Colour is very emotive. You only need to look at the discussions over what colour Tornado should be, or the angst over City of Truro in black.
Colour shades can also be argumentative. The recent move by the Ffestiniog to paint their historic locos in a more authentic maroon is to be congratulated although the authenticity may only be as old as the post preservation era of Mason’s paints.
It cannot be argued that it wasn’t needed in some cases though. Prince’s pillar box red was hardly in keeping.
The odd one of course is Soupy, or the Soup Dragon, David Lloyd George. The rather orange shade does get people talking and as it fades it certainly gets more lurid.
One thing I am certain of though is this isn’t it.
This is a tin of Pheonix DLG red which was going for £1 because of the rusty lid. Now I’m actually happy that this isn’t the correct orange because the colour depicted on the lid is extremely close to the maroon currently being used on locos such as Merddin Emrys so that’s a win then!
Postscript: The new cab sheets on Merddin are fantastic. Proper old school. Love it! Once finished, the pride of the fleet is going to look great again.