Striped painted platform edges in Scotland?

Cowley · Saturday at 18:09

Would anyone know when the practice of painting every other coping stone edge white started and finished in Scotland?

There’s a photo taken by Barry Adams here which shows what I mean. This is at Thurso in 1984.

37025 26/04/84

37025 at Thurso with 2K11 the 18.00 Thurso to Georgemas Junction on Thursday 26th April 1984. At Georgemas the coaches will be shunted onto the rear of the 18.00 Wick to Inverness.

www.flickr.com

I can’t find any photos taken later than that, but I have seen the same effect at various stations, including Inverness.

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AndrewE · Saturday at 18:24

Cowley said:
Would anyone know when the practice of painting every other coping stone edge white started and finished in Scotland?

There’s a photo taken by Barry Adams here which shows what I mean. This is at Thurso in 1984.

37025 26/04/84

37025 at Thurso with 2K11 the 18.00 Thurso to Georgemas Junction on Thursday 26th April 1984. At Georgemas the coaches will be shunted onto the rear of the 18.00 Wick to Inverness.

www.flickr.com

I can’t find any photos taken later than that, but I have seen the same effect at various stations, including Inverness.

Given that it's in Scotland it will be an economy measure: it halves the amount of whitewash that has to be bought - and maybe the man-hours needed to apply it!

Cowley · Saturday at 18:55

AndrewE said:
Given that it's in Scotland it will be an economy measure: it halves the amount of whitewash that has to be bought - and maybe the man-hours needed to apply it!

Being a painter myself, I’m with you on the saving of materials, but I’d argue that the extra cutting in would take longer than doing a continuous stripe…

midland1 · Saturday at 19:51

Did not the practice start all over the UK in WW2 to save paint?

hexagon789 · Saturday at 19:51

I don't know when the continuous stripe became the norm, but I believe the idea with the broken markings was to provide contrast in snowfall.

Cowley · Saturday at 20:44

hexagon789 said:
I don't know when the continuous stripe became the norm, but I believe the idea with the broken markings was to provide contrast in snowfall.

Those were my thoughts when I saw it first.

I wondered if a memo went out in the mid 1980s to say that everything had to be standardised across the country after that?

Rescars · Saturday at 21:00

Cowley said:
Those were my thoughts when I saw it first.

I wondered if a memo went out in the mid 1980s to say that everything had to be standardised across the country after that?

There is normally a lot less snow in the part of the country where national edicts come from!

Sir Felix Pole · Saturday at 21:13

midland1 said:
Did not the practice start all over the UK in WW2 to save paint?

I believe painting white lines (striped or otherwise) was introduced in WW2 to assist passengers in the blackout - it wasn't a feature before the war.

Sun Chariot · 2026-10-19T16:58:56+0100

hexagon789 said:
I don't know when the continuous stripe became the norm, but I believe the idea with the broken markings was to provide contrast in snowfall.

The link @Cowley shared in post 1, also has a photo taken at Crianlarich: 37 014 taken two days later. The platform has a continuous white line.

Thurso, being coastal, is surely less likely to see heavy snow, than inland Crianlarich? So the dashed white line would have logically been at Crianlarich / unbroken white line at Thurso.

The plot thickens....

The exile · 2026-10-19T17:41:55+0100

Sir Felix Pole said:
I believe painting white lines (striped or otherwise) was introduced in WW2 to assist passengers in the blackout - it wasn't a feature before the war.

I also have a feeling that it had become a lot less common by the early 80s - so maybe this was the beginning of a revival.

Sun Chariot · 2026-10-19T18:01:27+0100

I wonder if it was a route-specific practice? Thurso had it, Invergordon had it. Does any reader know of any others on the Far North?

Cowley · 2026-10-19T18:19:00+0100

Sun Chariot said:
I wonder if it was a route-specific practice? Thurso had it, Invergordon had it. Does any reader know of any others on the Far North?

I think Dingwall had it and definitely some of the curved platforms at Inverness.

The exile · 2026-10-19T18:19:48+0100

Sun Chariot said:
I wonder if it was a route-specific practice? Thurso had it, Invergordon had it. Does any reader know of any others on the Far North?

No sign of it on a Culrain photo from 1978 but, just to confuse the issue, they appear on a photo at Aviemore a couple of days before. Can’t upload either, I’m afraid.

Sun Chariot · 2026-10-19T18:36:27+0100

I'll check my own 35mm shots from 1988 and 1990. I've one at Georgemas Jcn - grey cells think it might've had the same.

Cowley · 2026-10-19T20:37:31+0100

The exile said:
No sign of it on a Culrain photo from 1978 but, just to confuse the issue, they appear on a photo at Aviemore a couple of days before. Can’t upload either, I’m afraid.

Yes there’s quite a few photos of Aviemore with the stripes now I’ve had a look. Well spotted!

Rescars · 2026-10-19T21:14:13+0100

Were the lines actually painted? I recall seeing a special "L-shaped" brush for whitening platform edges which lived in the bucket of whitewash. That was in the 1970s on the WR, where the lines were certainly continuous.

Striped painted platform edges in Scotland?

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