coaches , with all-over crimson being used for local, non-corridor stock. The colours were chosen to be different from those of any of
3600-607: A suitable livery. Several Mark 1 sleeping cars were bought by preservation societies for use as volunteer accommodation. When British Rail began to run down its overnight sleeper trains, many heritage railways replaced them with newer Mark 3 cars. Since most Mark 1 sleeping cars had been built with asbestos insulation, which was expensive to have decontaminated professionally, most were sold for scrap. Those Mark 1 sleeping cars that survive have been decontaminated and are kept for their value as museum exhibits, as much as for sleeping accommodation. Of these, five are Sleeper Firsts and one
3744-784: A trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission , it became an independent statutory corporation in January 1963, when it was formally renamed the British Railways Board . British Railways was formed on 1 January 1948 as a result of the Transport Act 1947 , which nationalised the Big Four British railway companies along with some other (but not all) smaller railways. Profitability of
3888-468: A working railway, in 1948 the line was principally a tourist attraction . British Rail operated the line using steam locomotives long after the withdrawal of standard-gauge steam. The line's three steam locomotives were the only ones to receive TOPS serial numbers and be painted in BR Rail Blue livery with the double arrow logo. The Vale of Rheidol Railway was privatised in 1989 and continues to operate as
4032-533: A year later when the BTC was abolished the name of the force was amended to the British Transport Police. This name and its role within policing on the rail network was continued post-1994. Despite its nationalisation in 1947 "as one of the 'commanding heights' of the economy", according to some sources British Rail was not profitable for most (if not all) of its history. Newspapers reported that as recently as
4176-531: Is a Sleeper Second. British Railways Mark I carriages have been painted in a wide range of liveries. On introduction in 1951 the carriages were painted Crimson Lake (the official Railways Executive designation), usually referred to as Crimson (BS381C:540 Crimson being the British Standard colour reference) and Cream (the combination often referred to colloquially as "blood and custard") for corridor stock and Crimson for non-corridor stock. Corridor passenger stock
4320-451: The Battle of Hastings which took place in 1066 was also used in publicity for the line. Due to the small number of units repainted, it was common to see trains with two or more units in different liveries. On 10 June 1986, British Rail launched Network SouthEast , an organisation designed to cut across the traditional regional boundaries and deliver a co-ordinated train service for London and
4464-464: The Big Four pre-nationalisation railway companies, while retaining a traditional aspect. However, many people were not happy with the loss of the traditional historic regional colour schemes as used by the former private companies. From 1956, maroon (similar to crimson lake) was adopted as the standard colour for coaching stock, with corridor coaches lined and non-corridor plain initially; later, all stock
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4608-467: The British Railways Board was created to manage the railways as a successor to the British Transport Commission. It was during the 1960s that perhaps the most substantial changes were made. Seeking to reduce rail subsidies , one-third of the network and over half of all stations were permanently closed under the Beeching cuts . Trunk routes were considered to be the most important, and so electrification of
4752-458: The Council of Industrial Design ) in 1964. This included many of the features which were later incorporated in the Mark 2 and trialled in an experimental train designated XP64 . This mock-up was shown in an orange and grey livery which, however, never appeared on rolling stock in service. The XP64 train was used to test technology and carriage arrangements for the planned Mark 2 coaches. The coaches for
4896-610: The Great Eastern Main Line from London to Norwich was completed between 1976 and 1986 and on the East Coast Main Line from London to Edinburgh between 1985 and 1990. Train manufacturer British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL) produced the capable InterCity 125 and Sprinter sets, the introduction of which improved intercity and regional railways, respectively, as well as the unsuccessful Advanced Passenger Train (APT). Gradually, passengers replaced freight as
5040-632: The National Railway Museum . All Class 42 Warship diesels were delivered in green, but some Class 52s were delivered in maroon to match the then-standard coaching stock livery. This livery suited these diesel hydraulic classes and allowed the Western Region to once again show a degree of independence; it was not applied to any other diesel or electric classes (other than the Warships ). The 25 kV electric locomotives were painted from new in
5184-598: The Oxfordshire Ironstone Railway . The London Underground also became publicly owned, becoming the London Transport Executive of the British Transport Commission. The Bicester Military Railway was already run by the government. The electric Liverpool Overhead Railway was also excluded from nationalisation . The Railway Executive was conscious that some lines on the (then very dense) network were unprofitable and hard to justify socially, and
5328-503: The Railway Executive . The Executive attempted to introduce a modern Art Deco -style curved logo, which could also serve as the standard for station signage totems. BR eventually adopted the common branding of the BTC as its first corporate logo, a lion astride a spoked wheel, designed for the BTC by Cecil Thomas ; on the bar overlaid across the wheel, the BTC's name was replaced with the words "British Railways". This logo, nicknamed
5472-418: The Railway Safety Regulations 1999 to withdraw all Mark 1 carriages and multiple units based on that design by the end of 2002 unless rebodied or modified to reduce the potential for overriding in the event of a collision. A proposed modification to extend mainline use beyond 2002 at the time of the 1999 HSE instruction was 'cup and cone', however trials were inconclusive and deemed expensive in comparison with
5616-457: The Southern Railway (SR). During World War I , the railways were under state control, which continued until 1921. Complete nationalisation had been considered, and the Railways Act 1921 is sometimes considered as a precursor to that, but the concept was rejected. Nationalisation was subsequently carried out after World War II , under the Transport Act 1947 . This Act made provision for
