Public meeting held to fight Locomotive livery changes

Thousands forced to click the 'Angry' emotion on Facebook posts after the inclusion of paint on metal, in a particular shade, caused widespread anger among railway enthusiasts.

There is nothing that can comprehend the anger that comes from a die hard railway enthusiast, donned in a Bruce Willis-esque white stained vest complaining of the paint applied to his or her favourite steam locomotive.

Town council meetings would be arm guarded with thousands signing up for Sky Box Office to watch the kicking of beige sandals against strong rimmed glasses smashing across the floor in paint froth anger.

The snapping of the temper reverberates around the rusted metal uncovered by whichever colour passed through a rigorous democratic voting system that makes Turkeys rigged election look like the Weekly Photo Competition on 'RPG'. 

The issue rears its ugly head almost daily in the lives of railway enthusiasts to the point it almost seems as preposterous a thought as the locomotive owners making the decision to paint their locomotive as they wish. Ridiculous. 

A sneaky peak over the barbed wire fence and security outposts at the former Steamtown at Carnforth recently spotted a newly outshopped Merchant Navy class locomotive appearing in, and brace yourselves for this, black livery. Now we could sense the anger boiling and the angry reaction being reached to by sweaty mice.

Luckily, people were able to step away from the abyss of anger by also seeing the plates of 34016 'Bodmin' adorning what was a black liveried 34018 'British India Line'. Now for readers who may be unaccustomed to the term 'comedy', this is up there with the very best. Us rail enthusiasts mopped up the sight of a name plate on the wrong locomotive as gold plated banter.

We almost forgot what colour it was

It may, to the untrained eye, mean that people - after many years and tectonic plate movement from prehistoric times - may be getting used to locomotives in 'un-original' liveries. As many locomotives now spending longer in preservation than they ever did under their former owners tenure, perhaps any livery from hear on, any colour present owners choose to put their locomotives in, is actually genuine. That paint may also stop the rust creeping across their metals.

When you see 34018 (and stop chuckling at those wrong nameplates) see how angry you get that a Merchant Navy is in black livery. If you are boiling angry while writing into the letters pages of your local newspaper - then all is well with the world as we know it.