Re: It's only paint....

I think that you'll find that a large proportion of the UK "Heritage railways" DO NOT paint their stock in "Hysterically" correct liveries. There are very many locomotives painted in generic, for want of a better word, liveries which were never carried in service because use of that livery had stopped before the locomotive was built or the loco had since been modified in some way. I'm all for private owners doing their own thing and I do not criticise people I know for doing so (I'm not naming names for obvious reasons) as they have spent vast sums of their money on their hobby - in some cases millions of pounds.
What I do find annoying is muppets who crawl out of the woodwork after a group of people have sweated blood to restore a rail mounted vehicle, (choose your own favourite), to some particular state/livery at vast cost in time/money and all they can do is criticise! I've heard comments such as "They never used that shade of xxxx", "the lining is wrong" - both about a locomotive that I had worked on, researched etc - where the complainer was younger than me (and I was too young to have seen the livery) but those who had (including my father) thought it "looked right".
All these tw@ts seem to say is "they should........."
These individuals have never donated their time or money. Most "Heritage lines" get 95% of their income from non railfan sources.
To get to the C&TS specifically - the name on the stock & locomotive is "Cumbres & Toltec" so that is what the holiday snaps show, it will be what people tell their friends, it's called "Marketing" - you can travel behind a locomotive lettered "Rio Grande" in Michigan & California (I think), even UP have one. The desired result is that people ride the Cumbres & Toltec to preserve what we have for future generations. Magnetic overlays/paint can change id's at short notice - I've seen no complaints about bumblebees (which I find hideous) or recreations of long scrapped locos. Also the coaches are not historical but it would be nice if they could be a uniform livery one day.
G
Enough ranting - once the holiday madness is over I'll be ordering a copy of your "Garratts in Zimbabwe" DVD (can't remember the exact title and after getting up early to drive a steam loco I haven't the energy to look for your latest catalogue which is downstairs somewhere... " /> )