Although there are still a few locos running around in fruit salad colours 25 years since the last loco was officially painted, I was pleasantly surprised to catch a pair of them coming into Greymouth in April 2008. So much so that I delayed my departure from the area and waited around on a perfectly quiet early evening under the Stillwater Creek bridge for them to return east with dairy products from Hokitika. I don't recall why I didn't try to catch the train again that night, but I'm going to kick myself as I type this for not doing so. I'm also not sure which school of marketing genius recommends branding your locomotives with their numbers, but I suspect we got the idea from the Australians, as NSW's State Rail had a similar idea with dark blue instead of red. Or maybe they stole it from us (like Phar Lap, Pavlova, Crowded House, Russell Crowe and most of our social welfare recipients. You're welcome).
