Christmas Trains

[Mountcastle]

The orange trim on the windows will disappear.

Hurray!

As for the lettering, the gold'ish' or yellow looking like gold is what is planned for the lettering. It will go across the letter boards on the top of the coach.

Hurray!

I thought the bright safety yellow would look sharp on the green and black. It could even be applied to 18's trim and hand holds to make the train set look "complete".

100% agree. Hurray!

Should it negatively impact passenger counts, they would definitely be switched back to the orange. I'm not sure how you'd ever gauge that though...

You couldn't, of course, but I'm sure the change will in no way negatively impact ridership. If anything, the novelty, as you suggest, may draw riders who haven't been in a while to return to see the train in her new colors...provided they advertise.

As they say, "See you in the Spring!"

I can barely stand it; I'm tingling.

[Otto Vondrak]

If the entire passenger set were indeed backdated to an appropriate 1920s appearance, it would make for very good photo ops and could only increase attendance. I'd even be willing to go out on a limb and sponsor a photographer's charter when the warmer weather comes around...

[Mountcastle]

And if they're smart, the A&A will revise their brochure to feature the train's new old look and have the brochure displayed in every pamphlet rack in the Hamptons, catching the eye of all the vacationing NYC glitterati, including screenwriters, advertising moguls, &c.

I'd say get a rep out to NY and LA to give a presentation but that will never happen, so at least get the brochures out to where people who count might happen upon them. At the very least Southern Ontario: Toronto, the Falls, Niagara-on-the-Lake, St. Cathy's. 'T.O.' has movie makers and advertising moguls, too...and they'd probably be more willing to travel to Arcade to shoot a flick or a spread than might a crew from Hollywood.

[ctclark1]

I never said I had good taste in color to most people, but the orange trim looks ok to me..... But that's just me. Only as a trim though.

I know its a lot more work and $$$, but I hope if they decide to go back to orange/black instead of green, they take the extra effort to strip the old paint off. I'm sure I'm not the only person who will say that 4 or 5 coats of paint over each other only makes for an uglier paint job. Especially contrasting colors like orange over green, if something happens that scrapes the coach a little bit, you're going to get chunks of orange paint (and would as they stand currently, get chunks of green paint) chipping off and showing the old colors through.

[Mountcastle]

Well, they could start saving their pennies now, in that case: I would suspect it will likely be a decade before they feel the need to repaint the coaches again; that seems to be the usual 'shelf life' of a paint job for the coaches.

It will be interesting to see if they do, at that point, restore the orange. It may be that, by that time, they will have become so used to the green that they decide not to return to the orange. The nostalgic in me doesn't want to think so, now, but I have a hunch that may be the way it will go.

And by that time, having gotten so used to the green, if they do go back to orange I'm likely to lament the passing of the green just as I did the orange! If, however, it turns out that the new paint job is superior to the former...well, then they ought probably to just retain it.

I have a feeling that this new look is going to end up being a better look for the train, altogether. I may be wrong, but if I had to bet one way or the other, I'd bet that the coaches will stay green.