Uploaded January 2024 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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You have probably heard people refer to that dark green colour worn by British Railways locomotives, be they steam, diesel or electric, as "Brunswick Green". However, that is neither the colour worn by the BR locomotives nor the often attributed Great Western Railway, who wore Chrome Green.
But why ARE those BR locomotives a drab green, anyway?


SOURCES AND CREDIT

Photograph of a Great Western Railway 'Rover' - Public Domain, this file was provided to Wikimedia Commons by the Bulgarian Archives State Agency as part of a cooperation project. The Bulgarian Archives State Agency provides images, which are public domain. For attribution/citation of the source, Bulgarian Archives State Agency, please use the identification numbers of the document's fonds, inventory, archival unit and sheet, BASA-3K-7-518-16. commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54831590

Photograph of the York station pilot in North Eastern Railway Green by shipley43 - flickr.com/photos/27148401@N06/11071609924/, CC BY 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=107411302


Website sources:

heritagerailway.co.uk/2136/br-locomotive-green-was-never-brunswick

gwsr.com/knowledgebase/a-sunday-celebration-of-1960s-br-green-in-store-for-the-cotswolds


Literary sources:

'Railway Liveries: BR Steam 1948-1968' by Brian Haresnape, revised by Colin Boocock, published by Ian Allan


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