NBC Blue

[Caleb2010]

Hello, would anyone know the paint code for NBC Blue - as worn by Jones of Aberbeeg and I think Sunderland & district -possibly East Midland too (it’s now I find out they are three different shades!!)

It’s so I can give it to whoever I select for the paint job!!

Cheers

 

[jp4712]

The blue used by SDO (very dark) and Jones (mid blue) were very different. Midland General used the Sunderland blue. Which one is it?

 

[Caleb2010]

Thought they would be

Jones please

 

[Titfield]

The answer may be in the NBC manual.

National Bus Company Corporate Identity Manual

A project to reissue the NBC’s iconic Corporate Identity Manual, 1972-1976

nationalbusmanual.com

 

[jammy36]

There were various different blues used by NBC subsidiaries:

East Yorkshire used a deep indigo shade... but
East Yorkshire also used a lighter shade known as 'Riviera blue' for dual purpose vehicles.
Sunderland's was 'midnight blue'
Midland used 'Balfour Beatty blue'
Gloucester used 'aircraft blue'
Latterly there was also a light shade of blue ('Cambridge blue') used by Cambus prior to privatisation.

Jones of Aberbeeg initially used their existing blue colour on purchase by NBC, but this was subsequently changed for NBC corporate blue which was a British Standard 'French blue' colour (BS Series 381C.166 is the colour code).

If this is for a model, then of course colour perception will affect how things look due to size, different material being painted, different undercoat, different lacquer coat, etc, etc such that the right shade of blue might actually look wrong to the eye.

 

[Caleb2010]

Thanks very much - it’s for a real thing, not a preservation piece exactly - I just like that colour and have a hankering to paint my motor in it!

 

[gka472l]

There were various different blues used by NBC subsidiaries:

East Yorkshire used a deep indigo shade... but
East Yorkshire also used a lighter shade known as 'Riviera blue' for dual purpose vehicles.
Sunderland's was 'midnight blue'
Midland used 'Balfour Beatty blue'
Gloucester used 'aircraft blue'
Latterly there was also a light shade of blue ('Cambridge blue') used by Cambus prior to privatisation.

Jones of Aberbeeg initially used their existing blue colour on purchase by NBC, but this was subsequently changed for NBC corporate blue which was a British Standard 'French blue' colour (BS Series 381C.166 is the colour code).

If this is for a model, then of course colour perception will affect how things look due to size, different material being painted, different undercoat, different lacquer coat, etc, etc such that the right shade of blue might actually look wrong to the eye.

There was a couple of Selby & District Olympians in a blue version of NBC livery, 520 was one, I'm sure 519 was another. 520 seen here https://www.flickr.com/photos/theoriginalzippy/5462299758

HTH

 

[Pyewipecarshed]

The East Yorkshire blue was the traditional shade they had used, just with white relief rather than primrose yellow

 

[Towers]

The answer may be in the NBC manual.

National Bus Company Corporate Identity Manual

A project to reissue the NBC’s iconic Corporate Identity Manual, 1972-1976

nationalbusmanual.com

From the site:

“Many shades of blue. After battles over the use of ‘traditional’ green, blue was not adopted as a standard NBC bus colour as Norman Wilson and Freddie Wood had intended. Individual companies were give special dispensation to continue to use blue. But the lack of a standard approach meant a plethora of different shades emerged. Only Jones of Aberbeeg adopted the NBC standard blue, as intended.”

Link to the page concerned:

The story of the blues

Red, white and blue was at the core of NBC’s modern corporate identity. So why was the company strangely reluctant to use blue across its huge fleet of buses and coaches?

nationalbusmanual.com

 

[Merle Haggard]

I know it's not the same as fleet colours, but E.N.O.C. used blue for trainer buses in N.B.C. livery days - I wonder if it was N.B.C. Blue.
The 'strapline' was 'I'm blue because I don't have a driver'

 

[Man of Kent]

I know it's not the same as fleet colours, but E.N.O.C. used blue for trainer buses in N.B.C. livery days - I wonder if it was N.B.C. Blue.
The 'strapline' was 'I'm blue because I don't have a driver'

Bristol Omnibus also used a blue livery on their training buses (though I think earlier ones may have been cream).
Pictures of both companies buses can be found on the BCV website https://bcv.robsly.com/loddt.html

 

[Merle Haggard]

Bristol Omnibus also used a blue livery on their training buses (though I think earlier ones may have been cream).
Pictures of both companies buses can be found on the BCV website https://bcv.robsly.com/loddt.html

Yes indeed, I had forgotten them. Their K types were indeed cream.
I may be over-thinking the N.B.C. blue connection. Using blue for trainer buses may have been to separate them in people's minds from the PSV fleet. Up to the early 1980s lots of major fleets' old buses were acquired by contractors and they were often repainted blue by the dealer handling them. I have an idea that there might have been an 'understanding' with the companies to do this because most fleets were either red or green, and operators would understandably not wish for the decrepit bus seen on the road to be associated with them!
Yes, I know Rob Sly's website - there's a lot of really excellent Lodekka photos for one fleet on it ... .

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

I might be wrong on this but I think there was a Senior Manager (General Manager or Fleet Engineer) who went from Eastern National to Bristol Omnibus about 1973/4; it was most evident on the introduction of depot codes but might also have been on the blue driver training livery?

There didn't seem to be a standard DT livery so different firms used different colours. National Welsh, Ribble, Western National and Hants & Dorset used yellow, United Auto and Cumberland cream with red relief, and Northern General used leaf green! As we see today, it is to differentiate them from the standard bus fleet so not to confuse passengers, to attract recruits, and to warn other motorists.

 

[Merle Haggard]

There didn't seem to be a standard DT livery so different firms used different colours. National Welsh, Ribble, Western National and Hants & Dorset used yellow, United Auto and Cumberland cream with red relief, and Northern General used leaf green! As we see today, it is to differentiate them from the standard bus fleet so not to confuse passengers, to attract recruits, and to warn other motorists.

Someone on U.C.O.C. was a closet railway enthusiast and in 1969 the next generation of trainer buses appeared - retained fleet livery green but with full yellow ends. But sadly, the green was never replaced by blue to keep up to date...

 

[Pyewipecarshed]

I might be wrong on this but I think there was a Senior Manager (General Manager or Fleet Engineer) who went from Eastern National to Bristol Omnibus about 1973/4; it was most evident on the introduction of depot codes but might also have been on the blue driver training livery?

There didn't seem to be a standard DT livery so different firms used different colours. National Welsh, Ribble, Western National and Hants & Dorset used yellow, United Auto and Cumberland cream with red relief, and Northern General used leaf green! As we see today, it is to differentiate them from the standard bus fleet so not to confuse passengers, to attract recruits, and to warn other motorists.

I believe Northern chose green because their buses in Tyne and Wear were already painted yellow and they had previously used blue on the Sunderland District subsidiary fleet. So there was a risk of passengers trying to board a blue trainer thinking it was a Sunderland bus!

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

I believe Northern chose green because their buses in Tyne and Wear were already painted yellow and they had previously used blue on the Sunderland District subsidiary fleet. So there was a risk of passengers trying to board a blue trainer thinking it was a Sunderland bus!

In the late 1970s, their training buses were yellow with a red waistband so they could've probably used blue.