Rail Blue

This is a companion volume to Paul Shannon's Blue Diesel Days with a further selection of unseen photographs that will be invaluable to modellers of the British blue rail era, plus all general railway enthusiasts. Introduced in 1966, Rail Blue was the livery applied to all forms of British Rail diesel and electric traction and carriage stock until sectorisation in the mid-1980s and as such was to dominate Britain's main-line railways for almost two decades. By the end of steam in August 1968, increasing numbers of locomotives, multiple-units and coaches were appearing in the new livery, so much so, that the final steam specials operated in August 1968 included blue-and-grey coaching stock. For the modeller, the Rail-blue era has its attractions in that it straddles the period of the late 1960s when steam and green diesels predominated through to the era of sectorisation in the mid-1980s. Moreover, although not all classes of first-generation of diesel and electric locomotives and rolling stock survived to be repainted in blue, there were odd examples of most classes repainted. The book includes over 200 colour images portraying the operation of blue-liveried locomotives and rolling stock throughout the BR network along with detailed captions and informative linking narrative and will provide invaluable reference material for rail historians and enthusiasts.