Last modified: 2024-09-21 by rob raeside
Keywords: house flag | british railways | british rail | railroad | lion | double arrow |
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British Rail had two flags. On land at
stations, the same flag was used with a red background.
This flag is still in use as the “double-arrow” symbol
now belongs to the DETR (Department of the Environment,
Transport and the Regions) and is authorised for use by
the railway companies and other purposes connected to
the national railway network. Recently I have seen the
railways flag flying over Chester and Swansea railway
stations.
Roy Stilling, 13 Feb 1999
Doing a search for British Rail on Google Images clearly shows that when used
as a logo, the top arrow pointed right, even though the Corporate Identity
manual (http://www.doublearrow.co.uk/manual/1_46.1985-04.jpg)
showed it pointing left when used on a flag.
Neale Rosanoski, 30
December 2013
In Dow (1973), Railway Heraldry, page 250, Mr. Dow has a longish tirade (far too long for reproduction in extenso), containing:
"The symbol [of British Railways] ... is officially described as consisting of 'two-way traffic arrows on parallel lines representing tracks'. The top arrow therefore always points to the right (because the trains keep to the left), save only in the case of ships' funnels and ships' flags, where the top arrow will point forward on the port-side. It was conceived by Design Research Unit and, although it is by no means generally liked and has been aptly dubbed 'the barbed wire', it does represent an attempt to devise a distinctive, instantly recognisable symbol."Ole Andersen, 13 January 2001
British Railways, or to use its more common name, British Rail, ceased to exist during the early 1990s. It was replaced by Railtrack, which was to operate the actual track and station premises, and a variety of operating companies, which were to provide services. Railtrack eventually collapsed in a welter of maladministration and debt in 2001, and the British Government put the company into administration and in effect re-nationalized it at that time. A new non-profit successor to Railtrack is in the process of development.
I do not know whether Railtrack or the many actual operating companies had
their own flags or not. I suspect that most of them did, but I have not seen any
depictions or illustrations. It is certain however that all the rolling stock
received gaudy new liveries in place of actual new equipment.
Kath Lavar, 12 April 2002
"As part of its new image, BR undertook a radical look at design across the
whole company. It decided that it needed a new corporate identity and in 1965
launched a new corporate image. The whole railway was re-branded as British
Rail, with the distinctive double
arrow logo." [National Railway Museum]
David Prothero, 23 March 2007
The colours should be:
on land flag: Rail Red = Flame Red/Azo Orange = BS
361 C 593 (see
http://www.doublearrow.co.uk/manual/1_46.1985-04.jpg)
Sealink flag: Rail
Blue = BS 361 C 114 (see
http://www.doublearrow.co.uk/manual/7_11.1966-01.jpg)
Nick Job,
26 March 2013
This was the flag worn by its ships, with a blue background. I have read somewhere, although I cannot find the reference, that the double-arrow logo was
reversed when used on the Sealink ferries so that the cross pieces could be read as an "S" for Sealink.
Roy Stilling, 13 Feb 1999
British Rail had ships. Today the railways
have been privatised, and whilst the British Railways
Board still exists, and is due to become the nucleus
for the proposed new Strategic Rail Authority, it
doesn’t run ships or trains anymore, and in fact
British Rail lost its ships even earlier, back around
1984 when its Sealink ferry
services were sold off.
Roy Stilling, 13 Feb 1999
"In 1965 the old House Flag for the ships
of British Railways, introduced in 1949, was replaced by a new flag. This had a
field of blue, known as "British Railways blue", with a device which can be
described as symbolic double arrows, the latter in white. This flag is now flown
by all the ships, and is the only flag in use by the Shipping Division of
British Rail. There is a similarly designed House Flag for use ashore by British
Rail. This differ from the maritime flag by having a flame-red field.
[Flags of the World by E.M.C.Barraclough 1971]
David Prothero, 23 March 2007
The British Rail Corporate Identity Manual states that the top
arrow of the logo on the British Rail flag should always point
towards the staff. (The majority of British Rail flags were
presumably made from one piece of fabric rather than right-
reading both sides.) Since the convention in flag books is to
have the staff on the left, this accounts for the flag being "back
to front" but it is not wrong, as Roy Stilling suggests. As far as I
am aware, the British Rail flag was the only instance where it
was acceptable to mirror the BR symbol although, from time to
time, on road signs etc., one sees instances of the BR symbol
crudely being reversed where it should not be!
Nick Job, 27 April 2000.
British Railways: 1949-1965
7:12 image
by António Martins-Tuválkin, 28 May 2007
In the Observer’s Book of FLAGS
[eva59],
I found an image with the following text:
"The emblem adopted by the British Railway, the lion astride a wheel, so
conspicuously displayed inland, figures at the centre of a saltire of unusual
design on the House Flags of the organisation’s ships."
Jarig Bakker, Feb 1999
The flag is a white saltire on dark blue
with a double red and white fimbriation.
Centered there’s a dark blue disc with a
white-red-white border. In the disc, the
above-mentioned logo.
Jorge Candeias, 22 Feb 1999
According to Barraclough and Crampton Flags of the
World 1981 [bcr81] p.230,
this flag was adopted in 1949 and replaced by the blue with
white "double-arrow" flag in 1965 when
British Railways adopted a new corporate identity becoming
British Rail.
Roy Stilling, 13 Feb 1999
Photographs of the 1949 flag and the
detail of the badge on the flag as
posted for sale on E-Bay are available here.
Jan Mertens, 10 October 2006
As a child, I well recall British Railways and its rather lovely
lion crest.
This organisation was established in 1948 and was re-branded as "British Rail"
in 1969, with the result that the lion crest was replaced by a rather nasty
double arrow logo, which became the symbol of lateness, shoddy service and
appalling food. Something else I remember, though, is that the crest I mention
above was not the only one to be seen on the sides of the locomotives. There was
another in which a lion passant
straddled an
engine wheel, and it is this version which I believe Jorge Candeias sought
to draw above.
Peter Johnson, 21 March 2007
British Railways was formed in 1948 and became British Rail in 1969 (with a
new logo) until being privatized (and thus disbanded) in 1997.
Christopher Southworth, 22 March 2007
"British Railways announced the adoption of a House flag for their vessels on
February 15th 1949 and described it as having a navy-blue background with white
diagonals, lined dull red with a white outer edging. Superimposed on a blue base
in the centre of the flag is the British Railways badge, a yellow lion astride a
wheel carried out in red and white. The proportions of this flag are rather
unusual, being twelve to seven."
[Flags of the World by H.Gresham Carr 1953]
David Prothero, 23 March 2007