Amfleets and other cars with the old colors

I've seen several coaches with the original, tri-colored stripe, remnants of the pre-new paint scheme. And the other day, I thought I saw one turquoise colored coach, which I thought Amtrak was going to get rid of. Which cars still feature the old logo still in revenue service?

In addition, when and where are MARC coaches used, along with the antique style cars AMTRAK runs?

We just had a thread on this topic recently, found here: http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6010

Numerous Horizon cars are still in phase III, including 54512 and 54504 on the Hiawatha (as of Saturday).

That's not technically the "original" scheme, though.

When were the Superliner I's painted into that Scheme?

AmtrakFan

Gilbert B Norman wrote:S-I's were delivered in Phase 2, but not striped into Phase 3 until likely mid 1980's; S-ii's were delivered in Phase 4. At that time early 90's, the S-I's were striped to match the S-ii's.

If you don't have a reference handy, it is easy to spot the difference between an S-I and an S-II, provided it isn't sporting the new logo yet.

S-IIs are all bare-metal finish, except for the stripes. However, the S-Is have a silvery coating near the stripes that is lighter than the metal, because instead of removing the paint, they just applied their paint/decals/whatever on top of the Phase III. Many Superliner Is have peeling paint/decals now, and you can see the old Phase III underneath. However, whenever something visits the Grove, they completely remove all the old paint, and apply the new scheme on bare metal, so it will be harder to tell the difference by looks alone.

Shameless self promotion plug:

See the following photos to tell the difference:

http://community.webshots.com/photo/185 ... 0627SQtPsd (Superliner I-old)
http://community.webshots.com/photo/185 ... 0825FXIUBw (Superliner II-old)
http://community.webshots.com/photo/165 ... 5730gHLYpM (Superliner I-new)

The easiest way to tell the difference between Superliner I and Superliner II is the trucks. More of the wheel shows on S-I than S-II. The S-II truck reminds me of the old express car trucks. There is some difference above the windows with the corrugation but that is more subtle than the trucks.

dwmoore1416 wrote:The easiest way to tell the difference between Superliner I and Superliner II is the trucks. More of the wheel shows on S-I than S-II. The S-II truck reminds me of the old express car trucks.

The S-II truck is actually the same basic truck used on the 1500-series MHCs (as well as the Viewliners and Horizons and Metroliners, for the record). It's an American design by General Steel Industries, while the S-I trucks are a unique European air-cushion design.

RMadisonWI, some S-Is were repainted in the new scheme and logos without actually having their Phase III stripes removed, so that's not quite a reliable reference point. I think you may still be able to notice subtle differences in the surface finish of the cars after the Phase III stripes are removed, but I haven't checked photos.

One detail that the S-Is sport is a set of small metal plates, one at each end of the car on both sides, and centered vertically with the upper row of windows. These are where the (tiny) individual car numbers were applied in the original Phase II scheme. They haven't been used since but still remain in place.

so which rides better , the S1 or S2 truck ??

David Benton wrote:so which rides better , the S1 or S2 truck ??

Can't say I know that information, but if they only used the air-cushion truck on the S-Is while the GSI trucks were used on several types of equipment - including the S-2s, which were an improved version of the S-Is - you can draw your own conclusion.

I do know that when the S-Is were first built, the trucks had a rubber donut-shaped pad in the center of each sideframe. This was later replaced with the coil spring that you see in photos now to improve the ride quality.