Anyone have a good source for online colour photos of LNER A4s? (Pre and post BR). I recently learned that there were even some in a BR (gulp) purple livery?

Best,

Joshua

Gulp??? Purple??? Nothing wrong with purple, I say! :>) Atlantic Coast Line used purple as their corporate color for their entire existence, in some manner or the other. Of course, the purple and silver F's, FP's, E's, SW's and GP's (and other models as well) really shouted "ACL" from the late 1930's into the early 1960's. A modified purple/silver scheme was even used on some of their conventional (HW) passenger cars beginning in the early 1950's, and was factory applied on their express cars. Thronateeska Heritage Center's ACL RPO #13 (ex ACL 700) is being restored to this scheme, the way it was painted in 1953 when rebuilt by ACL from a baggage RPO to a full RPO. Stay tuned.

This is the only color one I've run across lately:

http://abpr.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?o ... _Works.jpg

Sorry no color here, but it does mention dark red:

http://abpr.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?o ... g_Five.jpg

Acouple more:

http://www.lner.info/locos/A/a4_bittern.jpg

http://www.lner.info/locos/A/a4_mallard.jpg

http://www.lner.info/locos/A/a4_unionsafrica.jpg

http://www.lner.info/locos/A/a4_sng2.jpg

http://www.lner.info/locos/A/a4_mallard_doncaster1.jpg

http://www.nic.funet.fi/index/railways/United_Kingdom/steam/00047a.jpg

http://67.15.20.45/images/images2/6/60009.jpg.29329.jpg

http://images1.fotopic.net/?iid=yfycy9&noresize=1&nostamp=1&quality=100

Joshua,

I recall seeing that in some cases locomotives were painted in a "Blackberry" color which would have been a very very deep purple, almost black. Seems like it would have been a rather attractive color if maintained.

Thanks, Taylor

Purple? No. The closest I can come to "purple" would be some shots of five of the fleet that received an experimental BR blue livery in the summer of 1948 before receiving a more standard BR green in 1950. I'm looking at a photo of 60028 in this scheme; it's a brighter blue than the LNER garter blue (think Conrail blue as opposed to a shade between that and Montana Rail Link blue) but can only be described as purple if you have a badly-faded colour slide.

On the other hand, the colour-shifting of some badly-aged film in Britain can render some ex-LMS and/or BR all-maroon carriages into a Barney-the-dinosaur purple!

My reference for the purple is Steam World Magazine, April 2002. The article is a summary of a day in the life of the East Coast Mainline on July 26, 1948, and includes livery. It lists A4 Kingfisher and also A3 Captain Cuttle as being purple.

I just love the shade of blue Mallard currently carries, and like the dark blue SNG has. I understand the reasons behind BR green on Union of South Africa and Bittern, but hopefully there will be some different colors in the future. Looking forward to Bittern's return!

Joshua

Several years ago there was a lively discussion between some of us fans of the Pidcock Lines of SW Georgia about the color used on the two FT's acquired from Southern. A slide was produced that showed what appeared to be purple/plum paint (although weathered a bit). The argument was made that since the Georgia Northern interchanged with the ACL in Albany and Boston, they decided to acknowledge that relationship by painting them in a version of the ACL purple but with the Southern-style nose and side stripe in imitation aluminum. Of course, the actual color was a burgundy red, and after weathering it appeared to be a bit on the purple or plum side, but the slide that had faded, too. If you have ever seen a good color photo of a badly weathered ACL (royal) purple locomotive, it is apparent why the color was dropped in 1956-57 in favor of black. It did not weather well and chalked badly, to the point that the engines were on a 2-year shopping cycle for repainting.