30 ton brake van liveries.

[patrick]

Did any grey 30 ton brake vans have black and yellow stripes on the duckets? On some photos I've found they appear to be painted black but it may just be dirt! I'm planning to  build an SSM kit for mid sixties operations and want to get the livery right. Thanks.

[jhb171achill]

Yes.

Brake van liveries were as follows.

1.  Non CIE standard types: grey all over from birth to death. Snails latterly, a few got CIE roundels in their final days. At least one old ex-GNR van did.

2.  CIE standards, be they planked or sheet steel, be they 20T or 30T:

(a)  All over grey from new, snails, grey ducket.

(b)  After about 1963, roundels start appearing.

(c)  Not quite at the same time but soon after, ducket is painted yellow and black diagonal stripes, with the bit above and below the ducket plain black. Grey roof, grey chassis as before.

(d)  After 1970, substiture brown for grey. Brown chassis, brown roof, brown everything - but yellow and black striped ducket again, and also again with black bit above and below it.

By the mid 1960s, when the striped duckets were beginning to appear, this coincided with the withdrawal of the very last of all older types. I'm unaware of any MGW vans or DSE examples even entering the 1960s, and GNR ones were withdrawn almost as soon as CIE got them. A few old GSWR ones were retained - one was ordinarily resident on the Loughrea branch, the other on the Castleisland branch, during the 1960s, but both remained plain grey until final withdrawal.

Edited June 27, 2023 by jhb171achill