Railroad Trains for the Soul: Amtrak's 50th Anniversary Paint Schemes
Join LaRosa's Trains for an adventure through Amtrak's informative video commemorating the history of the paint scheme phases over the years. To celebrate its 50th birthday, Amtrak will debut six diesel locomotives in their own unique liveries. Five of them will be the General Electric P42DC GENESIS units and one will be the brand new Siemens ALC-42 Charger No. 301 in a replica of the short-lived “Day 1” scheme from 1971. Actually, one of the locomotives, P42 No. 46, has already been introduced with the special 50th anniversary logo. That unit number was chosen for that livery to commemorate America's 46th President Joe Biden, who has been a long-time Amtrak rider prior to his inauguration.
Another paint scheme will be Phase I, which was previously applied to one of the four 40th anniversary P42 locomotives in 2011. In fact, I do have the O gauge model of the Amtrak Phase I engine made by MTH. Three other planned schemes will be the DASH 8-style Phase III ("Pepsi-Can"), a locomotive adaptation of Phase VI, and the “Midnight Blue” color. The latter two are entirely new for this year’s celebration. I like all of the liveries planned for this year but if I have to choose one of them, my favorite is the so-called "Pepsi-Can", which is a spinoff version of Phase III that only existed on the GE DASH 8-32BWH diesels. They have since been repainted into Phase IV and later Phase V, but the soda can colors will return for the first time in a locomotive other than the DASH 8 (in this case, the P42).
I am very excited indeed for Amtrak’s birthday celebration!