Amtrak Amfleet Cars

Fellow Amtrak fan here to (try) to help. Congrats on your Amtrak Ph 3 F40PH ! I can relate to your tough decision regarding which GGd item(s) to get(as can many others).

I assume when you ask for which Amfleets best “match” you meant either:

“in general, which manufacturer makes Phase 3 cars that best match my new F40PH in terms of matching shades/colors in the Phase 3 livery?”  And/or “which size Amfleet will look the best” and/ or “which historical Amtrak liveries match best with your PH 3 F40PH?” And/or “a combo” of all the above. Regardless, ultimately your question boils down to a matter of opinion & what you like.

In terms of the first question, can you provide some visual reference? Either a picture you took or the manufacturer’s sku

Regarding questions 2-4, an F40PH in Phase III would look most appropriate with phases 2, 3 & 4. Phase 6 also wouldn’t be inappropriate. unsure about the “modular/blob” phase 5 “Acela Service” as idk if by that time F40PHs were still running on the NEC or if they had already been replaced by AEM-7, Genesis and/or HHP-8s. Off the top of my head, here are the Amfleet offeringsall ABS plastic shells unless otherwise noted)

Atlas O Premier: MTH premier tooling. Offered Dec. 2023, 76 scale feet or 19”.  Single cars or set of 4. Phases made: Anniversary schemes & Phases 1, 3, 5 and 6.
MTH Premier: offered multiple runs of Amfleets prior to selling that tooling to Atlas O. Runs from different years don’t always look alike. 76 scale feet/19”. Came in sets of 2 or 4. Phases Made: 1 thru 6

Lionel: Offered 18.5” amfleets back in 2009 and most recently revived that tooling in their 2022 catalog. Slimmer, lower profile than the two listed above. 76 scale feet/19”. Offered in 2 and 4 packs. Phases Made: 3, 5 and 6

Williams: Offered 15” semi-scale Aluminum body Amfleets. These are no longer produced but can be found at meets and on eBay’s. Phases Made: Only phase 3(as far as I know)

in my opinion, any of the above would look fine behind an F40PH as long as the time period is appropriate. Further, you can mix Atlas & MTH cars and it’d look fine b/c they have the same tooling. The design of the Lionel cars, while sharp, doesn’t mesh well with the others. So if you go down this route, my advice  would be to pick either the Atlas/MTH or Lionel.

Possible second post on the way but hope that gets you started!

I hadn’t considered cars smaller than 19” as you mentioned GGD, which sorta signaled to me you’re looking for longer Amfleets more akin to scale. Also, I’ve only focused on Amfleets as that’s what you had specified. If you’re talking about general Amtrak passenger cars, that really broadens the scope. There are other, scale-length Amtrak passenger cars, not limited to Amfleet, that are available as well.

Again, my Opinion, but I’d imagine if you were to mix the 21” GGD Superliners with 19” amfleets it MIGHT look OK. But- again IMO- I’ve personally never liked the look of 19” single level passenger cars with 21” single level passenger cars. For me, when I get a passenger consist on the rails, I’m looking for a certain degree of uniformity(unless it’s Rainbow era in which case- NO RULES APPLY haha)

Hope that helps some more