The Streamlined Era
Almost as famous as the streamliners themselves were the industrial designers who styled them: Raymond Loewy, Henry Dreyfuss, Otto Kuhler, Leland Knickerbocker and Sterling McDonald. Working independently, these young designers rose to great popularity, while giving a new look and appeal to American railroads by cleaning up the oil and grime from the machine age.
The streamlined Art Deco style of the 1930s had its roots in Paris’ 1925 “International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts,” which revolutionized the design world. American designers, influenced by the movement abroad, were soon commissioned to design consumer products that would rouse public excitement and increase sales-in other words, “style to sell.”
Objects big and small, from airplanes to cigarette cartons, received a complete makeover, sporting smooth surfaces, rounded edges, and bold new colors and graphics. Like the products of Hollywood, streamlining’s luxury and excitement captured the imagination of Americans preoccupied by the inflation and unemployment of the Great Depression. Streamlining symbolized progress, and evoked a feeling that technology was the key to a better life.
America’s entry into the Streamlined Era came in 1934 when Union Pacific and Chicago, Burlington & Quincy introduced two trains, the M10000 and Pioneer Zephyr, which made use of streamlined design and were powered by high-tech diesel engines. The success of those two pocket streamliners changed the face of American railroading.
Other streamliners, both steam- and diesel-powered, quickly followed. Among the most famous were the Burlington Zephyrs, Milwaukee Road Hiawathas, Chicago & North Western 400s, Santa Fe Chiefs, Missouri Pacific Eagles, Rock Island Rockets, Southern Pacific Daylights, Union Pacific City trains, Pennsylvania’s Fleet of Modernism, and New York Central’s Great Steel Fleet.
Interestingly, the streamlined concept lasted longer with the railroads than any other form of American transportation. Streamlined trains would survive into the 1960s, even though the art form that had given birth to those trains had reached its zenith during the 1940s.
One of the most sought-after industrial designers in the 1930s was Raymond Loewy (1893-1986), a debonair, Clark Gable lookalike who was born in France. He came to New York in 1919 after serving with distinction during World War I in the French army.
Loewy began his design career working for department stores such as Saks and Wanamakers. His first railroad assignment was designing trashcans for New York’s Pennsylvania Station.
In 1934, Loewy was involved in the final styling of the Pennsylvania Railroad GG-1 electric locomotives. He streamlined the engine by designing a smooth locomotive body that was welded instead of riveted. The GG-1 was painted dark Brunswick green, accented with gold “cat whisker” striping. Between 1934 and 1943, 139 of these sleek, electric locomotives were produced at a cost of $250,000 each.
Loewy’s comment on the GG-1 was, “Brute force can have a very sophisticated appearance, almost of great finesse, and at the same time be a monster of power.” The success of the GG-1 helped launch his railroad career.
Loewy’s most acclaimed work was designing the S-1, Pennyslvania’s first streamlined steam locomotive, in 1937. The railroad took such pride in the S-1 that it was exhibited at the 1939 New York World’s Fair and used in magazine and timetable advertising.
Loewy’s most significant contribution to passenger trains was Pennsylvania’s “Fleet of Modernism.” The Fleet debuted June 15, 1938 and included the Broadway Limited and the General (both New York-Chicago trains), the Liberty Limited (Washington-Chicago), and Spirit of St. Louis (New York-Washington-St. Louis).
Loewy’s other railroad customers included Monon, Missouri Pacific, Northern Pacific and Fairbanks-Morse. For Monon, Loewy had former U.S. Army hospital cars outfitted at the road’s Lafayette Shops for the Chicago-Indianapolis Hoosier in 1947.
In 1939 he planned Missouri Pacific’s Eagle, in the striking blue and light gray scheme. The locomotive’s round, side porthole windows and eagle wing emblem were distinctive. Loewy’s design work extended to Fairbanks-Morse Erie-built road diesels and switch engines. One of Loewy’s final railroad contributions was designing the refined, two-tone green livery for Northern Pacific’s North Coast Limited in 1952.
Loewy’s non-railroad design work included Sears Coldspot refrigerators, Studebaker Avanti cars, Greyhound Scenicruiser buses, and Lucky Strike cigarette packs.
In direct competition to the Broadway Limited was the train of the era, New York Central 20th Century Limited, designed by Henry Dreyfuss (1904-1972). The all-Pullman train premiered June 15, 1938.
From the deluxe gray-and-silver exterior colors to the stylish, informal interiors, the 20th Century Limited was a streamliner of subtle elegance. Dreyfuss’s styling extended to the dining car china, silver, menus, and ashtrays. Stationery and matchbook covers also bore the distinctive 20th Century logo of repeated horizontal bars. To pull the new train, the railroad had Dreyfuss design ten Hudson J-3A steam locomotives.
Dreyfuss used the term “Cleanlined” in his work, and the J-3A Hudson excelled in clean lines and functionality. New York Central was justifiably proud of his design, and used the chic locomotive on timetable and brochure covers for the “Great Steel Fleet.” With its commanding finned nose, the locomotive took passengers into the heart of streamlining.
