GWR Locomotive colour

bordercollie
Posts: 66
Joined: Mon Mar 09, 2009 3:58 am

GWR Locomotive colour

Postby bordercollie » Wed Feb 19, 2020 8:07 am

Hi
I have found references to 4 different representations of GWR green, all from people who know what they are talking about.
The Colour Hex Codes are: 3d7254, 45483d and 013602. Also 012e03 for pre 1928 green. They are all different. Is it worth stressing to much about which one. Colour perception changes with all sorts of factors. I know which one I prefer and subject to getting a sample and seeing what it looks like at home I will probably go with that one unless there are other considerations I should look at.

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Tim V
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Re: GWR Locomotive colour

Postby Tim V » Wed Feb 19, 2020 9:25 pm

Ignore what other people say. The most important test is what satisfies you. Stick with that and s**f what anyone else says.

Whose train set is it?
Tim V
(Not all railways in Somerset went to Dorset)

Alan Turner
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Joined: Sun Jul 20, 2008 4:24 pm

Re: GWR Locomotive colour

Postby Alan Turner » Thu Feb 20, 2020 10:25 am

bordercollie wrote:Hi
I have found references to 4 different representations of GWR green, all from people who know what they are talking about.


They think they know what they are talking about.

Colour and importantly colour memory is notoriously fickle. Couple that with paint pigments not being as stable as now, colour control being not as accurate, discolouring varnish due to pollution in around steam locomotives and poor light fastness of pigments you have in truth no real idea what the correct colour the locomotive was out-shopped in.

regards

Alan

martin goodall
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Re: GWR Locomotive colour

Postby martin goodall » Thu Feb 20, 2020 11:02 am

I entirely agree with Tim and Alan, and would repeat what I said on the "A Question of Colour" thread recently. I am quite convinced that there is no such thing as the ‘correct’ rendition of the livery of locomotives and other railway vehicles, and that any attempt to capture the exact shade of paint applied to a particular locomotive in the paint shop of the Great Smashem Railway on the first Monday of June 1905 is doomed to failure, even if you are aiming to reproduce the engine’s ex-works condition.

As a keen follower of the GWR, I am well aware of the various subtle changes that were apparently made in the precise formulation of GWR loco green over the years, but I am absolutely convinced that the changes in 1906 or 1928, or whenever, were so subtle as to be virtually undetectable to the casual observer, and are certainly not worth worrying about when painting a model.

Incidentally, just to throw another pebble into the pond, there is a well-known story about the meanness of the paint stores at Swindon in issuing paint. When asked by the ex-MSWJ works at Cirencester for more paint to repaint a loco that they had been given to repaint, they were told to thin the paint they had! Rumour has it that as soon as the boiler cladding of a GWR engine got hot for the first time after being painted, it would darken noticeably. So maybe the fastidious modeller, having mixed precisely the right shade of green to paint their model, should then add a generous dollop of black to the paint that will be applied to the boiler (!)

Leaving aside the variability in colour perception between different people, colours are affected not only by atmospheric conditions (such as smog – which was very prevalent in London up to the late 1950s, even on a fine day), but also by the effects of weather generally, as well as time of day, angle and strength of sunlight falling on the object, etc, etc, etc.

As to the colour of railway vehicles that have been in service for more than a few months, or even a few weeks, there are so many factors affecting the perceived appearance of the colour of those vehicles that the subject denies any objective analysis. What, for example, represents the ‘correct’ rendition of BR bauxite as applied to vacuum-fitted wagons? A glance through a few colour albums should convince you that this is an impossible question to answer, and so we can only attempt an ‘artist’s impression’ of the appearance of these wagons in their many and various conditions, even (in fact especially) when seen together in the same train.

Added to this, you then have to consider the issue of soot deposited from above on rolling stock or mud and dust thrown up from below. The general message is – Stop worrying about ‘correct’ colours, and concentrate instead on colours that look ‘right’ to you in the context in which they are intended to be viewed.

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Tim V
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Re: GWR Locomotive colour

Postby Tim V » Thu Feb 20, 2020 4:46 pm

I was looking through a book on BR Mk1 coaches (of little interest by the way to me), but what struck me was the different rendition of the blue and grey livery in the colour pictures. And that livery is within living memory ( I jest ...).

Very few of the pictures satisfied me as being 'correct'. Faulty memory/faulty printing/faulty rendition of the colour on film?
Tim V
(Not all railways in Somerset went to Dorset)

bordercollie
Posts: 66
Joined: Mon Mar 09, 2009 3:58 am

Re: GWR Locomotive colour

Postby bordercollie » Fri Feb 21, 2020 9:56 am

Thanks for all of your thoughts on the subject. Of the 4 I quoted I know which I prefer and will be using that one


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