5760-417: The Transport Act 1968 . Part of these provisions was the creation of a passenger transport executive or PTE within larger metropolitan areas. Prior to this, public transport was run by individual local authorities and private companies, with little co-ordination. The PTEs took over the responsibility (but not ownership) of managing local rail networks. The 1968 Act created five new bodies. These were: This
5904-610: The Watercress Line at Alton . Although most are operated solely as leisure amenities, some also provide educational resources, and a few have ambitions to restore commercial services over routes abandoned by the nationalised industry. British Rail Mark 1 Following nationalisation in 1948, BR had continued to build carriages to the designs of the "Big Four" companies (the Great Western , Southern , London, Midland and Scottish and London and North Eastern railways), and
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6048-472: The track curvature was too tight to accommodate the longer vehicles, due to excessive overhang. These lengths allowed for compartments or seating bays 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) wide, plus space for toilets and entrance vestibules; a typical design of Mark 1 vehicle, the TO (Open Third class), had eight seating bays, three entrance vestibules and a pair of toilets at one end. This provided reasonable space. Care
6192-962: The "Commonwealth" stock – so named on account of their bogies, which were a variant of the bogie designed by the General Steel Castings Corporation (formerly named the Commonwealth Steel Company ) of Granite City , United States of America. The design was used for hauled passenger stock, multiple unit carriages and non-passenger carrying stock. For passenger stock, construction continued from 1951 to 1963, while multiple units and non-passenger carrying stock continued to be built until 1974. Developed by Derby Carriage & Wagon Works , they were built at Derby, Doncaster , Eastleigh , Swindon , Wolverton and York works. These were constructed in two lengths. Most had underframes 63 ft 5 in (19.33 m) long, with bogies at 46 ft 6 in (14.17 m) centres;
6336-590: The "Cycling Lion", was applied from 1948 to 1956 to the sides of locomotives, while the ‘hot dog’ design was adopted for smaller station name signs, known officially as ‘lamp tablets’ and coloured for the appropriate BR region, using Gill Sans lettering first adopted by the LNER from 1929. In 1956, the BTC was granted a heraldic achievement by the College of Arms and the Lord Lyon , and then BTC chairman Brian Robertson wanted
6480-401: The 1950s decisions for the "beleaguered" condition of the railway system at that time. During the late 1950s, railway finances continued to worsen; whilst passenger numbers grew after restoring many services reduced during the war, and in 1959 the government stepped in, limiting the amount the BTC could spend without ministerial authority. A White Paper proposing reorganisation was published in
6624-534: The 1955 programme (costing £1.2 billion), but did so largely for political reasons. This included the withdrawal of steam traction and its replacement by diesel (and some electric) locomotives. Not all modernisations would be effective at reducing costs. The dieselisation programme gave contracts primarily to British suppliers, who had limited experience of diesel locomotive manufacture, and rushed commissioning based on an expectation of rapid electrification; this resulted in numbers of locomotives with poor designs and
6768-473: The 1970s and 1980s. However, the extensive Network SouthEast commuter network on the former Southern Region operated by the Network SouthCentral , Network SouthEastern and South West Trains shadow franchises was worked mainly by Mark 1 based multiple units of the 205 , 207 , 411 , 412 , 421 , 422 and 423 classes. When British Rail was privatised in the mid-1990s, only Connex South Eastern
6912-569: The 1980s the Mark 1 coach was dated, and less able to withstand collisions than newer designs. Nevertheless, the Hidden Report into the disaster concluded that withdrawal of Mark 1 units was impractical and the design was not inherently unsafe: "The inventory of Mark I coaching stock is large, and much of it has not reached an end of economic life, nor will do so for another decade or more. Mark I vehicles have good riding qualities, and are not intrinsically lacking in collision resistance." British Rail
7056-588: The 1990s, public rail subsidy was counted as profit; as early as 1961, British Railways were losing £300,000 a day. Although the company was considered the sole public-transport option in many rural areas, the Beeching cuts made buses the only public transport available in some rural areas. Despite increases in traffic congestion and road fuel prices beginning to rise in the 1990s, British Rail remained unprofitable. Following sectorisation, InterCity became profitable. InterCity became one of Britain's top 150 companies, providing city centre to city centre travel across
7200-424: The 7,000 stations would close. Beeching, who is thought to have been the author of most of the report, set out some dire figures. One third of the network was carrying just 1% of the traffic. Of the 18,000 passenger coaches, 6,000 were said to be used only 18 times a year or less. Although maintaining them cost between £3 million and £4 million a year, they earned only about £0.5 million. Most of
7344-459: The B4 bogie, and a comfortable ride could then be relied on, as was evident in the later EMU vehicles. An important factor was the compressive coupling, which provided excellent inter-vehicular damping through the gangway end-plates, which quickly became highly polished, indicating that they were performing this task. A device known as a tell-tale connects the emergency (communication) cord or chain to
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#17328561099537488-756: The Beeching cuts a generation earlier but which had seen passenger services withdrawn. This included the bulk of the Chester and Connah's Quay Railway in 1992, the Brierley Hill to Walsall section of the South Staffordshire line in 1993, while the Birmingham to Wolverhampton section of the Great Western Railway was closed in three phases between 1972 and 1992. Following the election of Labour in 1964, on
7632-478: The British Transport Design Panel, Mark 1 vehicles built from the later 1950s onwards were to modified designs. Laminates were used instead of timber panelling, and in the last of the Mark 1 hauled vehicles, fluorescent lighting was fitted instead of tungsten bulbs. An important variant on the Mark 1 design were the 44 Pullman vehicles built by Metro-Cammell in 1960. A further change introduced in
