GNER’s new stupid location for loco numbers means that now all class 91s look the same on photo, so I could have claimed this was any number and would probably have got away with it (unless, of course, some one was sad enough to know which locos have gold lettering and which ones have white lettering.) It is probably worth asking why GNER have their locos painted different... can they really not afford the bit of gold paint? I can understand why not all of their coaches have cast emblems... but it does seem somewhat odd that Britain’s best intercity operator can’t afford a fleck of gold paint. Maybe they are trying to add interest to their loco fleet. Surely by actually naming them properly instead of spending ages debating how to name them is a better way to enhance the individual characters of the locomotives? As far as I know there’s only one named locomotive, The Samaritian. Hmm, good name, sure.

Photograph by Alex Lu (lexcie@innocent.com, http://www.lexcie.zetnet.co.uk/) Platform 20, Edinburgh Waverley, 1442 hours on 22 March 1999, with Jessop’s cheap ISO400.