Viewliner II - Part 1 - Initial Production and Delivery

[Ryan]

It's not possible to wave a magic wand and have everything cut over to a new scheme all at once. Every time the pain scheme has changed you have trains that look like this. It's going to look awesome when it's all said and done. Until then, enjoy the variety.

 

[R30A]

A single paint scheme is always ideal- Multiple schemes will inevitably lead to mixed trains which look terrible. If they repaint all the LD equipment while leaving the Corridor equipment in phase 4, the intermediate distance trains will look terrible. (Adirondack, Maple Leaf, Palmetto, Carolinian, Pennsylvanian, "Federal", Possibly Vermonter if it gets baggage, etc )

Amtrak should never have messed with this phase 3 absurdity. I don't think "Back to the 80s" is the image Amtrak wants to be projecting. (Do we get Pistachio green, goldenrod, brown and neon orange everywhere again on the interiors??)

 

[Bob Dylan]

As Ryan said, it takes time (and money!) to get the fleet painted so enjoy the new cars as they come into service!

Lots of youngsters talk about the Rainbo Trains from the early 70s, but as one who grew up riding them on the Class Is and during the Early Amtrak days, I am glad I have those memories!

I totally agree that we don't need to go back to those hideous colors that were inside the cars during the 70s and 80s!!

 

[Seaboard92]

I love the look of IVb it looks professional. But the way amtrak is trying to market itself as America's Railroad phase IIIb works the best. It's a patriotic scheme. And we were all used to it back in the day anyway.

 

[NE933]

A single paint scheme is always ideal- Multiple schemes will inevitably lead to mixed trains which look terrible. If they repaint all the LD equipment while leaving the Corridor equipment in phase 4, the intermediate distance trains will look terrible. (Adirondack, Maple Leaf, Palmetto, Carolinian, Pennsylvanian, "Federal", Possibly Vermonter if it gets baggage, etc )

Amtrak should never have messed with this phase 3 absurdity. I don't think "Back to the 80s" is the image Amtrak wants to be projecting. (Do we get Pistachio green, goldenrod, brown and neon orange everywhere again on the interiors??)

Well, R30A, one doesn't have to be smitten with the 80's as much as me (that was my favorite decade), try to think objectively: it was a time of massive infusion of new equipment and grand, victorious-toned advertising. Riding on one of Amtrak's 800 new railcars (or even the Heritage fleet) pulled by one of 250 new locomotives on great track, relatively on time, was a sort of life altering experience for the better. Trains were coming back strong, "America Is Getting Into Training". The future was optimistic, or so it seemed. The brown and maroon seats and rugs were a bit dated towards the end, but so now is the grey and navy. The interiors need a bit more flair and color: I say go with an interior scheme of the Metroliner, which had cobalt seats in coach and scarlet in the Club.

The reason for the nostalgic absurdity is during times of trial and lack of joy, you run to what's familiar. The current scheme is wearing out it's welcome in my eyes and someone should be thinking about possible ideas for Phase 6.

 

[NE933]

I love the look of IVb it looks professional. But the way amtrak is trying to market itself as America's Railroad phase IIIb works the best. It's a patriotic scheme. And we were all used to it back in the day anyway.

Be careful of anything "looking professional", which has the same face value of terms like "all natural" and "real flavored". I want my professionals to be competant, compassionate, and savvy, know when to walk a tightrope between a baby's touch and kicking a** if necessary. As I translate this to Amtrak, the scheme has to look pleasant and on solid ground, convey peace of mind and tranquility, perhaps stir up happy excitement, and not be overly dull nor flamboyant.

 

[Notelvis]

Spotted this afternoon (March 25, 2015) departing Durham, NC on Amtrak #79. This is a minute out of the station and I did not see whether the Heritage Baggage or the Viewliner was being used. Perhaps this is a shakedown run for the Viewliner.

