Hi Andrew,Soar Valley Light wrote: βThu Apr 28, 2022 8:07 pm On the Midland Railway wagons were painted grey. Even as new that could vary between a pale grey and a dark grey. The reason was that the wagon paint was 'stretched out' by mixing in all the scraps of paint from the paint shop, so the 'colour of the day' depended on what other vehicles were being painted and how much paint they had over from the job! I imagine similar things must have happened on many 'low budget ' railways, which includes a great many narrow gauge enterprises. I've frequently placed great reliance on that practise for some of the colours my wagons have ended up being painted in.
SVLR Andrew
Thanks for your reply explaining a little bit more about the colours for rolling stock. So it was simply what paint was available at the time. I did wonder why there were different variants of colour on wagons and vans. I suppose that was the case for coaches also. But I suspect that wasn't the case in the really early years of railways.