Dilema

[Geoff]

First of all I love a bargain and EHattons have a 3 coach class 101 for £76 and this really looks good value the only downer to it is the large yellow front and blue body, I do remember when the green 101's changed over to Blue but I am trying to think if they had the full yellow fronts or if they were partial yellow this has me stumped, my green 101 is a fantastic runner but I do want to have that transferred to my Branch Line and another 3 car DMU on my main line, so if any of you have any recolection about the blue DMU when they change to British Rail Blue would be good, of course I could paint the front to my liking.

[PLD]

Definitely should have Full-Yellow-Ends on a plain Blue DMU - F-Y-Es first appeared on Green units.

Only real variation of note on Blue 101s was how far the yellow wrapped around the sides...

[johnlambert]

Hi Geoff.

I'm not old enough to remember green DMUs in service but I've done a little research for my layout.

Some DMUs were painted rail blue with a small yellow panel, later gaining full yellow ends.  I suspect only a minority received this colour scheme in the late 1960s.   I have a photo of a class 122 unit in blue with small yellow panels in July 1967 and I've seen a picture of a Class 101 at Leamington Spa in blue with small yellow panels from about the same time.

[edwin_m]

http://www.railcar.co.uk/type/class-101/

[MJKERR]

Sounds like you are remembering EMU, which initially had a smaller yellow panel, but this was later corrected to match DMU

[Geoff]

Sounds like you are remembering EMU, which initially had a smaller yellow panel, but this was later corrected to match DMU

Maybe but I have done a bit of research and they were full yellows, must of been the grime that got me confused.

Thanks all for the input.

[D1042 Western Princess]

I'm not sure if this will help but some BR Blue DMUs did run with small yellow panels (pictures in the D Bradford Barton book "DMUs countrywide") but I could find none of the Class 101.
However a caption says that 'visibility flashes' on Metro-Cammells were changed to "larger yellow areas" (NOT Full Yellow Ends) when the flashes were found to be insufficient (page 78) but it is not clear if this was while in green or blue livery.
Given the scale and complexity of the history of railway liveries I'd say it's very likely that some 101s would have run with SYP while in blue, but proving it is another matter.
I'll keep 'digging' and see what can be found.