7776-455: The DRU), this arrow device was formed of two interlocked arrows across two parallel lines, symbolising a double-track railway. It was likened to a bolt of lightning or barbed wire , and also acquired a nickname: "the arrow of indecision". A mirror image of the double arrow was used on the port side of BR-owned Sealink ferry funnels. The new BR corporate identity and double arrow were displayed at
7920-578: The Design Centre in London in early 1965, and the brand name of the organisation was shortened to "British Rail". It is now employed as a generic symbol on street signs in Great Britain denoting railway stations, and is still printed on railway tickets as part of the Rail Delivery Group 's jointly managed National Rail brand. The uniformity of BR branding continued until the process of sectorisation
8064-550: The Double Arrow symbol, which has survived to this day and serves as a generic trademark to denote railway services across Great Britain. The BR Corporate Identity Manual is noted as a piece of British design history and there are plans for it to be re-published. With its creation in 1948, British Railways was divided into regions which were initially based on the areas the former Big Four operated in; later, several lines were transferred between regions. Notably, these included
8208-544: The First-class cars weighing one tonne less than the others, and cars with the fabricated B5 bogies also weighing one tonne less than those with the heavy cast steel Commonwealth bogies. In order to overcome the lack of flexibility in the fleet of sleeping cars, Wolverton works modified some of the SLSTP cars with a stowable top berth. The resulting Sleeper Either class with Pantry (SLEP) cars could then be used to better accommodate
8352-462: The InterCity livery with the red stripe replaced by a light blue one. Upon sectorisation , most secondary passenger routes which did not fall under the InterCity or Network SouthEast banner were redesignated as Regional Railways (originally Provincial ). A livery was created similar to ScotRail's, but with the upper dark grey bodyside replaced with a dark blue. A number of sets of coaching stock and
8496-428: The London & South East sector's Express livery, this was a short-lived scheme which appeared on a limited number of units and routes before the advent of Network SouthEast 's toothpaste red, white and blue striped livery. The livery comprised brown upper panels, with a colour described variously as biscuit or fawn along the lower panels and separated by a broad orange band. The livery derived its nickname from
8640-595: The London area; Provincial (renamed Regional Railways in 1989) responsible for all other passenger services. In the metropolitan counties local services were managed by the Passenger Transport Executives . Provincial was the most subsidised (per passenger km) of the three sectors; upon formation, its costs were four times its revenue . During the 1980s British Rail ran the Rail Riders membership club aimed at 5- to 15-year-olds. Because British Railways
8784-422: The Mark 1 was intended to be the standard carriage design for use across all lines, incorporating the best features of each of the former companies' designs. It was also designed to be much stronger than previous designs, to provide better protection for passengers in the event of a collision or derailment. The Mark 1 coaches were built in two distinct tranches: the early vehicles (1951–1960) and, from 1961 onwards,
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#17328561099538928-532: The Southern Region began using a coaching stock green that was somewhat darker than the malachite green colour of the old Southern Railway and this extended to former Southern vehicles as well as Mark 1 stock. For cost reasons, liveries were usually changed piecemeal, when coaches came in for scheduled maintenance. Coaches from different regions could also often find themselves coupled together and trains of two or three mixed liveries were not uncommon. Due to
9072-564: The UK using one of the machines was at Upminster station on 21 March 2007. Before the rail network was privatised, British Rail introduced several discount cards through the APTIS that were available to certain demographics, issued either by National or Regional schemes: The narrow-gauge Vale of Rheidol Railway in Ceredigion, Wales, became part of British Railways at nationalisation. Although built as
9216-458: The UK's heritage railways . Their ready availability has avoided the need for the railways to rely on the limited quantity of surviving pre-BR carriage stock – most examples of which had been scrapped before the railway preservation movement had properly started. The long service life of Mark 1 carriages means that a heritage railway can (potentially) recreate an authentic period train of the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s or early 1990s, when painted in
9360-582: The XP64 train were painted in a slightly lighter version of what would eventually become Rail Blue , with a 44-inch-wide (1,100 mm) Pale Ivory stripe centred on the passenger windows, and brown underframe . One locomotive, Class 47 No.D1733, was painted to match the coaching stock. In 2001, as passenger work for diesel locomotives operated by Virgin CrossCountry came to an end, a number of their Class 47s were painted in heritage liveries that they had carried in
9504-477: The addition of a cosmetic cover over the solebars of the standard Mark 1 underframes, but inside they included many new features, including pressure ventilation, new seating designs and wider bi-fold doors. Many of these features were later incorporated in the Mark 2 stock produced from 1964. The British Rail Mark 1 was considerably stronger than most pre-nationalisation designs, and it was noticed as early as 1952 that
9648-485: The body was 64 ft 6 in (19.7 m) long if the coach was gangwayed , or 63 ft 5 + 3 ⁄ 4 in (19.35 m) if non-gangwayed. A smaller number had underframes 56 ft 11 in (17.3 m) long, with bogies at 40 ft (12.2 m) centres; the body was 58 ft (17.7 m) long if the carriage was gangwayed, or 57 ft 1 + 3 ⁄ 4 in (17.4 m) if non-gangwayed. The shorter vehicles were intended for use where
9792-565: The carriages mounted upon them, were designated "BR Mark 1" (BR1 for short). These proved unsatisfactory and a new cast-steel design was introduced from 1958 (often referred to as the Commonwealth type). This gave a superb ride with minimal tyre wear, but was heavy. The final batches of locomotive hauled Mark 1s, and many Mark 1 EMU vehicles, were built with the Swindon-designed B4 bogie. Later on, many BR1 bogie vehicles were retrofitted with
