Heritage Rebuilds Question

I have never been able to ride an Amtrak train back when heritage coaches were the norm but have seen many in secondary service in museums and excursion trains. I noticed the vestibule doors used to be orange. What was the reason for the orange and why does Amtrak no longer do this? Current cars in the Amtrak fleet have fairly beat up looking stainless doors.

It was the 70's. Everything that didn't move was painted some hideous shade of brown or orange.

Ryan said:

It was the 70's. Everything that didn't move was painted some hideous shade of brown or orange.

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And how do you know this young whippersnapper? Oh, that's right, you have baby pics taken at your parents house.

Ryan said:

It was the 70's. Everything that didn't move was painted some hideous shade of brown or orange.

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Including the paneling on the counters and cabinet doors in the cafe/lounge cars. Uuuugggllly!

I remember an old Trains article about one gentleman who bought a surplus car from Amtrak and refurbished it as private varnish (lucky guy)! The very first thing they did was go through the car and remove every trace of purple and orange....

I fondly recall the 70s-era Turbos that ran between Chicago and St. Louis and their MASSIVELY flaming bright orange and purple (and probably some other lesser colors) plastic and vinyl interiors.

Not all Heritage Fleet had orange doors. The Slumbercoaches (OP's picture) certainly did, but by and large I remember stainless steel - hinged and hard to open, but stainless steel.

I remember the doors as shown on the pictured Slumbercoach being red, not orange.

Twenty years of UV exposure will do that...

Mustard yellow, burnt orange, sea green, almond, and cocoa brown - all hugely popular back then in interior design appliances, counter tops, phones, paint, carpeting, etc.

Think of the seat, paneling, and carpet colors in pre refurb railcars.....

Lots of pinks and purples in the 70s too!

No wonder the Stones named their first Greatest Hits Albumn "Sucking in the Seventies!"

I think it was the then privately owned Auto Train Corporation, that repainted its newly acquired 'heritage' equipment from its original soft pastel colored interior's into "Mod" , "Psychedelic, garish purple, red, and orange color's, in a not subtle way to shout about their break from traditional railroading to something new and fresh. Amtrak must have thought it was cool, and followed suit... :wacko:

A few years later, when the heritage fleet was rebuilt with head-end power, they toned it done considerably, opting for those 'earth-tone' shades of tan, russet, and brown interior's...

The old IC highliners had orange and yellow seats and woodgrain formica - there were still a couple running in that color scheme until the very end, though most of the seats had been reupholstered in a blue-gray drab color. And I think the they were early adopters of that scheme.