Paint colours

[Nick Meredith]

Does anyone have any good information on the paint colours seen on the buildings of the SMJ during the 20th century?

The only decent colour pictures I have seen indicate a pale cream with dark brown contrasts and were taken post passenger closure.

Given that there are B&W photographs from operational times which clearly show that LMS totem signboards were fitted, my supposition is that the stations may have been repainted in the late 1930s into the LMS post 1936 cream + portland stone + brown or green or red (brown option)m and until that repainting probably inherited their pre-grouping paintwork. From that point on I suspect they retained their LMS paintwork.

My question really is whether anyone has any evidence that either confirms my suppositions, or contradicts them? Is there anything that describes what would have been inherited?

[Simon Dunkley]

From photos taken in pre-grouping days, I have worked in the past on the assumption that they used the same limited weather-resistant palette as everyone else, and twenty years ago when building a small layout, I used brown and yellow with white window frames. This "felt" right, certainly for SMJ days. Early photos of Byfield signal box suggest a greater use of paler shades.
Follow this link: http://www.heritage-explorer.co.uk/file/he/content/upload/database/...
Or better still, this one: http://viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk/gallery/450/BB9/BB98_0628...

Even if we find written evidence, we need to be careful - the are contemporaneous references to the darker colour used on the coaches being brown (per GWR), red (per Midland) or purple (per LNWR)!

I realise that this is not totally helpful, but unless someone has copies of the original orders, we may never be sure.