rainbow era

English

Etymology

From the varied, colorful appearance of multiple liveries in one consist.

Noun

rainbow era (plural rainbow eras)

1. (rail transport, informal, US) A period in the early 1970s when Amtrak operated a fleet of used equipment that still carried the paint schemes of their previous owners.
   • 2012 February 15, Tadman, “Ocean View in Rainbow Era”, in Railroad.net‎^[1]:

     Amtrak's Rainbow Era was the first few years where consists were multi-colored because many legacy carriers' former rolling stock was mixed together and not yet painted for Amtrak.

   • 2021, “A Brief History of Amtrak Paint Schemes and Liveries”, in Amtrak‎^[2]:

     We have come a long way since that “rainbow era” of using hand-me-down equipment.

   • 2022 May 30, markm, “Amtrak in a movie”, in AZL Forum‎^[3]:

     That was the rainbow era when much of Amtrak was still running in the original roads’ paint until 1974.