Doing some research on 56036 in particular, I recall a railway employee friend telling us back in the day about this newly liveried loco with huge numbers he had just been to the launch of.
So it set me thinking because it was not in this livery at Doncaster Plant works as it neared completion.
I used to keep comprehensive notes back in 76/77 and later about the fleet and having dug these out, confirmed that Doncaster did indeed turn it out in standard blue / yellow as per 56031-35.
In fact my notes show it under construction as frames from 27/11/76 and similar on 5/12/77 and being complete moved to the test house there 21/8/77 before being seen in BR standard blue and yellow in the Works yard 6/11/77 and 27/11/77 then put out on the 4X31 test train. It was allocated to RCD at Derby in 1977.
My notes also confirmed it was repainted at Stratford in July or August 78 into what is now termed large logo livery (my notes recorded it as Stratford special livery number four) as they seemed to get away with deviating from corporate blue for the 1977 Silver Jubilee liveries onwards and with their trademark light grey (“silver”) roofs.
From a picture on here it clearly shows this was a Stratford repaint. Thanks to those contributors for that.
The loco was next at The Plant repair in April 1981.
So it set me thinking because it was not in this livery at Doncaster Plant works as it neared completion.
I used to keep comprehensive notes back in 76/77 and later about the fleet and having dug these out, confirmed that Doncaster did indeed turn it out in standard blue / yellow as per 56031-35.
In fact my notes show it under construction as frames from 27/11/76 and similar on 5/12/77 and being complete moved to the test house there 21/8/77 before being seen in BR standard blue and yellow in the Works yard 6/11/77 and 27/11/77 then put out on the 4X31 test train. It was allocated to RCD at Derby in 1977.
My notes also confirmed it was repainted at Stratford in July or August 78 into what is now termed large logo livery (my notes recorded it as Stratford special livery number four) as they seemed to get away with deviating from corporate blue for the 1977 Silver Jubilee liveries onwards and with their trademark light grey (“silver”) roofs.
From a picture on here it clearly shows this was a Stratford repaint. Thanks to those contributors for that.
The loco was next at The Plant repair in April 1981.
