Norfolk Southern Style Heritage Units for Amtrak

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JohannFarley

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Let me preface this with: I know Amtrak does not need to spend any more money painting/revinyling their equipment, but..

If they could, I'm curious as to how many people here would love to see some Amtrak engines painted in schemes of the railroads that were consolidated under it? There are some examples here that someone with much better Photoshop skills than I have mocked up. You need to be logged in to Facebook to view them: https://www.facebook.com/TomonariHirano/media_set?set=a.4673201323980.1073741836.1712090725&type=1

I would love to see something like this, especially the PRR ones running down the NEC if it was feasible. What do you guys think?

Side note: I searched up and down the forum for a topic like this and found nothing as I know you guys don't like identical topics so if I indeed missed one I apologize.
 
If someone could find the money (corporate sponsors?) I'd love it. I think the Pennsy Green is really nice.
 
Amtrak didn't "consolidate" any railroads. It took over the passenger services of railroads which continued to exist. As far as heritage schemes are concerned, sure, why not? Maybe some railfan organizations could sponsor and pay for the work. Of course, most railfan groups couldn't afford to do that. Maybe Trains and Railfan & Railroad magazines. I can't think of anybody else who would fork up the cash.
 
There's also the trademark issue to deal with. NS can paint up whatever they want, because they acquired the right to do so as they absorbed railroads. NS would probably have an issue with Amtrak painting up a locomotive in an old Southern RR scheme.
 
As noted, the railroads which joined Amtrak continued to exist; You would need the cooperation (or at least permission) of the railroad to do a unit in another (freight) company's paint scheme. Fine to dream, of course.

Now, that ACS-64 in the original AEM7 scheme looks catching...
 
Well of course it would be easier to do PRR and PC since they aren't around any more, right?
 
Actually, I believe the Penn Central Corp. still exists under a another name and still controls a lot of former PC (i.e ex-PRR amd NYC) real estate.
 
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PC's old assets were sold a few times, as the internet has told me, and all railroad assets are part of a real estate company. But NS has an NYC, PRR, and PC heritage unit, so it can't be that difficult to get permission.
 
Actually, I believe the Penn Central Corp. still exists under a another name and still controls a lot of former PC (i.e ex-PRR amd NYC) real estate.
After several bounces around the pinball game that was post-bankruptcy Penn Central, the assets of the former company landed with American Financial Group, a financial holding company, within their subsidiary, American Premier Underwriters. In and around 2006, American Financial sold much of the former railroad real estate in the New York area to a group of financiers headed by Andrew Penson.

A little known fact is that, among those assets, Mr. Penson's group owns Grand Central Terminal. MTA leases the property. Even those seemingly in the know did not know that fact. Back in 2013, when Grand Central turned 100 years old, the MTA planned a gala centennial dinner. Until a reporter asked the head of the dinner committee if Mr. Penson would be attending, the committee did not even know who he was. They assumed, like most people (including me), that the MTA owned the building. They extended a last minute invite, but Mr. Penson, reportedly a very low profile kind of person, politely declined.
 
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PC's old assets were sold a few times, as the internet has told me, and all railroad assets are part of a real estate company. But NS has an NYC, PRR, and PC heritage unit, so it can't be that difficult to get permission.
Metro North Railroad also has New York Central and New Haven heritage locomotives.
 
UP also has some "Katy" ( M-K-T) engines painted in Heritage Colors running here in Texas.

Once when the Eagle's Lone P-42 did one of its too frequent break downs on the way from FTW to SAS, we were rescued by one of these.
 
UP also has some "Katy" ( M-K-T) engines painted in Heritage Colors running here in Texas.

Once when the Eagle's Lone P-42 did one of its too frequent break downs on the way from FTW to SAS, we were rescued by one of these.
There's only one UP 1988.
 
UP also has some "Katy" ( M-K-T) engines painted in Heritage Colors running here in Texas.

Once when the Eagle's Lone P-42 did one of its too frequent break downs on the way from FTW to SAS, we were rescued by one of these.
There's only one UP 1988.
Thanks for the update, guess I've seen the same one several times, I'm not an engine buff, like Steamers more than Diesel and Electrics!
 
PC's old assets were sold a few times, as the internet has told me, and all railroad assets are part of a real estate company. But NS has an NYC, PRR, and PC heritage unit, so it can't be that difficult to get permission.
In every case mentioned, however, there has been a corporate connection of some manner to the "heritage" railroad; Even Norfolk Southern operates some ex-New York Central lines. Not so with Amtrak, who would be painting engines in the scheme of a totally separate entity.
 
On the one hand, most of the trademarks reside either with the former operating railroads or their successors (bear in mind that technically some of the merged-away railroads still exist on paper...C&O and B&O didn't get merged away until the late 1980s while I think the RF&P may still legally exist). On the other hand, a lot of train names have carried forward with little or no issue and it would probably be possible to get licensing for not-that-much from a few of the Class Is. Additionally, nothing says that Amtrak couldn't use a "Heritage-esque" paint scheme without issues...look at Iowa Pacific, which uses a paint scheme that looks awfully like Illinois Central's...
 
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