Factory painted Southern New England power (sort of ...)

 As I've mentioned in the past, I've been pleased that model locomotive manufacturers (Atlas, Rapido, and Athearn) have all introduced factory painted models of Central Vermont diesels. (Although I wish one of them would do something in the post-1963 tapeworm scheme - on both the Battle Creek Blue and Red and Black variations!). 

But I never thought I'd see anyone do a locomotive factory painted in my prototype freelance Southern New England Railway. 

Let me clarify - this isn't some sort of freelanced roadname deal like Homeshops is doing. 

These are legit prototype locomotives that run on the Battinkill Railroad in New York. Here's a picture of SNEX 5012 - the D&H paint scheme heritage is pretty obvious:

You can find the story of the Battinkill Railroad, as well as more photos, in the October 2022 issue of Railfan and Railroad

But the plot thickens. 

Way back when I was still working on SNE #1 (see Model Railroad Planning 2000) I got lots of requests from various folks who modeled a more current era than I did regarding what a SNE diesel paint scheme may look like in the late 1990s. I came up with two possibilities that never made it past the sketch stage - 

One of these two was based on reversing the Maine Central's paint scheme, the other on the D&H scheme - although I changed the main color from Avon Blue to SNE Green. I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but perhaps someone over in New York stumbled across my blog and thought "Hey, that's neat!"

To round all this out, Atlas is taking pre-orders for two SNEX painted locomotives - I may have to get them for the display case if nothing else!