question on British tank car colours

[MichiK]

I have a question on the painting rules for British tank cars, which maybe one of the members can answer:

According to https://www.igg.org.uk/rail/6-livy/odds/9-tankliv.htm the tanks class A tank cars had to be painted aluminum, and the solebars red. According to Stefan Carstens this also applied to German tank cars that were used from the late 40s/early 50s on as ferry waggons to and from the UK. There's one picture from about 1948 (the waggon is still marked DR-Brit-US-Zone) which clearly wears such a livery. Another picture, also from around that time, shows a waggon in a rather dark livery - clearly not aluminum tank/red solebars. The last two pictures (one was taken 1964) show also waggons in a rather dark livery - probably a dark grey tank and black chassis (of course, the three dark cars could have been used for less flammable liquids).

 

My question now is: When ended the silver tank/red solebars livery to be obligatory (I suppose this rule was dropped somewhen), and is there anything known whether the rule really was mandatory for foreign tank cars?

 

Thanks in advance!

Michi

[railsquid]

I have absolutely no idea, but I suggest asking on RMweb as it's an excellent source of British prototype information and someone there is very likely to know.

[MichiK]

Yes, over at RMweb they'd certainly know the answer.

I'm just reluctant to become a member just to ask one single question...

And what'S more: It's not even the real question!

(That, of course, is whether one of the german ferry tank cars, which was based upon the same type as one of the Märklin Z tank cars, ever had the class A tank car livery...)