Poster mystery

Well, now, that's interesting: a new-ish poster for booze at London's Earl's Court underground station:

Stella Artois, a vaguely northern European lager, has chosen this rather odd image to illustrate its wares.

I was taken, of course, not by the glamour of (some of) the people, but by this delightful wee thing poking into the picture:

Those "shovel nose" diesel locomotives were built in the early 1950s in North America and, as far as I'm aware (but please do tell me if I'm wrong) this configuration and livery was used in Uruguay. Like this:

Even though these are in a rich green, originally (I think) they would have been in Uruguay's light blue livery, with the strong wasp stripes emphasising that huge shovel nose:

I confess that, despite having actually been to Uruguay, I have not seen any of their (sadly diminished) railway system, apart form some forlornly disused bits.

The idea of this kind of round-house round-up leaves me drooling:

Just on the left of that shot you can see an old Brill diesel-engined railcar of the sort developed for the very final stages of the US interurban networks -- the difference is that here they are still plying the rails:

These final two images (above and below) are tiny, but I couldn't resist them -- here a shovel nose locomotive is about to do what it was designed for, hauling a heavy express passenger engine:

I still have absolutely no idea why they have now appeared in London on posters advertising beer. Anyone?