British Rail Class 26 - Work History - Liveries

Liveries

Nine main livery variants were carried by the class whilst in BR service:

• British Railways green, with grey roofs, white cab window surrounds and a thin white stripe midway up the bodysides. All locomotives were delivered in this livery;
• Within a few years all locomotives received small yellow warning panels on the lower cabfronts;
• From the late 1960s some locomotives received full yellow ends as an interim measure pending repainting into Rail Blue;
• From 1967, repainted locomotives received all-over 'Rail Blue' with full yellow ends;
• This was soon modified to include yellow cabside window surrounds. All locomotives had received this livery by the mid-'70s;
• Railfreight grey with yellow cabs, black cab window surrounds and red solebars. Nineteen locomotives repainted in 1985-87 received this livery (26001-8/10/25/6/31/2/4/5/7/8/40/1);
• Railfreight three-tone grey with black cab window surrounds, yellow lower cabsides and yellow/black 'Coal Subsector' markings. This livery was applied to eight locomotives repainted in 1988-89 (26001-8);
• 'Civil Link' (or 'Dutch') grey with yellow upper bodysides and lower cabfronts, and black cab window surrounds was applied to sixteen locomotives (26001-8/11/25/6/35/6/8/40/3) in 1990-92;
• To mark the impending withdrawal of the class, the first two locomotives (26007 and 26001) were repainted into 1960s style BR green with small yellow warning panels in 1992, at which point 26001 became the first and only Class 26 to be named (Eastfield, to commemorate the closure of that depot).