9936-544: The closures were carried out between 1963 and 1970 (including some which were not listed in the report), while other suggested closures were not carried out. The closures were heavily criticised at the time. A small number of stations and lines closed under the Beeching programme have been reopened, with further reopenings proposed. A second Beeching report, "The Development of the Major Trunk Routes", followed in 1965. This did not recommend closures as such but outlined
10080-587: The coaches operating the Gatwick Express service between London Victoria and Gatwick Airport . This was referred to as the InterCity Executive livery, as the sets used were dedicated to operating morning/evening services operated for business travellers. Despite the InterCity brand having been introduced in 1966, the word Executive was dropped in 1985 and the livery was applied to all coaches and many locomotives used on InterCity services. Launched as
10224-470: The colour used on steam and diesel locomotives. Corridor coaching stock was originally trialled in London & North Western Railway coach plum and off-white (nicknamed Plum and Spilt Milk ) before Crimson (carmine red) and Cream livery (nicknamed Blood and Custard ) was adopted across the network; non-corridor stock was painted plain Crimson. In 1956, an all-over darker maroon, which more closely resembled
10368-481: The consequent muddle of liveries, many trains began to get an untidy, if not tatty, appearance which added to the run-down image of the railway. The rebranding of British Railways to British Rail on 1 January 1965 was coupled with the introduction of an entirely new national livery. A mock-up for the British Railways Mark 2 stock was displayed at the Design Centre, 28 Haymarket, London , (the showrooms of
10512-583: The design entered service. South West Trains was granted a derogation to continue to operating two three-car 421s on the Lymington branch line until 2010. Due to the lack of central door locking and Mark 1 stock not meeting the latest rolling stock safety expectations, various rules now govern their usage. In particular vehicles lacking central door locking require a steward to be present in each vehicle. Train companies are also recommended to run Mark 1 stock with more robust non-Mark 1 stock at either end to act as
10656-500: The early 1970s. Tickets issued from British Rail's APTIS system had a considerable amount of information presented in a consistent, standard format. The design for all tickets was created by Colin Goodall . This format has formed the basis for all subsequent ticket issuing systems introduced on the railway network – ticket-office-based, self-service and conductor-operated machines alike. APTIS survived in widespread use for twenty years but, in
10800-487: The early 1990s): In addition, the non-passenger sectors were: The maintenance and remaining engineering works were split off into a new company, British Rail Maintenance Limited . The new sectors were further subdivided into divisions. This ended the BR blue period as new liveries were adopted gradually. Infrastructure remained the responsibility of the regions until the "Organisation for Quality" initiative in 1991 when this too
10944-488: The early 2000s, was largely replaced by more modern PC-based ticketing systems. Some APTIS machines in the Greater London area were modified as APTIS-ANT (with no obvious difference to the ticket issued) to make them Oyster card compatible. The last APTIS machines were removed at the end of 2006 as there was no option to upgrade them to accept Chip and PIN credit card payments. The last APTIS-ANT ticket to be issued in
11088-444: 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. European paint code RAL5020 ( Ocean Blue ) is a good match to Rail Blue . There is also a British Standard paint colour BS381C 114 called Rail Blue , which
11232-690: The examples involved in the Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash had withstood the impacts better than the older coaches around them. The improvement in safety the Mark 1 thus represented was praised by the Chief Inspecting Officer of Railways, Lt Col I.K.A. McNaughton (Chief Inspecting Officer of Railways, Department for Transport ), in the Sir Seymour Biscoe Tritton Lecture to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1977. Speaking of
11376-499: The exception of the ends, which were painted yellow to improve visibility and the underframes and buffer beams which were painted black; the paints being to BSS 2660-0.003 and BSS 2660-9.103 respectively. As Rail Blue was introduced, the last locomotive recorded as being outshopped in a previous livery was Class 43 D838 Rapid which left Swindon Works in August 1968 in maroon. The Vale of Rheidol Railway remained steam operated past
11520-516: The existing design. While the passenger comfort level may have improved, the passenger capacity fell (except for the two built by the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company ), resulting in a lower passenger per ton-of-train figure and disdain from BR's operating departments. Further orders to these designs were not forthcoming. In 1962, Eastleigh Works constructed a single fibreglass bodied Mark 1. The vehicle, numbered S1000S,
11664-475: The fall in fatalities since 1955, he put forward his opinion that a major factor in this improvement was "the introduction in 1951 of the BR standard Mark 1 passenger carriage, which, over a period of about ten years, replaced pre-war designed rolling stock on most principal routes. The damage-resistant qualities of this all-steel coach, mounted on a 200 ton end-load resistant underframe and fitted with buckeye couplings, have been evidenced time and time again. Only in
11808-402: The figures in both this and the original plan were produced for political reasons and not based on detailed analysis. The aim was to increase speed, reliability, safety, and line capacity through a series of measures that would make services more attractive to passengers and freight operators, thus recovering traffic lost to the roads. Important areas included: The government appeared to endorse
11952-541: The fitting of central door locking and having either a non-passenger or non-Mark 1 carriage at the ends of the train. This is often achieved by running with a locomotive at each end of the train, instead of just at the front, which also reduces the need to run-round at minor terminus stations, many of which lost their run-round facilities when locomotive hauled trains of Mark 1 or Mark 2 coaches gave way to multiple unit operation on service trains. The final withdrawal of Mark 1s from daily mainline use in 2005, some 54 years since
12096-501: The fluctuations in passenger demand. The SLEPs were renumbered in the 2800-series. The Mark 1 sleeping cars fleet continued to serve British Rail for many years. With no Mark 2 sleeping car design, the Mark 1s continued until the British Rail Mark 3 sleeping cars entered service in the early 1980s. In 1957, twelve carriages were built (four by Doncaster Works and two each by four outside contractors) in an attempt to improve on
