Passenger Trains > Revival of Amtrak's Phase III paint

With the official unveiling today of Amtrak's new Viewliner II also came a pleasant surprise, that being the return of Amtrak's famous phase III paint scheme. It's always been my favorite Amtrak paint and I know many other railfans feel the same as well. My understanding is that this is part of the new "Amtrak America" branding for its long distance trains. A press release only mentioned single level long-distance equipment receiving the revived livery, but will this paint scheme also be applied to the Superliner fleet? And any word on the motive power? Thanks for any replies.

Regards,
Jim

oilcan Wrote:
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> With the official unveiling today of Amtrak's new
> Viewliner II also came a pleasant surprise, that
> being the return of Amtrak's famous phase III
> paint scheme. It's always been my favorite Amtrak
> paint and I know many other railfans feel the same
> as well. My understanding is that this is part of
> the new "Amtrak America" branding for its long
> distance trains. A press release only mentioned
> single level long-distance equipment receiving the
> revived livery, but will this paint scheme also be
> applied to the Superliner fleet? And any word on
> the motive power? Thanks for any replies.

==============================================================

There is no additional official information other than what was released today,
so for now, Phase III is to return only on the Viewliner II cars. But even this
was unanticipated until the last few months. It is largely in response to the
favorable reaction to Phase III on the Amtrak 40th Anniversary and Display
train.

Bring it on.I love it.Personally i think the entire Amtrak fleet should go back to it.Including state run Amtrak trains as well.

Count me among the naysayers. I much prefer the current Phase IV, as I find it classier and more professional. But I generally have slightly more conservative tastes. Either way, I say pick one and stick with it. It's the constant back and forth that results in terrible looking trains with mismatched consists.

Posted from BlackBerry

How much money has been spent over the years switching from one paint scheme to another. Current paint (or whatever is used) seems be holding up quite well with little fading. Why not stick with something that works. Same with sports teams. New uniforms every few years. Sells more stuff.

http://blog.amtrak.com/2013/10/coming-soon-new-long-distance-cars/

Bringing red, white and blue back to America seems a step
in the right direction. Nice to see that Amtrak is not
longing to be seen as European and feels patriotic colors
are not such a bad thing - after all.

/Mitch

andersonb109 Wrote:
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> How much money has been spent over the years
> switching from one paint scheme to another.
> Current paint (or whatever is used) seems be
> holding up quite well with little fading. Why not
> stick with something that works. Same with sports
> teams. New uniforms every few years. Sells more
> stuff.

Over the past decade the process of "restriping" a car has become a lot faster and cheaper. According to the February 2004 edition of Amtrak Ink (written during the conversion from Phase IV to IVb), the Beech Grove shops installed special water blaster jets into the wash racks that shoot sharp streams of water at the vinyl stripes, tearing them off. According to the article, with the help of those water blasters, the whole "restriping" process takes 4 hours.

Amtrak also purchased a "plotter" that cuts and prints most of the decals used on the car (75 items including the Amtrak logos and car numbers). At that time, the decal package used on the Superliner cost about $25 (although that doesn't seem to include the price of the vinyl stripe, which is produced by 3M) versus $145 from an outside vendor.

Now granted, that article is almost 10 years old... so the prices and processes may have changed.

But thinking back... it seems like the conversion from Phase IV to IVb took a lot less time than the conversion from Phase III to Phase IV.

Ricky Courtney
Seattle, WA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/24/13 15:58 by rickycourtney.

Red seems to be intrinsically eye-catching to humans. Most illuminated store signs at strip malls are red, probably for a good reason.
Red-White-Blue are national colors and it is America's Railroad.

Mgoldman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Bringing red, white and blue back to America seems
> a step
> in the right direction. Nice to see that Amtrak
> is not
> longing to be seen as European and feels patriotic
> colors
> are not such a bad thing - after all.
>
> /Mitch


Phase IV is red, white, and blue - just a little more tastefully done imo and not so in your face.

joemvcnj Wrote:
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> Red seems to be intrinsically eye-catching to
> humans. Most illuminated store signs at strip
> malls are red, probably for a good reason.
> Red-White-Blue are national colors and it is
> America's Railroad.

And this would be the paint scheme for "Amtrak America" after all.

Ricky Courtney
Seattle, WA

Lets have a train with the new phase III cars and the 145 and 822 leading.

Sharon Evans
Glen Allen, VA

"In your face", IOW bold, is what I like.
Two, narrow, red pinstripes on top is stuffy, like a pinstripe suit. Do that on the Acela .

If Joe Boardman wants to do something bold to pay tribute to Amtrak's heritage, he should get the three surviving Rohr Turboliners out of storage! He can have them repainted into Phase III if he likes. :)

If their goal was not to be seen as European then they may have missed their mark, as the Phase III scheme is much closer to the Dutch flag than anything else.

Mgoldman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Bringing red, white and blue back to America seems
> a step
> in the right direction. Nice to see that Amtrak
> is not
> longing to be seen as European and feels patriotic
> colors
> are not such a bad thing - after all.
>
> /Mitch

This is NOT an open book test.

Quick, off of the top of your head, how does Phase III compare with the old American Airlines scheme?

ts1457 Wrote:
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> This is NOT an open book test.
>
> Quick, off of the top of your head, how does Phase
> III compare with the old American Airlines scheme?

Amtrak stripes:
Red
White
Blue

AA stripes:
Blue
White
Red

Posted from iPhone

Ricky Courtney
Seattle, WA

Hello? Am I the only one who would like to see the pointless arrow return? Now THATS Amtraks universal symbol! Plus, a few SDP40Fs wouldnt hurt either. :)

tacobell Wrote:
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> Hello? Am I the only one who would like to see the
> pointless arrow return? Now THATS Amtraks
> universal symbol! Plus, a few SDP40Fs wouldnt hurt
> either. :)

The first few cars will feature the pointless arrow logo, with the balance being delivered with the current logo.

pennengineer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If their goal was not to be seen as European then
> they may have missed their mark, as the Phase III
> scheme is much closer to the Dutch flag than
> anything else.
>
> Mgoldman Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Bringing red, white and blue back to America
> seems
> > a step
> > in the right direction. Nice to see that
> Amtrak
> > is not
> > longing to be seen as European and feels
> patriotic
> > colors
> > are not such a bad thing - after all.
> >
> > /Mitch


Like the Amtrak Phase III, the French flag has even bands of red, white and blue.

Why is looking European a bad thing? there are already plenty of European imported automobiles and even some trucks on Americas highways. Life goes on.

When Amtrak's Phase III schemes came out, I didn't particularly cared for it. I felt that it was unimaginative and looked too much like the American Airlines scheme. However, getting older and Amtrak's current scheme have made me appreciate the Phase III scheme so much that I will only buy Amtrak HO model passenger cars in that scheme and have gone out of my way to photograph 145, 406 and 822. The new viewliners look wonderful.

All that said, I can't image too many rail enthusiasts objecting if Amtrak painted some locomotives and rolling stock in NYC lightning stripe, PRR Tuscan Red, Grand Trunk green & black, SP Daylight, Rio Grande Orange & Silver or GN Empire Builder colors.