By popular demand, a 50 in Arriva livery...

I can't yet think of a scenario where this would ever have happened in reality, but who cares? Deltic in Northern Rail livery.

I've read that the Northern 86s are to be used, Top 'n' Tail with ex-Anglia Mk2s, on a new Crewe-Preston stopper (Crewe; Winsford; Hartford; Acton Bridge; Warrington BQ; Earlestown; Newton-le-Willows; Wigan NW; Euxton; Leyland; Preston). It must be true because here's a shot of 86262 on the rear of the press-launch special, calling at the rebuilt Earlestown station.

The whiter variation of the Northern Railways livery.

The lilac version of the Northern Railways livery.

For my sister - some proper traction! 86 in Northern Rail livery (one of them, anyway).

Another possible destination abroad for 87s is rumoured to be Bulgaria. Here's one in standard Bulgarian Railways Red.

... and in the Blue/Yellow livery applied to certain AC electrics in Bulgaria. In response to the enquiry below, the number is based on the Bulgarian system and is just the next available electric class number.

Deltic-style two-tone green for this East Coast racehorse.

Since it's cheaper and quicker to apply fictitious colour schemes in Photoshop, here are a few that the 89 won't be wearing! If BTC black and silver had persisted over the decades...

I've always been partial to orange and black...

More proof, as if it were needed, that Loadhaul looks good on just about anything. An 89 in this case.

A diesel unit for a change: 153 in BR Blue/Grey.

Revealed! The low-budget alternative to Nightstar, providing overnight travel to Europe from the Regions. Passengers at Blaenau Ffestiniog board the 17:23 to Paris.

Pendolino in InterCity Swallow livery. This illustration apparently inspired the livery on the EuropeanBahn Train Sim model!

For a while in the early 2000s there was talk of GNER buying a couple of Pendolinos... The yellow panel is deliberately at odds with the streamlining, in keeping with reserved styling of the rest of GNER's fleet.

It's easy to forget that 49% of Virgin Trains was/is owned by Stagecoach (Virgin holding the other 51%). If the percentages had been the other way around...

In Japan the "Doctor Yellow" high-speed track measurement trains are often newly built trains (or nearly new conversions). If the same policy applied in the UK, maybe we'd see something like this. Original photo © Andy Appleton.

9Fs in plain BR Blue - which they would undoubtedly have received if they had lived out their planned lifespan in traffic. This image appeared in The Railway Magazine (Jul 2006).

9Fs in Large Logo Blue. This version seems to work better than my previous attempt!

A reworking of the 9Fs in Railfreight Red-Stripe livery. Original photo kindly provided by The Railway Magazine (first published in The Railway Magazine, Jul 2006).

One for Great Western fans... Incidentally the 0-6-0 diesel was already that colour, and the out-of-gauge guy on the furthest Prairie is a certain Mr Waterman.

Rebuilt West Country in South West Trains livery - not as easy or effective as on the streamlined Pacifics. White paint on a steam loco? Hmm.

I'm trying to image what circumstances might have caused this... A Thumper in InterCity Swallow.

If LSE "Jaffa Cake" livery had become more widespread...

Southern Thumper