12240-466: The following year, and a new structure was brought into effect by the Transport Act 1962. This abolished the commission and replaced it by several separate boards. These included a British Railways Board, which took over on 1 January 1963. Following semi-secret discussions on railway finances by the government-appointed Stedeford Committee in 1961, one of its members, Dr Richard Beeching , was offered
12384-651: The former Great Central lines from the Eastern Region to the London Midland Region, and the West of England Main Line from the Southern Region to Western Region The North Eastern Region was merged with the Eastern Region in 1967. In 1982, the regions were abolished as the service provider (but retained for administration) and replaced by "business sectors", a process known as sectorisation . The passenger sectors were (by
12528-577: The former middle chrome green colour of the Great Western Railway as is often stated, but were painted in British Standards: BS224 Deep Bronze Green also known as Land Rover Deep Bronze Green LRC001 with orange and black lining. This error in colour identification comes from an article and question published in a model railway magazine in the 1950s, where the responding editor made the error and it has frequently been repeated since then. This has been confirmed by records held at
12672-616: The four old railway police forces, the London Transport Police, canal police and several minor dock forces. In 1957 the Maxwell-Johnson enquiry found that policing requirements for the railway could not be met by civil forces and that it was essential that a specialist police force be retained. On 1 January 1962, the British Transport Commission Police ceased to cover British Waterways property and exactly
12816-413: The general end of steam traction in 1968. Accordingly, the three remaining Vale of Rheidol Railway steam locomotives ( Class 98 ) received the Rail Blue colour scheme and the double arrow logo on their side tanks. The smokebox, running plate and running gear remained black; the bufferbeam remained red. Corridor coaching stock and certain express multiple unit classes were painted in Rail Blue , with
12960-568: The go-ahead, including the East Coast Main Line , the spur from Doncaster to Leeds , and the lines in East Anglia out of London Liverpool Street to Norwich and King's Lynn . The list with approximate completion dates includes: In the Southwest, the South West Main Line from Bournemouth to Weymouth was electrified along with other infill 750 V DC third rail electrification in
13104-410: The late 1950s was the use of aluminium window frames instead of direct glazing into the steel panelling. The underframes consisted of a heavy assembly of steel sections, with angle used to form bracing trusses. These were placed close to the centre line of the vehicle rather than beneath the solebars, as was characteristic of previous vehicles. The original bogies were a double bolster type, which like
13248-406: The late 1950s, this had been superseded by the same shade of green that was used on express passenger steam locomotives, although some locomotives were painted in a two-tone Brunswick and Sherwood green livery; Southern Region electric locomotives were painted a light shade of malachite green. Multiple units were also generally green, although this tended to be a lighter and bluer shade compared to
13392-515: The late 1970s, and reached a low in 1982. Network improvements included completing electrification of the Great Eastern Main Line from London to Norwich between 1976 and 1986 and the East Coast Main Line from London to Edinburgh between 1985 and 1990. A mainline route closure during this period of relative network stability was the 1,500 V DC -electrified Woodhead line between Manchester and Sheffield : passenger service ceased in 1970 and goods in 1981. A further British Rail report from
13536-448: The leading face, so the yellow was wrapped around and extended along the side of each power car; the coaches retained the usual blue/grey coaching stock livery. In 1978, the British Railways Board began planning a new livery for the future. In that August, Class 56 diesel locomotive no. 56036 was painted to test a modified livery of all-over Rail Blue with the entire loco front in bright yellow to improve visibility; this extended down
13680-618: The livery briefly appeared around Manchester and Birmingham. The Southern Region types worked mostly on the Charing Cross / Cannon Street - Hastings , via Battle / Dover and Ramsgate routes, and on the Victoria / London Bridge - Brighton / Littlehampton /Hastings, via Eastbourne routes. The new livery was used with the introduction of the Hastings Line electrification in 1986, to promote new electric trains on that line. The anniversary of
13824-475: The livery, the main one of which was to darken the main shade of blue used. This livery is also often nicknamed toothpaste livery by rail enthusiasts due to the multicoloured stripes resembling striped toothpaste . ScotRail was the brand name under which British Rail operated passenger services in Scotland and cross-border services to Northern England and London. A corporate livery was created for major express services in Scotland, which effectively consisted of
13968-474: The logo with the name in a circle was also used on locomotives. The zeal for modernisation in the Beeching era drove the next rebranding exercise, and BR management wished to divest the organisation of anachronistic, heraldic motifs and develop a corporate identity to rival that of London Transport . BR's design panel set up a working party led by Milner Gray of the Design Research Unit . They drew up
14112-533: The main source of business. From 1982, under sectorisation , the regions were gradually replaced by "business sectors", which were originally responsible for marketing and other commercial matters when they were first created but had taken over entirely by 1990. During the 1980s and 1990s, the British Government directed the privatisation of British Rail . Following completion of the privatisation process in 1997, responsibility for track, signalling and stations
14256-473: The mid-1980s, prior to privatisation, a new version of the Railfreight livery emerged; Trainload Freight appeared, giving the sectors individual identities. Consisting of three shades of grey and thus known as triple grey Railfreight , the livery included logos on the sides and cabs of locomotives indicating which sector they belonged to. For locomotives used on internal British Rail duties, a separate livery of