Regardless, the shiny car (on an otherwise dirty consist) in throwback scheme stood out in a not so good way -

 

[Acela150]

Let me address this Phase IIIb nonsense.. There is no such thing.. It's phase III with a reflective strip that was a different color when Phase III was originally out. Nothing is different about it.. STOP calling it Phase IIIb!!!!

 

[edjbox]

How long will the heritage cars be on protect duty?

 

[ronkstevens]

Bring back the paisley seats from when the Amfleet I's were brand new

(admittedly, I do miss the side headrest padding on those seats)

 

[PerRock]

Let me address this Phase IIIb nonsense.. There is no such thing.. It's phase III with a reflective strip that was a different color when Phase III was originally out. Nothing is different about it.. STOP calling it Phase IIIb!!!!

Actually it's a little bit more then that.

The Red & Blue stripes are a different shade of their respective colors (the originals were a paler shade), The Reflective stripe as you mentioned is different (original was very inconsistent, I know of 3 different styles), and the whole striping is narrower. Then we come to the logo. The original III didn't have the Chevron on it really at all, the new Chevron logo, now has a white outline, uses Frutiger as the font (rather then Helvetica), the text is blue, and it's on the train cars now.

So Phase IIIb makes a lot of sense, especially after looking at the changes from Phase IV to IVb.

As a designer, this whole 'Amtrak America' thing reeks of design by committee. For one the logo it's self looks like someones secretary did it in Paint, The notion that certain cars will get III while others stay in IVb, even the idea to use an 'old' design. I feel like they went with "John's secretary did a nice logo, lets use that. Oh and Sue want to keep some cars in the current paint scheme. Do you have any request Bill? Sure we can use an old paint scheme. Karen do you have a preference as to which one?"

Instead they should have just hired a design firm (like they did for the Acela) and said "To go with the arrival of some new equpment we'd like to roll out 'Amtrak America' branding on our long distance fleet. Can you make us a brand for that?"

On a related note, I've started a personal project updating the Phase IVb paint scheme, calling it Phase VI. It's still a work in progress but here is how it's coming:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwoszLS0nWxPSWpOa283UDh6NjQ&authuser=0

peter

 

[mgl1978]

Spotting report from Alexandria on 3/25/15

#19 Cresent



#90 Palmetto



#97 no new viewliners w/ heritage baggage.

#66 no new viewliners w/ heritage baggage. It atleast had it's baggage back. It had been running without it regularly.

 

[StriderGDM]

#97 no new viewliners w/ heritage baggage.

#66 no new viewliners w/ heritage baggage. It atleast had it's baggage back. It had been running without it regularly.

Sort of makes sense it might get its baggage back. With more Viewliners coming on line, the crunch for the Heritage baggage cars has been lessened. Keep in mind, it appears at least some were allowed to have their 90 day inspection lapse in anticipation of replacements. There's probably some whose inspections are still current that can be freed up for use until more Viewliners come out of NY.

 

[Bus Nut]

Well, I know this is not up for a vote but I think the paint scheme on the new bags looks AWESOME. I like that they stand out. They're new! Kaboom! Maybe the average riders will think twice and pressure their congresscritters to give Amtrak more money to replace more of the fleet.

Maybe the Amtrak America logo is a little iffy but it works well enough to me. I don't think Boardman wanted to weather a storm like Amtrak suffered when they hired that firm to do the branding for "Acela". Everyone loves it now but Amtrak and "Acela" were absolutely blasted in the press and online at the outset. Since Amtrak has to deal with grandstanding Reps complaining about Amtrak understandably hiring talent to design better food, oh, the horrors, edible food onboard? it just smacks of an unforced error to put something like that out to consult. They have an in-house marketing dep't. It's serviceable. Maybe not quite as good as I've seen some of the kids today right out of college do, but there's no guarantee a consultant or marketing firm won't turn in terrible work either. Seen it happen enough.

