AMTRAK'S RED. WHITE and BLUE

Ya know... I have seen it brought up on forums numerous times for whatever reason and I think it really holds water. After seeing the Anniversary Train... Why can't we make /Keep Amtrak in Americas colors??? RED WHITE and BLUE!!! I am sure there are modern color R,W & B variations to use... This is something that should never be lost!!

yup on a broke railroad lets repaint all cars, despite that US elected officials hate the railroad.

yeah , a $ 3 billion budget cant spare abit of paint .
All stainless is very 50's imho .

David Benton wrote:yeah , a $ 3 billion budget cant spare abit of paint .
All stainless is very 50's imho .

I don't know if you noticed but that budget is going towards more important things like infrastructure.

Straight R/W/B doesn't really look very good any more. I mean do you want to bring back the Earth tones as well?

trainmaster611 wrote:

David Benton wrote:yeah , a $ 3 billion budget cant spare abit of paint .
All stainless is very 50's imho .

I don't know if you noticed but that budget is going towards more important things like infrastructure.

and rebuilding cars . i'm sure a paint job wouldnt cost much more than cleaning up the stainless . would be nice to see even one service have cars with something differnet form stainless . though i think the talgos do .

Bobby S wrote:Ya know... I have seen it brought up on forums numerous times for whatever reason and I think it really holds water. After seeing the Anniversary Train... Why can't we make /Keep Amtrak in Americas colors??? RED WHITE and BLUE!!! I am sure there are modern color R,W & B variations to use... This is something that should never be lost!!

Tell us more about this idea, I think we're all in agreement that it sounds interesting. Also, please let me know what other forums agreed with your idea, I'd like to review them...

-otto-

David Benton wrote:yeah , a $ 3 billion budget cant spare abit of paint .
All stainless is very 50's imho .

As one who was a child in NM in the '60's and saw (but, sadly, never rode) ATSF's trains, I can assure you that stainless never goes out style!

Not that I want Amtrak to spend its entire maintenance budget on paint, but I had the same reaction as Mr. S. when I saw the heritage locomotives. Somebody -- no doubt a highly paid image marketing consultant -- decided that the drab blue trim of the Genesis diesels and the electrics, and the paintball blob scheme of the Acela equipment, looked better than the classic red, white, and blue stripes. You don't have to be that old to remember when Amtrak motive power looked a lot sharper than it does these days.

that retro look is awful, like polyester pants, some things should stay in the past

TomNelligan wrote:Not that I want Amtrak to spend its entire maintenance budget on paint, but I had the same reaction as Mr. S. when I saw the heritage locomotives. Somebody -- no doubt a highly paid image marketing consultant -- decided that the drab blue trim of the Genesis diesels and the electrics, and the paintball blob scheme of the Acela equipment, looked better than the classic red, white, and blue stripes. You don't have to be that old to remember when Amtrak motive power looked a lot sharper than it does these days.

I think something could be done, simply. Like the RWB stripes to accent the cars. Avoid going all out red white and blue, because, patriotic or not, it just doesn't look good.

I think we can all do without the sarcasm. You may agree or disagree with the OP, and by all means, if you disagree, tell us why. But do we need the wise-ass remarks? Yes, sometimes it is warranted, but it's not as if it was a completely outrageous idea. I kind of like it, as a matter of fact.

Some of you I expect the snarkiness from (and I'd wonder if it wasn't there); some I think should know better.

Suburban Station wrote:that retro look is awful, like polyester pants, some things should stay in the past

...

really?

IMO it makes sense - AMTRAK being what it is, I don't understand why they moved so far away from the red/white/blue in the first place - as opposed to updating it further [kinda like how phase III retained the recognizable elements of phase II, Phase I, but updated it so it was 3 even stripes, etc]

[offtopic: I'm surprised there hasn't ben any skirmishes between Amtrak and American Airlines over their paint schemes - from top to bottom, American's paint scheme is the opposite of Amtrak's [Blue/White/Red as opposed to Amtrak's Red/White/Blue] and you know how protective companies are over trademarks. ]

like its real cool to make the Amtrak trains look like US mail truck ???

DutchRailnut wrote:like its real cool to make the Amtrak trains look like US mail truck ???

Feh, those truck schemes are much uglier, IMO - especially with the white paint instead of polished metal.