Anyone that is familer with Amtrak publications like: system timetables, vacation guides, brochures of any kind, they have photos of locomotives and cars. Does it annoy anybody else when they look at a locomotive thinking “hey, maybe I’ve seen and/or rode behind that one!”. Upon close examination they find that, the number has been blanked over with a computer on the numberboard and the side, and the new logo has been pasted onto it and all the passenger cars…really cheezy and super-imposed. Does that bug anyone else? It drives me fricken nuts, lol.
Keep in mind that these publications are aimed at the general public, not the enthusiast community. Retouching and doctoring of publicity photos is an old practice so we shouldn’t be too upset by it.
The classic contrived publicity photos were for the 1956 version of the Denver Zephyr. The actual pictures of the train were taken on the Chicago-Aurora line and were superimposed on pictures of the Colorado Front Range west of Denver.
In the '30s the New York Central’s publicity department ran ads featuring the luxuriousness of the interiors of their Pullman cars. Apparently views of Mott Haven yard appearing in the windows weren’t good enough for their ad department because they took artistic license and substituted painted backgrounds of alpine scenes, complete with mountains and rustic cabins! Not something very consistent with their “Water Level Route” slogan.
Amtrak’s brochures have had that for years. I have some Amtrak Vacation package brochures from the late 1980s. On one is a picture of the Silver Star crossing a bridge, except that the train looks like it’s not on the tracks but running on the gangplank!!
Cutting and pasting has been common for years. As mentioned above, most of the general public won’t notice. Of course…we will!
Stands to reason that with our improving computer photo technology we’ll see improvements over time. So in the meantime…try what I do…
Look and Laugh!!
Did you ever notice that in the amtrak pictures the trains are perfect. This one has the crescent passing by a farm. The tain consist of 2 sleeping cars up front and 5 coaches. all in the same phase paint. Every time I see the crescent it has a beaten baggage car up front. cars of various paint schemes and a dining car dating from the 1950’s. the crescent still is a wonderful train but never appears in the way the picture has it.
Very few have actual photos with the unit numbers. The 2004 Vacation Guide has a photo of P42 #63, kinda neat since I’ve rode behind it. One thing people DO notice…it shows a train in Phase III paint…the train shows up in Phase V…they seem to comment about that sometimes.
But isn’t the main part that the trains themselves–or at least the locos–are getting better-looking?
I just HATE that! I almost got to the point that I believed that those trains were not real trains at all…just computer-drawn trains pasted onto a scene. I noticed something really dopey, and it was on the cover of the most recent timetable. Did you notice that the Cardinal had THREE engines on it? My goodness! It’s an AM-FLEET train! That makes my therory about pasting trains into scenes more evident. Maybe there really was 3 engines on the Cardinal, but that seems weird. I knew something was going on in those timetables when I noticed the Amtrak logos on the sides of the P42s are gigantic, and make the engine look like it’s only 10 feet long. I also noticed that EVERY passenger car is painted in the Phase IVb paint scheme. I’ve yet to see that!