"Cocooned" engines?

i was curious as to why there was theres what looks to be plastic covering the top of the long hood of these tunnel motors?
here are the pictures that raised this curiosity
http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPictur ... id=1355841

http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPictur ... id=1355835

It looks to me like its a boat shrink wrap that is covering the locos. The locos are probably in storage, and usually when locos are stored, their exhaust caps are covered so no water can get into the prime mover. However, this method looks actually better because the entire top of the loco is covered and protected from the weather. No damage from water coming down through the radiator and dynamic brake fans, or sitting in places that could cause other damage.

the locos are probably drained of all fluids, so there is no worry of the water in them freezing up in the winter, and totally covering the tops of the locos would keep any other water out of the locos adn keep its insides dry and hopefully damage free while in storage.

A very long time ago (like 1980-1981) I remember seeing a picture in Model Railroader or TRAINS Magazine of a string of SP(IIRC) late model SD's completely "shrink wrapped" down to the frame during an economic downturn. The locos looked like gigantic Caterpillar pupae (think "Mothra" from the Godzilla films) on CC trucks....

These engines are on their way out of the country. They are shrink wrapped for shipping as they will be on an ocean going voyage to South America.