That’s exactly right. The trains are treated like puppies, and show a puppyish need to be recognized and appreciated by their masters. Since “really useful” is the most praiseworthy attribute in their world (rather than “clever” or “creative” or “independent thinker” or “compassionate toward others”), it seems to be the only behavior that gets rewarded. The first couple of episodes I saw, I thought it was perfectly normal. But as time went on, I quickly came to realize that just about every single episode of the show (I never read the books) reinforces this theme.
And I hadn’t noticed anything about the trains’ colors in any racial sense. But now you mention it, yeah. All the steam engines are brightly colored except for a bit of black around the boiler. The diesels generally have a much more realistic paint scheme, which ends up being mostly black.
