At some time in the recent past, the Didcot Cowans 50T crane was painted black. I am leading a small team to retore the crane to working order and, once it's chuffing again (which, I hope, will be later this year), would like to return the livery to what it once was, rather than the faded pinky red that is visible on some un-blacked bits. Does anyone have any such info, please?

Not a lot of choice really - they rarely if ever were in their owners passenger livery, and only a few managed a modest amount of lining out..

Its black or extremely dark grey in pre 1948 days, black in BR, then red ( not faded! ), or heaven forbid on such a steam crane - yellow.

Red with a few bits of white ( per NVRs recent repaint ) seems most appropriate?; and lends a little colour to the scene.

Chris

Thanks, Chris. I'm still tempted by RAF camouflage, as I quipped recently to a visitor ..... but I prefer red, but what shade? Ah, there's the rub! I shall be peeling layers away this weekend to see who did what over the years.

NVR Crane is in "Poppy Red" which was chosen to be more fade-resistant than the previous "Post Office Red". However after about 5 years standing outside we're starting to look distinctly faded on the southern side (cranes don't get turned much!). See http://nvrcrane.systemsoft.co.uk.

Thanks, Stan. The paint-peeling exercise revealed layers of black, grey, yellow, red and black. However, some plastic letters had been fixed, presumably by BR, to the match truck and when we peeled them off (with a heat gun set to coolish), a beautiful shade of red was revealed, painted over black. I suspect that, no matter what colour we paint it, there will be some who will suggest it's wrong ..... see also blue Kings!

Hi Peter,
I have only just been able to get home to my main computer to be able to reply to your post.
When I removed the handbrake trunnion on S1561 I found Red paint beneath it which I colour matched to Williamsons Signal Red.
Other parts have confirmed this.
I have found the following layers of paint.
Original Colour Grey. Black then Signal Red. Overcoated with a strange plum red at some stage.

Thanks Pete.

To follow on from Stan, 'Poppy Red' was recommended by the paint maker as its orange element was said to improve resistance to fade. Fortuitously, it also appeared to match perfectly the shade of red found behind gears and axle springs where sunlight had been excluded since a repaint by BR in the 1970s.

Peter, note that the NVR crane isn't totally red. Though the 1959 directive from BR was that all breakdown cranes would be painted red, it is clear that depots tended to introduce variations on the theme. Advantage was taken of this historical fact and the NVR crane's sole-plate and below was painted black, as was the roof, water tank, connecting rods, rail clips and some other details. The flywheel rim, wheel rims and jib nose were detailed in white.

Heritage breakdown cranes cry out for undercover stabling to protect the paint and - much more importantly - the gears, ropes and other exposed machinery!

Thank you, David. I'm proposing to lubricate the gears with Tufnol Open Gear Grease, which we use on our two smaller Smiths cranes to good effect, and then to keep all the whirly bits covered with a tarpaulin. However, this will still leave the jib, jib-runner and weight-relieving trucks exposed with little chance of ever being put under cover permanently. Therefore, my plan is gradually to remove all the paint back to metal before repainting with at least three coats of topcoat. Suggest you buy shares in Williamsons paint!

It's always difficult to know what the best colour is, at least when there's a choice.

Personally I think that a weathered black crane looks better than a weathered red crane, and also tends to look more "steam era". However a red crane undoubtedly now has more visitor appeal.

For your crane, I think the choices are really either black (or possibly dark grey) or red. I do think that the lattice jib CS cranes look good in red, black never seemed to work on them.

The red used on cranes was I believe Signal Red, not (as widely thought) Engineers' Red.

There's a photo of sister crane RS1005/50 on P283 of Tatlow, freshly outshopped in signal red, with black trim, and lined out in black and straw, which looks stunning and is totally authentic. I'd be tempted.....

Perhaps fortunately it's a problem I don't really have with No 2, since it has only ever been grey or black (or its present 'rust')