Dreyfuss came to prominence in the 1930’s when he was an apprentice to famous theater designer Norman Bel Geddes. By favoring practicality over Art Deco styling, Dreyfuss gained the respect of his non-railroad clients including Honeywell, Westclox Big Ben and Baby Ben clocks, Hoover vacuum cleaners, American Airlines, and Time magazine.
On the wall of Dreyfuss’s New York City office hung this creed: “We bear in mind that the object we are working on is going to be ridden in, sat upon, looked at, talked into, activated, operated, or in some way used by people. If the point of contact between the product and the people becomes a point of friction, then the industrial designer has failed. On the other hand, if people are made safe, more efficient, more comfortable, or just plain happier by contact with the product, then the designer has succeeded.”
German-born industrial designer Otto Kuhler (1894-1977) came to America in 1923. He worked for the Brill Company, and by 1932 was a design consultant to the American Locomotive Company.
Kuhler had a talent for conveying the scale and sheer force of the steam locomotive. Commenting on his streamlined steam engine designs in his autobiography, he wrote, “My primary objective as an artist was not to cater to the industry itself, but to reach the public. The small boy that remains in every adult is fascinated by the sights and sounds of trains, and I wanted to satisfy the longing for excitement and romance in these train-lovers.”
Kuhler’s most famous work was arguably the Class-A 4-4-2 Atlantic streamlined steam locomotives, built by Alco for the Milwaukee Road Hiawathas in 1935. Kuhler contributed to the trains’ distinctive styling with his vibrant colors, choosing blazing orange, maroon and gray. The locomotives were fitted with flush metal shrouding, concealing some of the operating parts. Wrapped across the front of the locomotive was a large stainless-steel wing emblem, suggesting swiftness and flight, and on the boiler’s flanks were the Hiawatha nameplates.
The Hiawathas were new and different looking, with a style unlike other steam locomotives.
Kuhler’s other railroad work included modernizing Baltimore & Ohio’s Capitol Limited in the handsome blue and gray color scheme, with interior Art Deco furnishings in 1938. Kuhler even streamlined the railroad’s well-known herald, placing a simpler, bolder rendering of the Capitol dome above a distinctive band sporting the initials B&O.
In 1940, Kuhler worked with engineers from General Electric to introduce the first American passenger train illuminated by fluorescent light, the Lehigh Valley Railroad’s John Wilkes. Kuhler believed his “best work” to be the bullet-nosed Ps-4, No.1380 designed for Southern Railway’s Tennessean in 1941.
In 1937, Santa Fe premiered the streamlined Super Chief by Chicago industrial designer Sterling McDonald, who partnered with Electro-Motive Corporation (EMC) color stylist Leland Knickerbocker (1893-1939). It was McDonald who developed Santa Fe’s Southwest Indian theme, and Knickerbocker who painted the classic Warbonnet red-and-silver livery.
In his book, Super Chief…Train of the Stars (Golden West, 1980) Stan Repp describes how color stylist Knickerbocker developed the paint scheme for the Super Chief’s E1A diesels. Aware of the train’s Native American motif, Knickerbocker readily got into the spirit of the project.
As Repp relates, “…in a long, north-lighted, slightly cluttered room, shirt-sleeved and wearing a green celluloid eye shade, Knickerbocker, book-illustrator turned train-illustrator, had before him the rakish perspective of what could have been an elongated automobile. Dipping a No. 7 brush into a puddle of crimson poster paint at the edge of his butcher-pan palette, Knickerbocker…painted a narrow band of that red color that ran the length of both units at floor height, suggesting, as Knickerbocker said, “the profile of an Indian head and the trailing feathers of a war bonnet.” Across the brilliant red nose, (hood, if you prefer it) Knickerbocker emblazoned a bright yellow elliptical Santa Fe herald…” Thus was created one of the most famous railroad images of all time.
As more and more railroads converted from steam to diesel power, the railroads turned to the EMC styling section for assistance. Electro-Motive offered this industrial design service free to its rail customers. On Jan. 1, 1941, Winton Engine and Electro-Motive Corporation merged, forming the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors (EMD).
It was the EMC/EMD stylists who developed the paint schemes that became streamliner classics from the mid-1930s through the 1950s. Trackside favorites included Rock Island’s red, silver and maroon, Florida East Coast’s red and yellow, Atlantic Coast Line’s purple and silver, Southern’s green, white and gold, and Illinois Central’s orange and chocolate brown. In addition, the EMC/EMD team developed FT freight paint schemes such as Santa Fe’s blue and yellow, and Denver & Rio Grande’s black and gold.
Why did you run a picture of an Alco in teh warbonnet scheme if it was designed by EMD?
A non-rail error: Inflation during the 1930s was NOT a factor. In four years (1930, 1931, 1932, and 1938) the rate was NEGATIVE, and in other years it ranged from 0.00% to 1.50%. Not until 1941’s increased spending to prepare for war did inflation return as a significant factor at 9.90%. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (I’m not shouting when I use capital letters; I simply can’t get underlines or italics here.) Thanks for an informative, enjoyable article!
Really enjoyed this article. I really love the Art Deco style and love that some elements are still being use in these modern times.