Rock Island Blue - Trains Magazine

To answer a few questions.
No the RI never repainted a SD40-2. All were red/yellow with speed lettering.
According to a UP roster book I have somewhere, the UP has only one ex-RI GP40. Most, if not all the GP38-2 that the RI had that went to the Mopac are still around (don't have the book near me, can't remember if any have been wrecked).
After the RI quit operations, the estate had a switch engine and a 1 or 2 GP7s repainted blue/white with the "coonskin" (I've heard it described as a buffalo hide) emblem. The switcher was original RI, but the GP7(s) were not. I remember seeing a "trustee's train" moving equipment in the early 80s with 1 or 2 black GP7s. The paint reminded me of P&LE, and I may have read that they came from there, but it's been a while and I'm not sure. The last RI estate moves I saw on the Chicago-Omaha main were in early 1984, a few months before the IAIS started up and before the RI emerged from bankruptcy as the Chicago Pacific Corp.
P.S. Almost every UP grain train here on the former CNW Iowa lines has it seems, at least 2 or 3 ex-RI blue covered hoppers. Also most manifests have 1 ex-RI blue box car. Other non-blue RI cars are around, but not as common.