UTA Uniforms!

[LARNE CABIN]

Hi @jhb171achill, in particular, or any one else of the learned forum members who may have the answer. I am starting out to paint a few figures for my Larne Harbour Station layout, set late 60's, mostly 1969, 'Steams Last Fling'. I would like to be as authentic as possible regarding uniforms. I know NIR took over in 1967, but I am assuming in 1969, most staff still in UTA uniform?. My main characters are Porter, Signalman and Shunter!  

Photos of staff are very scarce. Jonathan Allen's 35 Years of NIR has a picture of Senior Porter Fred Savage at Lisburn in 1972 very neatly turned out, white shirt, red tie, in NIR uniform. Was a white shirt typical of UTA?

Any help greatly appreciated.

[Galteemore]

Have you tried Ian Sinclair’s UTA book? Many GN staff, for instance, would keep wearing the old company uniform for as long as possible. I will try and ask my dad what he remembers…

[LARNE CABIN]

Hi Galteemore, Along UTA Lines has a few vague, long distance shots, nothing concrete! Looks like white shirt though!

[Irishswissernie]

I'm checking through my files unfortunately most are black n white but the guy on the left is hopefully a porter and not a burglar. Doesn't show his shirt unfortunately 24 Feb 1968

[LARNE CABIN]

Thanks @Irishswissernie, I assume that is Coleraine. Would take it from that, that uniform is black, rather than dark grey! Many thanks for looking.

[Irishswissernie]

Sorry yes its Coleraine, its amazing to see how many photos  were taken with no station staff in them. Platform staff/signalmen probably had white shirts and black waist coats as well.

[airfixfan]

ITA  uniforms were black

[jhb171achill]

10 hours ago, LARNE CABIN said:

Hi @jhb171achill, in particular, or any one else of the learned forum members who may have the answer. I am starting out to paint a few figures for my Larne Harbour Station layout, set late 60's, mostly 1969, 'Steams Last Fling'. I would like to be as authentic as possible regarding uniforms. I know NIR took over in 1967, but I am assuming in 1969, most staff still in UTA uniform?. My main characters are Porter, Signalman and Shunter!  

Photos of staff are very scarce. Jonathan Allen's 35 Years of NIR has a picture of Senior Porter Fred Savage at Lisburn in 1972 very neatly turned out, white shirt, red tie, in NIR uniform. Was a white shirt typical of UTA?

Any help greatly appreciated.

Only seeing this now.

UTA uniforms were a colour which was either loiterally black, or a grey so very dark that it was to all intents and purposes black. Shirts were white.

Caps were black, and carried a green-background UTA roundel on them prior to 1960, and in many cases long after that; the full crest was introduced as far as I remember in 1960, but I never remember seeing caps with that on them - though it spread to locos, coaches, railcars and published material pretty quickly.

I also remember some UTA uniforms had a green lining of some sort, like the later NIR ones had in maroon, but I don't fully recall the details.

For a 00 scale sized model, lining in uniforms won't apply! So, black uniform and cap and white shirt. Drivers in a sort of faded blue overalls on steam, normal uniform on diesel. Drivers caps were shiny-topped.

Hope that helps.

 

JB

Edited October 10, 2021 by jhb171achill