Amtrak Phase VII Paint Scheme

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Amtrak Begins Painting Older Equipment Into New Phase VII Scheme

Amtrak’s new paint scheme — the Phase VII livery first introduced on Siemens ALC-42 locomotives — is now being applied to older locomotives and rolling stock.
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JS - I will be the first to comment about #174 - this Phase Seven color scheme looks really good!!!
I never was a fan of the previous Phase Six "Shamu" scheme...
My nickname for this unit is going to be "Rudolph" showing off this vivid red on the cab area...
"Rudolph with your nose so bright would you like to guide my train tonight?"
(with apologies to Johnny Marks and that red-nosed reindeer...) MACTRAXX

MACTRAXX I like it as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YSg1WuSd4A

A video

SRich wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2024 11:36 am https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YSg1WuSd4A

A video

Love it! Much better and more colorful than the old gray livery.

So how is this scheme going to work on Amfleet, VLs, and Superliners? The next gen equipment get dark blue over the whole car. Amtrak is not going to do that with the present metal fluted cars.

frequentflyer wrote: ↑Sat Feb 10, 2024 4:37 pm So how is this scheme going to work on Amfleet, VLs, and Superliners? The next gen equipment get dark blue over the whole car. Amtrak is not going to do that with the present metal fluted cars.

Do they really need to repaint Superliners, Viewliners, and Amfleet 2s? Amfleets 1s will soon be retired hopefully.

There is a GP38ph3 rebuilt by Progress rail in Albany with a similar scheme

No way would they give the fluted sided cars a “wrap” repaint like what the smoothsided AIRO trainsets are getting. More likely a Phase VII window band which will be a very welcome improvement over the uninspired bland brutalist Phase VI look. Phase III might look outdated but darn it if there wasn’t a piece of motive power and rolling stock that didn’t look great in that livery.

The first Siemens trains won’t be delivered until 2026 without any delays and those will be the Cascades sets. So the NEC sets won’t *start* to appear until 2027/2028. And even then it’ll probably take until well after 2030 for the entire Amfleet I fleet to be replaced. And the Superliner/single level LD replacement car contracts haven’t been awarded yet so the older cars will be around for some time to come.

I suspect Amtrak management is firmly *intent* on all equipment having a bold new unified image regardless of a given piece of equipment’s soon-to-be-retired status.

I've noted this point at other related topics, but the smooth sided cars are much more receptive to being shrink wrapped than are the fluted varietal.

Look for Amtrak to aggressively pursue this potential revenue source. Those desiring to look out? Sorry 'bout that.

The sad part is that the polka-dot view -- as well as new and uninformative station names -- may be necessary to keep the cars running at all.

When I was "down below" two weeks ago and rode Brightline WP to MCS (Tri Rail Northward). the car was shrink wrapped. That it was after dark, and I'd had my share of "grape juice" at Ruth's watching the Niners taking care of the Lions, it didn't matter much to me that the view was through little dots.

Now next week when I'm down again and I do the joyride Boca-MCO and return, I'd like to look out. I "might be less than happy" if the car is wrapped.

Finally, shrink wrap is rather common overseas - at least on the DB and OBB. Looking at the TRAINS article on CH in the March 2024 issue, it appears same is also on the SBB.

NH2060 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 12, 2024 5:01 pm More likely a Phase VII window band which will be a very welcome improvement over the uninspired bland brutalist Phase VI look.

That's exactly what I'm envisioning if they redo the stripes. Pardon the extremely quick mashup:

Nice work! That’s exactly how I envisioned it. Like a new and improved version of the “Capstone” cafe car.