Are short lines obligated to paint their own livery upon purchase / lease within a timeframe? Or is it just a if they want to kind of deal? I can see having to put their own identification markings on before use, but that could as simple as some number-boards being swapped over for the most part no?
In reply to DjGreggieP :
Liveries on railroading stuff these days is just a means of branding and advertisement. Most shortlines don't even bother to paint over the old logo sometimes and just put a patch with their calling marks and maybe a new number for it. If a shortline is repainting engines then they're better off and have the extra capital to justify doing it.
In reply to DjGreggieP :
As was said, nope, no limit or rules. The big thing is you have to have your reporting marks, and if it's an active railroad that you purchased it from, you have to paint out any trademarks. When NYS&W bought their SD70M-2s from NS, they painted out the Thoroughbred logo on the nose and applied the NYS&W circled S logo and reporting marks, and renumbered them to fit their number system. When Pan Am bought some C40-8s off of CSX, they just put a paint stripe through the CSX lettering on the long hood, and then rattle-canned the yellow noses in random colors and put Maine Central reporting marks on them. Mohawk, Adirondack & Northern had ex-BCRail C425s and M420Ws (technically still does, since they repainted some in fresh paint as heritage units) 30 years after purchase
Some of the big leasing companies, like GMTX or CitiRail or CIT Equipment Financing have their own liveries that they apply.
Then you had others, like Big Dog Leasing, Helm Leasing or Larry's Truck & Electrical, where they just patch out the old railroad's reporting marks, slap their own on them, and sent them back out. A lot of instances, these were referred to as "rent-a-wrecks" because of their scruffy appearance, and usually matching mechanical condition.
Then some railroads chose to have leased engines, if a long-term lease, painted into their own paint scheme, and even lettered for their system, while they still retain the leasing companies reporting marks. The first ones tht come to mind are the GATX/GMTX SD60s that they were leasing to NYS&W and GATX painted it in NYS&W "yellowjacket" but with GMTX reporting marks. I think those are still kicking around in NYSW paint, which is especially ironic in the case of the #9059 since it never was accepted by NYS&W. They had 5 SD60s and two got totalled in a derailment caused by a washout. GATX sent two more, including the #9059, and NYS&W refused to accept delivery of the #9059 because it had numerous mechanicaal failures the first couple times they tried to use it. Of course, there were those that joked that NYS&W turned it away because it didn't follow their numbering system (first two digits are horsepower, last two digits are even numbers if M.U.-equipped)
Also worth noting that sometimes having a pretty ragtag fleet of equipment isn't necessarily a sign of weak finances either. It may be a case of them being so busy that they can't spare the motive power for something that's not really necessary, like paint. Reading & Northern has been chipping away at it, but they've still got a couple engines running around in patched-out NS colors, and even the stuff they have in R&N colors is kind of mismatched, because there is about 6 different variations on the R&N paint scheme.
The SD50s wore this solid green, with a gray roof and yellow pinstripe. It's pretty much vanished from the system, as they've retired the ex-UP/MP SD50s, which were true SD50s in the regards that they were still rated at 3500hp, versus the ex-CSX "SD50-2s" that were derated to SD40 horsepower.
The SD50-2s wear the Fast Freight Service grey, black and red. And even then there are slight variations on the paint scheme, mostly the handrail colors. And originally the #5018 wore a more red-heavy livery before repaint to match the #5019.
The SD40s and SD38s wear green with a solid yellow nose.
The GP38-2s and GP39RNs wear green with yellow chevrons.
Except for the two GP39RNs that wear the same layout but maroon and red, part of a short-lived initiative to make that the passenger power paint scheme. Except that scheme quickly faded to pink and yellow.
The end-cab switchers wear solid green with yellow frames and handrails.
And then the F-units wear a unique black, white and red livery.
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