Is WE deliberately keeping it's tunnel motors in Rio Grande paint, or is it planning on repainting them at some point?
The Beaverton, Fanno Creek & Bull Mountain Railroad
"Ruby Line Service"
I'm not familiar with the WE (unless you mean W&LE?) but do they own the engines, or are they leasing them from a leasing co. that bought them from the DRGW (or SP after the merger)? If they're leased, they're only on the property temporarily so why bother repainting them? Otherwise, if they own them, maybe they only intend to use them for a short time and then re-sell (or lease them) to someone else.
Or maybe they just don't want to spend the money to repaint them.
I do mean the W&LE (their reporting marks are WE). I've almost got to wonder if they are doing it on purpose, simply because the ones they have repainted are also in Rio Grande Paint, with Wheeling and Lake Erie in speed lettering. I was wondering if perhaps they were using the Rio Grande units as "heritage units" of sorts.
There was an article in "Trains Magazine" a year or so ago that featured the W&LE. The close resemblence of the W&LE paint sceme to the D&RGW is not an accident or a coincidence. If I recall correctly, the W&LE owner (or major principle) is a Rio Grand "alumni". He chose the "new" W&LE paint sceme as a tribute to the old D&RGW.
Mike