Same could be said about Rail Blue diesels, look how popular they are now, now that they're not a common sight.
Yet once upon a time, many moons ago that's all you would see.
Fair point about BR blue diesels for the public at large, but during my misspent youth I always liked them!. Certainly Sprinters have proved the backbone of local services for two decades, but purely personally I'll prefer local hauled. Once again though, superb screenshots!