The LNER Encyclopedia

Always meant to ask the SWT lads this one, but forgot until now. What's the score with those old vehicles that have sat in the shed at Clapham for years? The one you can get an observation end view of is the ancient thing in plum and spilt milk with an end that looks very much like a 'heritage' DMU. Think there's a teak vehicle behind it but difficult to see from the train. Might be about four coaches all told. Anyone help, please?

It's probably part of the Queen of Scots private set which operates rail tours of Scotland and other charters:

http://www.queenofscots.co.uk/

Yep, that's them - thanks, Flamingo. Don't think they see much use though as they always seem to be sitting in the shed whenever I go by on a less elegant SWT train.

I briefly wondered whether by some miracle it might have been the old "Mexican Bean" dmu which was reliveried in deep claret and white and used on the West Highland Line in the mid 1980s, but suppose this was scrapped years ago.

Bullhead - that was an awful livery! Read a book once on modern railways livery for 'trains' - and 'respect for the train' - some TOCs have used designers who do have and some who most clearly don't - let's start another post on the bad ones.

My personal vote for the most stylish modern livery goes to ye olde GNER and SWT, in that order. The worst, well - let's start with Silverlink, the now defunct Connex and the also mercifully almost extinct Thameslink liveries, all looked chavvy.