 

[jis]

I think the problem with Acela branding was not so much with what is now known as Acela Express, but more so with the attempt to rebrand the Regionals to Acela Regional. In effect that diluted the Acela brand and people got confused about what is higher speed and what is same old same old with lipstick on a pig. That is why the Regionals were rebranded back to Northeast Regional. They used to be Northeast Direct before the Acela Regional misadventure. They had also talked about rebranding things like the Clockers and Keystones as Acela Commuter. Fortunately that never came to pass.

 

[user 1215]

They should have matched the existing scheme first, then repainted the cars as the trainset livery is updated. We're only talking a few stripes here. The notion that you paint the New Stuff New than let the rest catch up is preposterous. By then, you'll have dirty VLB's.

 

[sitzplatz17]

Let me address this Phase IIIb nonsense.. There is no such thing.. It's phase III with a reflective strip that was a different color when Phase III was originally out. Nothing is different about it.. STOP calling it Phase IIIb!!!!

Actually it's a little bit more then that.

The Red & Blue stripes are a different shade of their respective colors (the originals were a paler shade), The Reflective stripe as you mentioned is different (original was very inconsistent, I know of 3 different styles), and the whole striping is narrower. Then we come to the logo. The original III didn't have the Chevron on it really at all, the new Chevron logo, now has a white outline, uses Frutiger as the font (rather then Helvetica), the text is blue, and it's on the train cars now.

So Phase IIIb makes a lot of sense, especially after looking at the changes from Phase IV to IVb.

As a designer, this whole 'Amtrak America' thing reeks of design by committee. For one the logo it's self looks like someones secretary did it in Paint, The notion that certain cars will get III while others stay in IVb, even the idea to use an 'old' design. I feel like they went with "John's secretary did a nice logo, lets use that. Oh and Sue want to keep some cars in the current paint scheme. Do you have any request Bill? Sure we can use an old paint scheme. Karen do you have a preference as to which one?"

Instead they should have just hired a design firm (like they did for the Acela) and said "To go with the arrival of some new equpment we'd like to roll out 'Amtrak America' branding on our long distance fleet. Can you make us a brand for that?"

On a related note, I've started a personal project updating the Phase IVb paint scheme, calling it Phase VI. It's still a work in progress but here is how it's coming:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwoszLS0nWxPSWpOa283UDh6NjQ&authuser=0

peter

Looks good!

Just one little bit of feedback: There's a typo on page 6 under "Amtrak Silver" - "Used primarily as a thrid color when needed." Third is spelled wrong. h34r:

Keep up the good work though, I really like the Adirondack seasonal logo!

 

[PerRock]

They should have matched the existing scheme first, then repainted the cars as the trainset livery is updated. We're only talking a few stripes here. The notion that you paint the New Stuff New than let the rest catch up is preposterous. By then, you'll have dirty VLB's.

Really the notion that you paint cars at all these days (at least in Amtrak's case) isn't entirely true. Most, if not all of the striping is a big sticker they stick on, as are all the lettering & logos.

On a related note, I've started a personal project updating the Phase IVb paint scheme, calling it Phase VI. It's still a work in progress but here is how it's coming:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwoszLS0nWxPSWpOa283UDh6NjQ&authuser=0

peter

Looks good!

Just one little bit of feedback: There's a typo on page 6 under "Amtrak Silver" - "Used primarily as a thrid color when needed." Third is spelled wrong. h34r:

Keep up the good work though, I really like the Adirondack seasonal logo!

Thanks, Figured I had a type somewhere... I'm a terrible speller. If you want more info & the occasional update, I post here about the project:

http://s4.zetaboards.com/amtkz/topic/10262453

 

[PupfosterG]

Great work Peter! At some point everything will match, I guess what stands out to me is the shape of the car compared to others. How will new baggage car look with Superliner cars?

 

[SarahZ]

On a related note, I've started a personal project updating the Phase IVb paint scheme, calling it Phase VI. It's still a work in progress but here is how it's coming:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwoszLS0nWxPSWpOa283UDh6NjQ&authuser=0

peter

I love the different logos for the different routes.

One minor thing, though - for the Empire Service, Lady Liberty needs to be moved over one letter. Right now, it reads as "Emipre".

