I assume you're talking about the Daylight livery. Those sound like Bev-Bel paint jobs to me. I don't ever remember seeing those in the Walthers catalog as made by Athearn, just gray with red nose livery.
Since the kits have the dash after the main number, I think that they were probably done by Bev-Bel. I don't see why they would sell undecorated anything, and if they did I don't think they would have different ID numbers. In any case, there is a large list of Bev-Bel cars at the HOSeeker site.
Go to: http://hoseeker.org/lit.html.
Click on "Literature", then choose Bev-Bel from the list. Then click on "Bev-Bel list". The locos seem to all be listed on the higher numbered pages and I didn't see your number there. But I was not interested enough to look at all the pages.
And it is possible that your locos were made after that list was completed.
Bev-Bel took Athearn stuff in the Blue Box ear and painted it into schemes that were not otherwise offered by Athearn.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
I have a question for Athearn and Athearn/Bev-Bel Blue Box Kit Collectors, as follows:
Athearn Blue Box Locomotive kits, custom painted and decorated for Southern Pacific, late 1950's Holloween Paint Scheme/Pumpkins, not Tiger Strip Scheme.
Kit Number 1140-101. Bev-Bel Kit Number 1140, is a Espee Overnight XM.
Is this a Bev-Bel Number 1140-101 custom painted kit and or by another party and does anyone know?
And, these are the Kit Numbers, for the Espee aformentioned paint scheme:
Kit Number: 1140-101
Kit Number: 1140-110
Kit Number: 1140-119
The last three digits are the locomotive numbers.