http://www.flickr.com/photos/67438684@N07/7655849730/

Gorton Breakdown Gang pose in front of their repainted and lined out crane. White cab roof?
The Gorton Works did this smart job, it was once painted in crimson lake, think this was it.
Bert Horridge far left, regular driver of this crane from collection at Ipswich to 1978.

Click below for a photo of Bert Horridge and Newton Heath gang at time of road removal to the Bluebell Railway. You'll see Bert holding the above photo, now found, together with road move photos from 1981.

http://library.constantcontact.com/down ... part+1.pdf

Although the crimson lake layer is there, I have to say that lined black is almost certainly the livery shown here, the crimson lake may have preceded it as it was available after the works ceased painting locos that colour..........no colour photos available!

Nice one Neil, having just looked at your link and the photo with you George Nickson, Steve Smith, Norman Payne, Paul Lewis and Peter Gribble in it, and seeing your face I can now remember you from the Bluebell.
Mick

Hi Mick, good to hear, that was 1981 when I was 25.

Can I ask for a post on procedure for changing side springs on main carriage, was interested to read of your experience in this area, also balancing them.

There will be 2 more sections on steam crane history at Bluebell to post later, the third one is not ready yet.

Neil

I would agree with Neil that the livery in the photo is most probably black with LNWR lining.

It certainly looks to be the black 'LNWR'-style livery to me, but doesn't it look stunning like that!

I think that that would be an excellent choice for you Neil when you repaint the crane, and as far as I know it would be unique in preservation.

With GWR 2 my authentic choices are very limited, namely black all over, or black with a few white bits! There is some evidence to suggest that when new it may have been (probably dark) grey, but it is hard to be certain.

Roger

I wonder if that early paint on GWR No. 2 was 'photographic grey' as applied to some newly-introduced locomotives in the days when images were recorded using glass-plate photography? It gave much clearer detail than black, however it was a light rather than dark grey.

There are some very early photos which do appear to be in photographic grey with some white details (for example, one of the photos in Jim Russell's GW Wagons Appendix), but there are also other early photos of the crane in service where it doesn't seem quite black enough to be black, but is certainly darker than photographic grey (and has lost the details).

For example, in the photo of Nos 2 and 3 lifting Dartmouth Castle which appears on the BDCA home page, there appear to be clearly visible black deposits on the chimney of No 3, which cannot be shadow since they are in the wrong place. Although it is possible that by 1923 the crane could be well-weathered, I am surprised how clearly they show up. There are other photos which support the dark grey theory more convincingly than this though sadly none on the website.

I have also seen references to GW cranes being painted in the dark grey that was used for wagons at the time, however such references have all been in modern(-ish) books and sources have never been quoted.

It may be that it the result of a combination of the light, a weathered black finish, and the reproduction of old grey-scale photographs. I have never come accross any grey paint on the crane, but after 104 years it is likely that if any original paint remains it would be in extremely inaccessible places. We shall see.

For the time being I intend to paint it black, since it is a lot easier to colour match during the course of a task which will inevitably turn out to be similar to painting the Forth Bridge in terms of timescale.

The crane looks great in lined black, lion and wheel and embellishments, quite agree Roger!

Assuming jib head and return block are in white, what colour would you say are the buffer planks/beams , the lifting beam, the flywheel? Can see it's different to the white mentioned earlier, it looks too light to be red - could it be yellow perhaps, glad to hear your thoughts on this.

Did the LNWR scheme stipulate red or yellow for these areas above? Blackberry black wasn't it?

Do not think they used yellow that early, I think red is the way to go?