14400-402: The nation from Aberdeen and Inverness in the north to Poole and Penzance in the south. In 1979, the incoming Conservative Government led by Margaret Thatcher was viewed as anti-railway, and did not want to commit public money to the railways. However, British Rail was allowed to spend its own money with government approval. This led to a number of electrification projects being given
14544-577: The nationalisation of the network as part of a policy of nationalising public services by Clement Attlee 's Labour Government. British Railways came into existence as the business name of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission (BTC) on 1 January 1948 when it took over the assets of the Big Four. There were also joint railways between the Big Four and a few light railways to consider (see list of constituents of British Railways ). Excluded from nationalisation were industrial lines like
14688-583: The network. However, in January 2004, the Royal Mail ceased using rail to transport mail traffic. Thus, the problem of how to replace the large numbers of Mark 1 carriages on these services was resolved. Network Rail continue to use converted Mark 1 coaches for various departmental duties – test trains, sandite units, and accommodation units for worksite personnel are some examples. A small number of railtour companies have waivers to operate Mark 1 carriage stock on railtour duties. The conditions usually involve
14832-486: The other regions adopted maroon. 1962 saw Southern Region adopt the now familiar yellow cantrail above first class and red above dining cars. By the end of the 1960s this was found on all carriages. In 1962 the Western Region abandoned the use of chocolate and cream. With the introduction of spray painting in 1964, the coach ends became the same colour as the bodywork. A year later the ubiquitous British Rail blue and grey
14976-412: The panels, giving the type of wood and its country of origin e.g. "Crown Elm Great Britain"; "Lacewood Great Britain", etc. In 1955, an order was placed for 14 vehicles, with manufacturers being invited to incorporate innovative features; perhaps the most striking of these prototypes, which were completed in 1957, were those constructed by Cravens . Following evaluation, and with the increasing influence of
15120-419: The past, including the former D1733 (now 47853) which once again carried a near-correct version of the XP64 livery. Eventually, it was decided to standardise on a colour which became known as Rail Blue . Introduced in 1965 and also known as Monastral Blue , the colour was defined by British Rail standards BR28/6001 (Airless spray finish) and BR28/5321 (Brush finish). It was a dark, greyish blue tone which hid
15264-675: The post of chairing the BTC while it lasted and then became the first Chairman of the British Railways Board. A major traffic census in April 1961, which lasted one week, was used in the compilation of a report on the future of the network. This report – The Reshaping of British Railways – was published by the BRB in March 1963. The proposals, which became known as the Beeching cuts , were dramatic. A third of all passenger services and more than 4,000 of
15408-468: The pre-nationalisation London, Midland & Scottish Railway livery, was reintroduced, except for the Southern Region , where locomotive-hauled stock was generally painted Coaching Stock Green (from July 1956 onwards) and a small number of express carriages on the Western Region which were in traditional GWR-style Chocolate and Cream . With the reorganisation of British Railways in the mid-1960s,
15552-419: The public. The reaction was so strong that Margaret Thatcher , Prime Minister at that time, stated that decisions on the report would not immediately be taken. The Serpell report was quietly shelved, although the British Government was periodically accused by its opponents of implementing the report via stealth for some years thereafter. The 1980s and 1990s saw the closure of some railways which had survived
15696-443: The railways became a pressing concern during the 1950s, leading to multiple efforts to bolster performance, including some line closures. The 1955 Modernisation Plan formally directed a process of dieselisation and electrification to take place; accordingly, steam locomotives had been entirely replaced by diesel and electric traction (except for the narrow-gauge Vale of Rheidol Railway tourist line) by 1968. On 1 January 1963,
15840-403: The return of road haulage to the private sector; however, BR retained its own (smaller) in-house road haulage service. The report, latterly known as the "Modernisation Plan", was published in January 1955. It was intended to bring the railway system into the 20th century. A government White Paper produced in 1956 stated that modernisation would help eliminate BR's financial deficit by 1962, but
15984-631: The reversal of the normal coach livery, with the blue and grey areas transposed. The Blue Pullman sets retained their livery of Nanking Blue (albeit with full yellow ends) until 1969, when they were repainted in the reversed grey and blue livery. In 1977, two Class 47 locomotives, nos. 47163 and 47164, were painted by Stratford TMD with silver roofs and other decorations, including a full body height Union Flag on each side, in celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's silver jubilee . Several other Class 47 locomotives, some Class 31s and even some DMU cabs were also painted subsequently by Stratford with grey roofs;
16128-432: The rolling stock it had inherited from its predecessor railway companies. Initially, an express blue (followed by GWR -style Brunswick green in 1952) was used on passenger locomotives, and LNWR -style lined black for mixed-traffic locomotives, but later green was more widely adopted. Development of a corporate identity for the organisation was hampered by the competing ambitions of the British Transport Commission and
16272-502: The safety benefits. In October 2002 the Health and Safety Executive extended the permitted use of Mark 1 based rolling stock until 31 December 2004 with the proviso they be fitted with a Train Protection & Warning System . During the 1990s, the few remaining Mark 1 loco-hauled vehicles on the main line were withdrawn, having been progressively replaced by Mark 2 and Mark 3 stock through
16416-485: The same blue/grey livery as corridor coaching stock. The 4-REP and 3/4-TC electric multiple units were a notable oddity, initially receiving all-over Rail Blue despite being express corridor stock. They were repainted into blue/grey in the early 1970s. From 1974, some diesel multiple unit sets, after being refurbished, were painted white with a wide blue band under the windows and full yellow ends. From 1966 until withdrawal, Pullman Coaches were also painted in
