British Rail brand names

From an initial standardised corporate image, several sub-brands emerged for marketing purposes and later in preparation for privatisation.

With the size of British Rail's fleet, due to the time required to repaint rolling stock, brand switchovers could be lengthy affairs, often lasting years.

Following privatisation, most of the brand names disappeared, although some such as ScotRail, Merseyrail, Eurostar and Freightliner still exist today.

As the last steam locomotives were being withdrawn by 1968, under the 1955 Modernisation Plan, the corporation's public name was rebranded in 1965 as British Rail, which introduced the double-arrow symbol, a standard typeface named Rail Alphabet and the BR blue livery, which was applied to nearly all locomotives and rolling stock.

After construction delays, this was operated from 1994, until it passed to the London and Continental Railways consortium in 1996 as Eurostar.