Following the revelation in April's Railway Magazine that British Railways considered applying pre-grouping liveries to some of the A1s we are able to reproduce them here.  Matthew Cousins of the Brighton Atlantic Project takes up the story, "During visits by our volunteers to the NRM, we unearthed a hitherto unknown gem from Doncaster - a coloured drawing dating from 1951 showing a proposal to adorn those A1s that were named after old railway companies with the livery of that company.  Therefore No. 60147 North Eastern would be in Saxony Green, Great Central in Brunswick & Claret, Great Eastern in Deep Ultramarine and North British in Bronze Green & Brown.  Nothing is known of why the proposal was turned down - the attached scan of the original, rather grubby, artwork shows how attractive these locos would have been." 

Mark Allatt of the A1 Trust said, "We are delighted with this discovery which increases the range of the pallette when choosing future liveries for Tornado!"

Ends.

01.04.09 - Note to Editors - treat this information with great care.