Word.ws English Dictionary

rainbow era

rainbow era noun: a period in the early 1970s when Amtrak operated a fleet of used equipment that still carried the paint schemes of their previous owners.

Noun

rainbow era (plural rainbow eras)

  1. (US, informal) A period in the early 1970s when Amtrak operated a fleet of used equipment that still carried the paint schemes of their previous owners.
    • 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.2012 February 15, Tadman, “Ocean View in Rainbow Era”, in Railroad.net
    • We have come a long way since that “rainbow era” of using hand-me-down equipment.2021, “A Brief History of Amtrak Paint Schemes and Liveries”, in Amtrak

Forms of rainbow era

pluralrainbow eras

Origin of rainbow era

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

Questions about rainbow era

What does rainbow era mean?
Rainbow era means a period in the early 1970s when Amtrak operated a fleet of used equipment that still carried the paint schemes of their previous owners.
What part of speech is rainbow era?
Rainbow era is a noun.
What is the plural of rainbow era?
The plural of rainbow era is rainbow eras.

Words near rainbow era in the dictionary

  1. rainbow coleslaws
  2. rainbow colored
  3. rainbow coloured
  4. rainbow darter
  5. rainbow darters
  6. rainbow era
  7. rainbow eucalyptus
  8. rainbow eucalyptuses
  9. rainbow families
  10. rainbow family
  11. rainbow fish

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rainbow era (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “rainbow era.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rainbow_era. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.