1 APRIL 2006, Page 35

The colours of steam

From John Hughes-Wilson

Sir: Even Homer nods, or I fear that Paul Johnson’s memory has played him false. (And another thing, 25 March) As every anorak knows, the London North Eastern Railway engines were apple-green and its coaches teak; and the Great Western Railway coaches were ‘chocolate and cream’.

He’s right on one thing, however: the London Midland and Scottish Railway’s ‘Midland maroon’ was always the most striking. Ironically, the bureaucrats of the nationalised British Railways tried to reintroduce these regional liveries for toplink trains just before the demise of steam.

John Hughes-Wilson Ringwould, Kent