RAILforum: Cutting Costs

This is topic Cutting Costs in forum Amtrak at RAILforum.

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Posted by Buslady (Member # 1266) on :

They can cuts one cost by keeping ONE paint scheme for the trains! There's what...4 different kinds?!?!?

Posted by TheAmtrakMole (Member # 1698) on :

What is even more scary than the number of paint schemes Amtrak has, is the fetish that some foamers have for them. Even though I've been an Amtrak employee for many years, I couldn't care less how the equipment is painted. I'm waiting to be enlightened why 'paint schemes' are such a popular topic.

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[This message has been edited by TheAmtrakMole (edited 06-27-2002).]

Posted by MPALMER (Member # 125) on :

Paint schemes, number of exhaust vents, carpet color, engine rosters, etc.... it's all a bit like collecting race horse stats or baseball stats...all just part of the diversion and something to keep railfans occupied.

Posted by dilly (Member # 1427) on :

On the other hand. . . many newer railfans have no memory of passenger service in the pre-Amtrak era (or even of Amtrak's very early years, when its motley collection of inherited equipment made for some very interesting-looking trains).

That's not to say the service was entirely wonderful. But every railroad had its own distinct personality - different engines, different rolling stock, different interior configurations and decoration, different paint schemes, different on-board food, etc. Train riding (and watching) was a feast for the eyes. And that goes for the freight trains as well.

I love traveling on Amtrak. But along with K Mart, Starbucks, and the Gap, it's typical of the overall homogenization this country has undergone over the past few decades.

Apart from the number on the side of the car and (perhaps) the color of the seats, one Superliner or Amfleet II looks exactly like the next. So it's not surprising that some people, at least, become obsessed with tiny details and minor variations that most of us wouldn't notice.

[This message has been edited by dilly (edited 06-27-2002).]

Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :

This whole paint charade boils down to two things.

1) An outside industrial designer (now do you really think they will do it "in house") must be hired each time they choose to have a new "image design" (five in 31 years)

2) The cost of taking perfectly presentable equipment and repainting it just because someone else came out on top of a "Whose on First" skit as "60 Mass".

[This message has been edited by Gilbert B Norman (edited 06-27-2002).]