How often does Lionel repeat / refresh Locomotives

Prototypical paint schemes of several popular locomotives have been repeated multiple times.

The  added "fantasy schemes "are a relatively new idea that were offered in more recent "batches".

To the best of my knowledge, none of the fantasy schemes have been repeated yet. You would have to wait an see on the next repeat, when and if that happens.

Having said that, now that Lionel has acquired tooling from Mth. They are  able to offer more variety as well as locomotives that were never previously offered. This may prolong future repeats of original Lionel tooled items.

I'm not an expert, but I think you are likely to wait quite a while for repeat paint schemes, especially in a case like this. Even more common stuff, where they might run the same type of locomotive/tooling every few years, will often have different road names represented, etc...making it hard to wait it out for a return of one you really wanted. I pre-ordered a NYSW SD40T-2 from 2022 Volume 2, but now I'm thinking I should have pre-ordered a pair or all three that were offered...even if they re-run the SD40T-2 every 5 years, it could be 10-15 years before I see NYSW again. Might as well stock up!