When do you repaint locos.

[ns_gp60]

I was wondering in light of BNSF, NS, and CSX getting updated paint schemes, who, how, and when do railroad decide its time to repaint a loco. Notice how, at least on CSX, they seem to repaint a bit of everything, some ACs here, a couple of geeps, and a MAC or two, sort of speak. Theres no order to it. Do they just repaint them as they come in for maintaince? Are they on a specifc schedule, or does somebody at the shops just say, "hey lets give this loco  a new paint job." Anybody know?

[Railfan1]

Well you pretty much hit the nail on the head by saying "Theres no order to it". Most of the time a locomotive is painted or repainted in the new scheme when it is (a) new (first purchased) or (on NS and CSX it might run around in primer for a while)(b) brought in the shops for major repairs. Of course they could get random locomotives not being needed at the time in addition to this.

[PBenham]

Most railroads try to avoid repainting their locomotives for as long as they can! The current champion in this area would be CN. There are some pretty ratty looking GP40W2s out there. UP is a contender in this dubious class, too. Some older SD9043s (I call them SD75 MACs since the H powerplants will never be put in them.) are showing up in the NYSSR's gulag, looking very worn indeed!

[Anonymous]

When the prime mover stops working.

[nbrodar]

Unless the paint is really horrible, and sometimes not even then (i see some really ratty looking CSX engines around my terminal, locomotives are repainted when they go in for major shop work.

Nick