Why do model companies do this?

[pandabear]

Yup. it's common. They do it because people (like me) will buy products in the livery of their favorite (and popular) railroads even if they never owned it, or just because it looked good. Case in point, my original Tyco trainset had a Alco Century 430 painted up in Santa Fe Warbonnet Red and Silver just because it was a popular road and attractive design. That unit got rebuilt with an old Hobbytown of Boston drive gathering dust on the LHS shelf, and briefly was painted in prototypical Conrail Blue, but I showed the accuracy police my modeler's license and repainted it in CNW colors afterward to fit in with my layout's midwestern location. You go with what you like.

[Anonymous]

I bought one of IHC's new UP hudsons, and now it turns out UP never had any hudsons. Why would a model company produce a model that has no prototype? Is this common?