 

[PerRock]

On a related note, I've started a personal project updating the Phase IVb paint scheme, calling it Phase VI. It's still a work in progress but here is how it's coming:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwoszLS0nWxPSWpOa283UDh6NjQ&authuser=0

peter

I love the different logos for the different routes.

One minor thing, though - for the Empire Service, Lady Liberty needs to be moved over one letter. Right now, it reads as "Emipre".

Ya that one I knew about, in fact it's already been fixed, I just haven't updated the pdf file with the corrected logo. I'm hanging off updating it until I have completed some more pieces of the project.

peter

 

[Ryan]

They should have matched the existing scheme first, then repainted the cars as the trainset livery is updated. We're only talking a few stripes here. The notion that you paint the New Stuff New than let the rest catch up is preposterous. By then, you'll have dirty VLB's.

"Painting" the new cars twice sounds wildly inefficient.

 

[Ziv]

The vast majority of Amtrak passengers don't know the difference between any of the color schemes and other than the homogeneity of a well matched consist, most wouldn't care. I would say paint/decal them any way the future look is intended to be. Don't set yourself up to have to paint them twice.

I hope Amtrak can find a way to finance MORE of the VLII's. But I imagine that is a pipe dream. They would probably already have to have the funding in place. Piggybacking 15 or 20 more sleepers onto this deal would offer a lot of options, though.

 

[StriderGDM]

The vast majority of Amtrak passengers don't know the difference between any of the color schemes and other than the homogeneity of a well matched consist, most wouldn't care. I would say paint/decal them any way the future look is intended to be. Don't set yourself up to have to paint them twice.

I hope Amtrak can find a way to finance MORE of the VLII's. But I imagine that is a pipe dream. They would probably already have to have the funding in place. Piggybacking 15 or 20 more sleepers onto this deal would offer a lot of options, though.

There is in theory an option for an additional 70 cars. There's been no word and while it's doubtful, there's some evidence that it may be possible to exercise the option.

70 more cars would been a decent increase in fleet size and could definitely mean more trains with sleepers and diners (restored Three Rivers anyone?) and more sleepers on existing trains.

 

[WoodyinNYC]

The vast majority of Amtrak passengers don't know the difference between any of the color schemes and other than the homogeneity of a well matched consist, most wouldn't care. I would say paint/decal them any way the future look is intended to be. Don't set yourself up to have to paint them twice.

I hope Amtrak can find a way to finance MORE of the VLII's. But I imagine that is a pipe dream. They would probably already have to have the funding in place. Piggybacking 15 or 20 more sleepers onto this deal would offer a lot of options, though.

There is in theory an option for an additional 70 cars. There's been no word and while it's doubtful, there's some evidence that it may be possible to exercise the option.

70 more cars would been a decent increase in fleet size and could definitely mean more trains with sleepers and diners (restored Three Rivers anyone?) and more sleepers on existing trains.

I've figured that Amtrak has to keep the focus on Priority #1 for new equipment, namely, the Acela IIs.

Only if they luck up -- the way the Midwestern States did when the bid for the bilevels came in a hundred million or whatever below the budgeted figure -- and have a Billion Dollar bid come in that leaves a little funding left over, then a few coins could go to buying more Viewliners.

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International Railway Journal

Thursday, July 03, 2014

Amtrak issues RFP for Acela fleet replacement Written by Douglas John Bowen

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Joe Calisi
AMTRAK has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for 28 high-speed trains, which will replace the Acela Express fleet on the Washington DC – New York – Boston Northeast Corridor (NEC).
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The closing date for expressions of interest is October 1.

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So as seen above, the RFP was early July, with bids due by Oct. 1. Amtrak presumably has had bids in hand for six months come next week.

When will we learn of the Acela II equipment bid?

My poor googling skills don't turn up n easy answer, but I vaguely recall that something was supposed to get announced, or something something, by the second quarter of this year. Shall I start standing on my tip toes in eager anticipation, or just chill some more?