When did BR blue first appear?

[ianm42]

When first built (the first appeared in 1951) The new corporate British Railways of plum and spilt milk was used for all regions. This was short lived as it did not wear very well, and was quickly replaced by the brighter blood and custard livery, again for all regions. Older coaches were also repainted in this scheme. Non-corridor stock was painted a bright crimson.

This lasted until 1956/7 when the western, midland and eastern regions changed to all over maroon, and the southern reverted to green. The Western region did have a few chocolate and cream for its main expresses, but these reverted to maroon by 1962.

Blue/Grey appeared following the XP64 demonstrations, and the start of the British Rail corporate look.

[johndibben]

Were the various different colour schemes that Mk1s were originally painted in correspond with which region they ran on?

Wot Ian said

[ianm42]

oh, and the yellow stripes to denote first class, and the red stripe to denote buffet or restaurant started appearing around 1958.