A Tribute to Amtrak 822 in New Mexico

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Amtrak paint schemes (or "Phases", as they are referred to by Amtrak) are a series of liveries applied to the outside of their rolling stock. The livery phases appeared as different designs, with a majority using a red, white, and blue (the colors of the United States Flag) palette, except for promotional trains, experimental trains, state partnership routes, and the Capstone phase.
Amtrak began operations in May 1971 with a mixture of equipment from its predecessor railroads, much of which was painted in a variety of railroad-specific paint schemes. This era was later referred to as the Rainbow Era, due to the mix-matched colorful trains Amtrak used. Amtrak elected not to keep the same rolling stock on the same routes and it was not unexpected to find rolling stock from anywhere in the US on any train. To build the brand of Amtrak as a unified passenger railroad, the equipment was gradually repainted into system-wide Phases starting around 1972 with Phase I.
The phases are referred in numerical sequential order, usually in Roman numerals. Up until the introduction of the Acela, phases were painted on all equipment. However, since 2000 Amtrak has started splitting phases up between equipment with locomotives getting Phase V & cars getting Phase IVb. While previously locomotives and rail cars could be painted in different styles they were still referred to as being in the same phase, with often the locomotive versions getting an unofficial nickname.
In 2013 to coincide with the pending arrival of new equipment Amtrak unveiled new Amtrak America branding and scheme variations.
Phase III is a widely known paint scheme of Amtrak, introduced in 1979 and existing to this day on some equipment. This paint scheme used similar colors to those used on Phase II stripes, except that the outer white pinstripes were deleted and the red, white, and blue stripes were of approximately equal width. On locomotives the same black roof lining was kept. On some equipment, such as the LRC, the white stripe remained the same width while the red and blue were expanded to cover a larger area. Another distinguishing feature of this paint scheme is the labeling of every passenger car with its type and number in black lettering on the white stripe. This style of Phase III was used on Amtrak locomotives, passenger cars, and Material Handling Cars. Amtrak 822, a P40DC seen in this video, celebrates the Phase III paint scheme.
 




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