I understand that Watco acquired WSOR in teh mid 2010s (I think I wrte a post hrowing a tantrum about it.) But as such I had a few questions:
1) I hear that they are still painting locomotives in WSOR red and grey. Considering G&W's practice of repainting fleets upon acquisition this surprises me abit. Is this true? Do you know if tyhe new SD60s will be painted in Red and Grey or Black and Yellow?
2) If so, why is Watco less interested in repainting fleets? They do have their own(minimalistic) paint scheme, why don' they apply it aggressively? Do they view the existing paint scheme as a corporative image thing they want to retain?
3) Why do they renumber everything with WAMX reporting marks? I understand these are Wato's marks, but the railroad is the Wisconsin and Southern, which already had its own reporting marks.
The Beaverton, Fanno Creek & Bull Mountain Railroad
"Ruby Line Service"
Watco owns the motive power and leases it to the various railoads it owns, accounting for the WAMX reporting mark. I'm not sure of the financial reasoning behind it or if it reduces paperwork when power is reassigned.
So far, the ex-UP SD60's are still in Armour Yellow and Harbor Mist Grey.
WSOR gets a lot of money from the State of Wisconsin for track and bridge upgrades and/or maintenance and has an established business relationship with the state going way back to when it was first founded and started to operate rail banked track. I woiuld not change the name or paint at this point just to avoid confusing people when it comes to getting grants approved or when they get referred to new clients.
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