Amtrak's 40th Anniversary Units

The Amtrak Heritage group on Flickr has a nice selection of photos of the different units (including a rebuilt F40PH they also did in phase III).
Heritage Line Up! by notcheight

Phases I through V lined up left to right.

Amtrak #156 by lukibob17

Phase I is still my least-favorite - I thought it was ugly the first time around, and it doesn't adapt well to the lines of the P40s. The old logo is still much nicer than the stupid swooshes at least (though I'd change a few details like the text placement and spacing of the lines...).

Rounding the curve Amtrak #66 by kschmidt626

Phase II was definitely a product of it's day and I always felt that it aged poorly to my "modern" eyes. Of course, my early opinions were clearly colored by my feelings on the designs from the early Amtrak days in general. I actually think this unit shows it off far better than the original F40PH's did, and certainly better than the Superliner's adaptation.

45 Pace close by notcheight

Phase III has always felt tired and cliche to me, but I think that's because it was the 'old' scheme when I was growing up. It's definitely the most classic and recognizably-Amtrak versions and I have developed a growing respect for it. It does work very well on the lines of the AMD-103s.

Untitled by akagoldfish

Phase IV has always been my favorite, especially some of the later versions (many still actively in use). I'm curious how well this design will age when I look back in 20 or 40 years.

2005-5-30 Palmer 91 by traingeek

And finally phase V (included for completeness even though I don't believe Amtrak has marked one for the 40th Anniversary). They feel like a weak austere attempt to mimic the Acela scheme without really suiting the different form of the AMD-103s. Some of the newer versions of phase V are notably better and feel more elegant and classy in comparison, though most of the adaptations to other locomotives like the AEM-7s are just bland. It's amazing what a difference small details like the reflective trim and lines of the engine make. (I also don't like how for the past decade or so the designs have been so fragmented across regions and types of equipment. I prefer how a lot of them look, but it's aggravatingly-inconsistent.)

I haven't been following the news, so I don't know but I'm guessing Amtrak won't do some of the more obscure schemes like the P32-8's Pepsi Can or the original AMD-103 "phase IIIb" fade designs. And certainly not the specifics like Amtrak California's stuff. Still, it is always fun to see old designs adapted to new units that have very different shapes and aesthetic considerations.

2011-03-08 Palmer

I did a little railfanning at Palmer yesterday.




This shot reminds me of a lot of the photos I've seen from the late 70's. Something about the lighting reminds me of the way a lot of the film from then performed/aged I think. Of course, the D&H-inspired paint scheme on an few-decades-old engine helps if you don't look too closely.

three more shots from wednesday evening

On my way to class







[Remarkably, this also makes 14 out of 18 photos on the front page of my photostream as of this date shot with an iPhone - the other 4 were my DSLR.]

couple more not-train photos

Cmnd-Option
My desk at night - I actually had my DSLR in reaching distance, but opted for my iPhone instead even though the technical quality of the photos clearly suffered some (sharpness primarily). Telling.




Desk.

because I have neglected this site

here's some recent snapshots of mine:
(and evidence of why I love the iPhone 4's camera so much)

2011-03-02 UMass - on the way to class in some heavy wind


2011-02-08 Hadley Car Crash


2011-02-05 UMass - Friends walk to the DC past Thatcher in Northeast (UMass Amherst)

My Kitchen Window (photos)

definitely time to practice me some HDR techniques

some recent(ish) favorites from photographers I follow

By Set and Centered:


By familymansystem:


By VirginiaSouthern:


By familymansystem:


By mudpig:



(More Here)

2010-11-03 Northampton Meadows LandArch Project

We did a one week overview study of the Ward 3 neighborhood of Northampton, MA as part of an ongoing open spaces assessment and revitalization proposal with the community. These are some photos from my site tour of "The Meadows" that came out nicer than just a simple reference snap. (And show off the quality of the iPhone 4's camera!)






This is the only one I did any post processing besides simple cropping - I tweaked the colors slightly.


I decided to procrastinate during this INTENSE project to snap a random process shot. This is when I'm trying to organize my thoughts into some vaguely-cohesive presentation of my findings. (Just barely out of frame is the DISASTER zone I call our living room.)
Full Set

train photo of the day

Worcester MA, 2005-08

this set from 2005-08 still has a couple of my all-time favorites...

not-train photo of the day - 2009-7-6 Mt Tamalpais CA

full set

photos from art project on abandoned bridge on edge of UMass

before:

during:

after:

a week later:


This installation was for a project on Transitory Nature inspired by Andy Goldsworthy's work. My project summary:

Ecology is often viewed as a temporal entity - constantly shifting. Human architecture is usually viewed on a much more permanent basis. But in truth both are equally temporary and permanent - all architectural and ecological entities function on long and short-term scales of time. In this case a pipe bridge was sliced into the “natural” environment of this small river. The bridge became something we generally consider a permanent fixture in this environment. But it’s usefulness came to an end and it was abandoned. It has entered a long gradual phase of decay, and the surrounding ecology began to reclaim it. This installation served to express the inverse process on the scaled-down timeframe of a week - a time span considerably-shorter, and yet not all that different in the global sense of time. The surrounding plant-life was made to encroach into the man-made world of the bridge and to “reclaim” half of it. Through the week those plant-cuttings decayed - a sped up inversion of the bridge’s lifespan. With time the bridge returned to it’s longer-scale state of architectural decay prior to this artificial “natural” intrusion. Art is an endeavor humans pursue to express something about our worlds - in this case to highlight and reinterpret the temporal nature of the interactions between architecture and the surrounding ecology - to highlight the truly “transitory nature” of those processes.





rest of set

pair of beautiful shots of railfan photographers at Fullerton by Ken Szok

train photos of the day

A few 'oldies' from my 2005-2 Syracuse & Selkirk NY set


Dad was w/ me (and actually shot that top image too) and captured an interest one of me:

still rocking my Mom's old all-manual 35mm & our crappy point-and-shoot, which is the camera that captured most of these shots (still have to scan in the 35mm ones I guess?)

Szoksnapshots is one of my perpetual favorite railfan photographers

rest of Ken Szok's library

train photo of the day

re-crop of 2010-06 San Francisco 10 - MUNI Market Street historic PCC car

train photo of the day

2005-08 Worcester MA

Nick Suydam's photo 'Moving Freight While You Sleep'

BNSF Galesburg, IL yard, by Nick Suydam

train photo of the day

2009-10-11 Selkirk

train photo(s) of the day

(Okay, so I know these have been anything but "daily" ... but, meh.)
These are a couple shots from Stamford CT in my early railfanning days (exact date never recorded, or year even) - they were shot on a hand-me-down 1.3 megapixel Canon point and shoot from my grandmother - and they're still a couple of my favorites - I'm very proud of younger-me who took these pics.