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The first buses in Blackburn
carried the same livery colours as the trams, olive green
and ivory. Wheel arches and mud guards were painted black.
The fleet numbers were again the same as the trams, which
were gold shaded green. |
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The double-deck vehicles
from the same period were again in olive green and ivory,
the green was also carried on the rear dome.
All vehicles at this time carried the same styling lining-out
as the trams. |
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Further batches of vehicles
had the same styling but had green roofs.
The first batch of single and double deck buses were subsequently
re-painted with green roofs.
All deliveries of buses up to World War II continued with
this livery. |
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The first variation on the
style came with the utility bodied vehicles of 1943, when
a more austere livery was applied to the vehicles delivered
during this period. The ivory band below both the upper-deck
and lower-deck windows was omitted. |
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After the war further deliveries
of vehicles saw the ivory band re-introduced and the upper-deck
window surrounds also painted ivory. The Leyland PD1A batch
No.' s 105-119 of 1947/48 were the first vehicles delivered
without lining out, though the 1948 batch of Crossley bodied
Guy Arab had the lining out in full. |
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The two batches of Crossley
bodied vehicles, No.'s 95-104 on Leyland PD1 chassis and No.'s
120-139 on Guy Arab chassis, delivered in 1947 and 1949 respectively,
both had the ivory band from below the windows on both decks
omitted. |
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When the War-time utility-bodied
buses were re-bodied by East Lancashire Coachbuilders a
new lighter shade of green was first introduced and this
became standard for the next 30 years.
The East Lancashire bodied vehicles all had the ivory band
below the lower-deck windows. |
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A slight variation on the East
Lancs livery had the upper deck corner window pillars also
painted green. |
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1966 saw the introduction
of the first under-floor engined vehicles with the Leyland
Tiger Cubs, these also carried a new style livery where
the ivory became the more prominent colour.
This style was applied to a further batch of Leyland Cubs,
the two batches of Leyland Atlantean PDR1's and also to
the 1972 delivery of Seddon Pennine/East Lancs vehicles. |
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The Atlantean version of
the new livery also saw the green continued around the front
of the vehicle.
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The first Leyland Atlantean
AN68's, delivered in 1972, saw the lower band of green moved
to the bottom of the lower deck panel and also the coat of
arms moved to the front of the upper-deck side along with
the BLACKBURN legend. |
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The amalgamation of Blackburn
and Darwen in 1974 introduced a complete new livery, which
was applied to all new deliveries and all re-paints. Roofs
were painted red and a much darker shade of green was applied
to the bottom of the lower deck.
The Coat of Arms was replaced by the Blackburn Borough
symbol and the BLACKBURN legend was altered to black lettering,
as was the fleet numbers. |
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The second version of the Blackburn
Borough livery was introduced from 1979 with the delivery
of the No.'s 125-130 batch of AN68 Atlanteans, where-by the
dark green covered all the area below the lower-deck windows,
and BLACKBURN TRANSPORT was used as the legend |
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A slight variation, applied
to (at least) four vehicles, had the red around the upper-deck
windows |
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In 1983 No.'s 23-29 entered
service in an olive green & ivory livery, and this then
became standard livery on all subsequent repaints.
The Blackburn Corporation coat of arms and gold shaded
lettering was also re-introduced. |
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The first two-tone green and
cream livery appeared in 1986. Bristol RESL6L No. 409 (Ex-Darwen)
and Leyland Atlantean No. 141 being the first vehicles to
receive this livery. The Blackburn Coat of Arms and shaded
lettering was retained and the BLACKBURN TRANSPORT legend
was applied in cream on the lower-deck, along with the wording
'YOUR LOCAL BUSES SERVING YOU'. |
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When the first Midi buses
were introduced they received the so-called 'coachline'
livery version of the two-tone green.
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A new livery was introduced
from 1991 and applied to all re-paints and new vehicles. This
new livery being all pale cream bodies with dark green roof
and bottom of the lower-deck panel. A green band was applied
to the 'cant' rail which at the front of the sides merged
into a BLACKBURN legend in sloping italic lettering. |
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The single-deck variation of
the new Transport livery had pale cream roofs, and the Dennis
Dart MPD and Wrights/Volvo B10 vehicles of 1999 eventually
had 'Easy Access' logos added to them. |
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Ex-London Leyland Olympians
were purchased in 2000 and along with the Ex-Lothian Leyland
Olympians obtained in 2001/2 there was the re-introduction
of the two-tone green livery, though the lighter of the two
greens was a more 'grass' green. The darker green continued
at the same height around the front of the vehicles. Several
of the Leyland Atlanteans still in service received this new
livery. |
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The second batch of Dennis
Dart MPD's No.'s 661-667 in early 2002 saw the introduction
the 'Low-Floor Easy Access' livery. A sweeping band of two-tone
green and yellow were the dominant feature. The Wright/Volvo
B10 vehicles were subsequently repainted in this style and
the first double-deck vehicles to receive this livery were
the Dennis Tridents in 2002. This livery was the first of
several designed by WizzWorks. |
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A variation of the new livery
was applied to the Volvo B10 vehicles No.'s 418-422, which
is the so-called 'Front Line' livery which omits the sweep
of coloured bands at the rear of the vehicle. |
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Further second-hand Leyland
Olympians arrived in early 2004 and they received the double-deck
version of the 'Front Line' livery.
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A further variation of the 'Front Line'
livery on single deck vehicles saw the omission of the 'sweep'
of colour on the 'skirt' of just the two-tone green. This
livery being applied to the Volvo B6R class. |
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A new livery, introduced in
September 2004, and known as the Schools+ livery. This is
a variation of the High-Floor livery, where-by yellow replaced
the cream and light green replaced the yellow. |
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The first 'route branding'
livery was introduced in March 2006. When another WizzWorks
livery of Royal Purple, Orange and Metro Yellow was applied
to vehicles operating The OC, Blackburn's Outer Circle route. |
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