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London North Eastern Railway
This company received a total of just over a quarter of a million assorted wagons at the time of the grouping, of which only about 10,000 were fitted. The lamps used on locomotives and brake vans were red until the early 1930's when the colour changed to white.
Basic body colours were `lead grey' for unfitted stock, and red oxide for fitted stock and all break vans whether fitted or not. Underframes and running gear were painted black, as on commercial models. Refrigerator vans were white, and service stock blue, at first quite a light blue, later a darker colour such as that on the Graham Farish sand wagon. Blue paints are however notoriously unstable and colours varied considerably. Van roofs were painted white, officially, some appear to have been painted grey from the start, all went grey in service.
Where bottom doors were fitted these were marked with the open V as for the LMS. The LNER also used the 4 inch (10 cm) wide diagonal stripe to indicate end-door mineral or coal wagons, the stripe rising to the end fitted with the door, this was applied in similar style to the LMS with initially a stripe right across the wagon side later replaced by a shorter stripe extending upwards from the bottom of the side door nearest the `end door' end.
In 1940 the red oxide body colour was changed to bauxite, at which time the roofs of fitted vans were also painted in the new body colour. The bauxite seems little different in colour from the red oxide, and may refer to new mixing instructions for the paint.
Initially the livery was the letters N & E about 18 inches (46 cm) high on the body sides, with a six figure number 5 inches (13 cm) high placed to the lower right of the body, or on vans with a sliding door on the door itself. The first figure of the number denoting the original company, with 1, 2 and 3 reserved for new LNER built stock. The wagon number moved to the lower left of the body in the early 1930's.
Non common user stock had a 4 inch (10 cm) high letter N painted in the lower corners of the body, as seen on the Peco reefer van, this appeared as late as 1926.
Wagon codes, if applicable, were painted above the capacity to the lower left of the wagon or van body. The code was moved to the middle, usually the door in the early 30's and cast plates for fruit and fish vans were introduced at about this time. These were not always fitted however and sliding door vans with the word FRUIT in 12 inch (30 cm) high lettering were still in service at the time of nationalisation. Pipe wagons were marked LONGFIT, tube wagons were marked TUBE, but most wagons and vans carried no special codes.
Vacuum brake connecting pipes were black but on piped stock (wagons with no vacuum brake but with pipes to permit through connection for brake equipped stock) the connections were red.
Gunpowder vans were painted in standard freight colours. The illustration below shows the immediate pre-World War Two livery. The wartime livery is shown in Fig ___ under Livery Information - Introduction.
Fig ___ LNER Gunpowder van
Closed containers were initially painted red oxide with white roof and lettering, this changed in about 1934, at least for furniture containers as offered by Peco, to a deep blue with white lettering. The backward Z layout as used on the Peco GWR container was a standard layout used by all four Big Four companies for their furniture containers (the other companies used coaching stock livery, but the LNER evidently decided varnished teak was not practical for containers). This is shown on the Mainline OO LNER container but I would suggest it is a little tricky to reproduce. Containers for meat traffic were white with black lettering. Open containers were originally grey with white lettering, the body colour later changed to blue.
Non-passenger coaching stock, such as parcels vans, was in the varnished teak of the coaches, however the horse boxes were painted in something resembling the standard `fitted stock' livery of red oxide and white lettering. The body colour was rather darker than the normal oxide however, and is referred to in various accounts as brown or chocolate brown.
Phil Johnson of the Gauge O Guild was able to offer considerable assistance in this area.
Fig ___ Great Northern/ Cheshire Lines/LNER Horse box
Details of the pre 1937 LNER livery as applied to the Graham Farish horse box are shown in the drawing, however some boxes (such as the type supplied by Graham Farish) had black ends, whilst others had `brown', and the Graham Farish example appears to have had its number painted towards the non window end whereas other LNER boxes had this number centrally placed on the body. These differences may well have been related to variations in official painting practices at different times, but as yet little information has come to light regarding this.
In 1937 the LNER changed to the new generally accepted standard layout for wagon lettering as described in the introduction. In this period gunpowder vans were painted `lead' colour, a dark grey, with all writing in white. Livery is shown in the sketches, the `C' in the circle was in place of `GUNPOWDER' in the earlier livery and is believed to have been a wartime expedient.
Road vehicles, lorries and vans, were painted a dark blue-grey with white lettering.
Fig ___ Pre-1937 LNER liveries 
Fig ___ Post 1937 LNER liveries 
Fig ___ LNER open container liveries 
Fig ___ LNER closed container liveries 
Note that the line shown above and below the DOOR TO DOOR logo on the plywood sided BC and BD containers was a painted white line
