Home sick today with bronchitis, so I've got (lots of) time to kill.

I got to wondering about the SP changeover in 1958 from the various color schemes (Daylight, Lark, Cascade, et al) and the thought occurred to me: was there really any choice except the Sunset scheme for the passenger cars and the scarlet & gray for the motive power?

From a practical standpoint, the Sunset scheme was already in use, so why throw that away and start all over again? This was about cost containment after all.

As for the locomotives, the Black Widow motif was not a contender because it did not reduce the number of colors and even added one. Black and orange? Nope. Scarlet with silver or gray trim? Maybe, but I'd bet it would require more frequent trips through the wash rack to look presentable. Plus the fact that a lot of the head end rolling stock of the era was painted a dark gray.

So I guess I've (sort of) answered my own question here. For all the abuse SP took over the "downgrade," I always thought it was reasonably attractive scheme, whose only sin was that is suffered by comparison with what it replaced.