16560-400: The sides of the locomotive to the rear of the cab windows which were, in turn, outlined in black. This livery was known as Large Logo livery as each side of the locomotive was dominated by a full body height BR double arrow symbol and had the loco number prominently displayed at twice the previous size. This livery was well received by enthusiasts but, as the Class 56s only hauled freight, it
16704-516: The south. In 1988, the line to Aberdare was reopened. A British Rail advertisement ("Britain's Railway", directed by Hugh Hudson ) featured some of the best-known railway structures in Britain, including the Forth Rail Bridge , Royal Albert Bridge , Glenfinnan Viaduct and London Paddington station . London Liverpool Street station was rebuilt, opened by Queen Elizabeth II , and a new station
16848-430: The standard Rail Blue (or blue and grey) livery; in 1992, it introduced a new livery of red and grey, with pale blue and grey flashes. The livery was carried on the rolling stock, but also on a number of locomotives which were dedicated to mail and parcels traffic, mainly of Classes 47 and 90 . Railfreight livery, a colour scheme specifically for freight locomotives, was unveiled when Class 58 no. 58001 drove through
16992-475: The surrounding region. For this new venture, a new livery - a paler shade of blue than Rail Blue , with three stripes of white, red and grey - was created with a Class 47, no. 47573 The London Standard , painted in the new livery specifically for the launch ceremony. As well as rolling stock and multiple units, a number of Classes 47 and 50 locomotives dedicated to Network SouthEast passenger services were painted in this livery. A later version made minor changes to
17136-407: The train line to facilitate an emergency stop. British Railways and outside contractors built the British Railways Mark 1 sleeping car between 1957 and 1964. Three hundred and eighty cars of three different types were built, with a fourth type created later by conversion. None remain in front-line service, and very few are preserved due to asbestos insulation being present in most carriages, which
17280-596: The trunk routes of the West Coast Main Line , East Coast Main Line , Great Western Main Line , Great Eastern Main Line and Midland Main Line , and other lines. Policing on (and within) the network was carried out British Transport Police (BTP). In 1947 the Transport Act created the British Transport Commission (BTC), which unified the railway system. On 1 January 1949, the British Transport Commission Police (BTCP) were created, formed from
17424-432: The upper quarter was separate and in a different plane from the lower glazing, with an intervening transom, and the steel panels were recessed on either side of each window opening to accommodate the difference between the flat glass and the curved sides. The opening portion of the windows were provided with sliding ventilators, with an external aerofoil for draught-free ventilation, the correct opening position being marked by
17568-543: The variation became something of a trademark for the depot. After this time, small variations in the Rail Blue livery became much more common. Several Class 31 locomotives received white waist stripes, these being particularly associated with the depots at Old Oak Common and Finsbury Park . Also on the Eastern Region , Class 55 Deltic locomotives, based at Finsbury Park, acquired white surrounds to their cab windows. Eastfield TMD , near Glasgow , also embellished
17712-575: The vestibules (but not the main side corridors) were painted bright yellow to match the refurbished EMUs of the period. Being early 1950s coaches these had all-timber interiors which lent themselves to painting. Following withdrawal from the Stranraer line towards the end of the 1980s this rake was used by ScotRail on "Merrymaker" charter services, including long-distance trips on the West Coast Main Line, before eventually being withdrawn completely at
17856-565: Was constructed at Stansted Airport in 1991. The following year, the Maesteg line was reopened. In 1988, the Windsor Link Line, Manchester was constructed and has proven to be an important piece of infrastructure. Before the introduction of APTIS (Accountancy and Passenger Ticket Issuing System), British Rail used the Edmondson railway ticket , first introduced in the 1840s and phased out in
18000-477: Was curtailed when the Royal Mail partially replaced them in the early 1990s. The postal train services on the West Coast Main Line were worked using new Class 325 multiple units. However, these units proved to be extremely troublesome in service and due to technical failures were often loco-hauled instead of running under their own power , and therefore Mark 1 formations continued to be used here, and elsewhere on
18144-419: Was decided to extend the experiment to a passenger locomotive. Thus a Class 47 locomotive, no. 47170 County of Norfolk , which was allocated to Stratford and a regular performer on trains between Liverpool Street and Norwich , was painted in Large Logo livery. Initially, new locomotives were still painted in the traditional Rail Blue livery but, starting with Class 56 no. 56084, the new Large Logo version
18288-553: Was first seen, 1986 the introduction of Network SouthEast and the end of the Searail livery. During the 1980s a complete rake of 1950s built corridor compartment second class Mark 1s (including a BSK) which operated exclusively on the Glasgow – Stranraer route and connected with the Irish Sea ferries, were painted into a very striking Sealink livery of red, blue, and white, and internally
18432-418: Was given an extended franchise (15 years) in return for ordering new trains. Connex South Central and South West Trains, the other major users of Mark 1 multiple units, were not required to order new trains. As a result, in 2000, Mark 1 units were still in use across most of the former Southern Region with no new trains having been ordered. When the franchises were relet in the early 2000s, they were done with
18576-461: Was introduced in 1964. The new British Rail double arrow symbol on locomotives (or leading vehicle, as was the case on multiple unit stock) and the vehicle number and other ancillary markings written in the Rail Alphabet typeface were other integral parts of the livery. This style of livery was also used by CSX Transportation . This colour was applied to all diesel and electric locomotives, with
18720-473: Was introduced in the 1980s. Certain BR operations such as Inter-City , Network SouthEast , Regional Railways or Rail Express Systems began to adopt their own identities, introducing logos and colour schemes which were essentially variants of the British Rail brand. Eventually, as sectorisation developed into a prelude to privatisation, the unified British Rail brand disappeared, with the notable exception of
