Wolverton Style
All coaches in the pre-grouping period were built of seasoned
quality hard wood, and mounted on steel underframes . Many
companies developed their own distinctive corporate styles:
The LNWR style featured one large side panel from waist to
eaves, into which windows were set without any visual links
to the body panelling. Finished in the superb ‘white and
plum’ livery, this became the ‘Wolverton style’,
after the LNWR’s carriage works near Bletchley
on the London — Birmingham main line.
Until 1865 carriages were built at Saltley , Birmingham,
where the design style continued at Wolverton was initiated.
Saltley carriages were narrow (7ft 9in) and vans were
flat-sided (and narrower at 6ft 10in) but the seeds for
the later style could already be seen in the designs.
‘Wolverton style’ increased the ‘tumblehome’
below the waist, painted in a deep, dark plum colour,
called ‘Carriage Lake’. Above the waist, panels were
painted ‘Coach White’, a colour in which blue was added
to offset the yellowing inevitable through ageing. This
meant that newer coaches appeared very pale blue in colour,
becoming more white or cream with time. Windows were surrounded
by a raised mahogany bolection moulding, and the raised mouldings
edging the panels were painted in lake and lined out initially
in gold. Later a yellow tan colour simulating gold was used.
Doors were edged with a very thin white line. Lettering and
numbers were gold, later yellow edged black. Painting required
sixteen coats — and 16 days to rub down, paint and dry.
Roofs were often painted white in the works but were seen
to be grey in service. An elderly worker from Wolverton
explained they became grey due to the “(expletive deleted)
from the [engine’s] chimney.”
In the early 1890’s a change to the panelling was tried
on 45ft Family saloons, then used on the famed
“American Specials”. The main windows were built
in pairs with a wider panel adjacent to each seat back. The
window mouldings were not rounded into the waist but instead
took the form of an inverted ‘U’.
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