18864-419: Was introduced with the Mark 2s , and by 1968 most non-suburban Mark I stock was blue and grey; however it wasn't until 1974 that the last maroon Mark 1 was repainted into blue and grey livery. The use of blue and grey continued until 1982 when the first experiments in new liveries occurred. During the BR blue period other changes took place – notably the last 'Ladies Only' compartments vanished in 1977. 1982 saw
19008-488: Was lined. There was a return of some regional schemes; the Western Region turned out some Mark 1 sets for named expresses in chocolate and cream, similar to that used by the GWR before nationalisation. Until the introduction of Mark 1 catering vehicles in the late 1950s, these trains had matching former GWR catering vehicles. The special saloons and a few other special coaches were also repainted in chocolate and cream but regular former GWR coaches carried maroon. From July 1956,
19152-671: Was mounted on the underframe of Mark 1 Tourist Second Open S4378, which was written off as a result of the Lewisham rail crash in 1957. Only the one example was built due to the cost, making this the only fibreglass-bodied passenger carriage built by British Railways. S1000S was used on the Hayling Island Branch Line until closure in 1963. After use as a generator van at Lancing Carriage Works , it re-entered capital stock. Its final duties were on commuter trains between Clapham Junction and Kensington Olympia . After withdrawal, it
19296-543: Was normally also lined out whereas non-corridor stock was not. The term 'Carmine' is often incorrectly used as a consequence of an error made by a contemporary railway journalist and has, unfortunately, been repeated ever since. 1956 saw the first big changes, with the end of 'third class' and the return of regional colour schemes. The Western Region promptly adopted Great Western Railway chocolate and cream livery for vehicles used on its named express trains and maroon for other stock. The Southern Region reverted to green and
19440-537: Was standard on new locos delivered to BR. After this date, the passenger versions of Class 37 and 47, as well as Class 50, were routinely outshopped in this livery. Following the introduction of the Advanced Passenger Train in 1983, a similar livery to the APT's (dark grey on the upper body and light beige on the lower, with two stripes of red and white separating them) was applied experimentally to two HST sets and
19584-412: Was still using some 4EPB and 2EPB (classes 415 and 416 ) multiple units with underframes that had been constructed before World War II and these were a priority for replacement. During the late 1990s Mark 1 stock began to reach the end of its design life and concerns about its safety relative to newer rolling stock became more pressing. The Health and Safety Executive issued instructions in 1999 per
19728-674: Was stored at Micheldever . It was purchased in 1973 by the East Somerset Railway . In 2010, the carriage was restored, and as of January 2011 is in service on the East Somerset Railway. Repainted into maroon when work carried out in 2016. A single van, no. E85000, also had fibreglass body panels. This was converted from a normal passenger carriage (Mark 1 Corridor Composite no. Sc15170) at Derby Carriage & Wagon Works in 1970 to carry parcels conveyed in BRUTE trolleys ; it
19872-422: Was such a large operation, running not just railways but also ferries, steamships and hotels, it has been considered difficult to analyse the effects of nationalisation. Prices rose quickly in this period, rising 108% in real terms from 1979 to 1994, as prices rose by 262% but RPI only increased by 154% in the same time. Following nationalisation in 1948, British Railways began to adapt the corporate liveries on
20016-424: Was taken to ensure that passengers could enjoy an unobstructed view out of the train from all seats. Seats were aligned to windows and on the long-distance design of Mark 1, the windows had a low sill, just 25 inches (635 mm) above the floor. An unusual feature of the design was the bodyside tumblehome curvature, of 28 ft (8.53 m) radius and just noticeable; the windows had flat glass and consequently
20160-539: Was the first real subdivision of BR since its inception in 1949, and likely saved many lines earmarked for closure, notably the Liverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway , which now forms part of the Merseyrail network. Upon sectorisation in 1982, three passenger sectors were created: InterCity , operating principal express services; London & South East (renamed Network SouthEast in 1986) operating commuter services in
20304-452: Was transferred to Railtrack (later brought under public control as Network Rail ) while services were run by a variety of train operating companies . At the end of the process, any remaining obligations of British Rail were transferred to BRB (Residuary) Limited . The British Rail Double Arrow logo remains in place, now owned by the Secretary of State for Transport , and is now employed as
20448-451: Was transferred to the sectors. The Anglia Region was created in late 1987, its first General Manager being John Edmonds, who began his appointment on 19 October 1987. Full separation from the Eastern Region – apart from engineering design needs – occurred on 29 April 1988. It handled the services from Fenchurch Street and Liverpool Street , its western boundary being Hertford East , Meldreth and Whittlesea . The former BR network, with
20592-524: Was used until 1982. It weighed 27 long tons (27 t; 30 short tons), even though it was 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m) longer than a normal parcels van weighing 30 long tons (30 t; 34 short tons). Near the end of the production of hauled Mark 1 stock came a series of eight experimental carriages known as the XP64 set. Three Corridor Firsts , two Corridor Seconds , and three Tourist Second Opens were built by Derby Carriage & Wagon Works in 1964. Externally they resembled Mark 1 stock with
20736-860: Was very difficult to have professionally removed. Three types were designed, based on the BR Mark 1 63-foot (19.20 m) underframe and profile. All featured 11 compartments with side corridor, an attendants' pantry at one end, and two toilets at the other. There was one fixed berth in first class compartments and two fixed berths in second class. Thus the Sleeper First (SLF) slept 11 and the Sleeper Second (SLSTP) 22. The Sleeper Composite (SLC) had five first class and 6 second class compartments. Early examples were fitted with BR1 bogies which were later replaced with B5 bogies. Later examples were fitted with Commonwealth bogies from new. The cars weighed 39 to 42 tonnes, with
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