I love trains. Always have. My grandfather worked for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway for 36 years, and when I was a boy I spent a lot of time in the historic Norman depot ( back when it was just a depot) watching people board the Amtrak Lone Star and wondering where they were going, and why.
Trains for me always held mystery and excitement and the promise of adventure. In no small sense they were the genesis of my subsequent interest in art deco commercial art, specifically travel literature posters and ads from the "Golden Age" of travel and sporting art. Everything about industrial design and commercial art just seemed, I don't know, cooler back then.
Even the freight trains were better looking. Amtrak left Oklahoma in 1979 and a Santa Fe got swallowed up by Burlington Northern sometime in the 90s, but every now and then, when I'm stopped at a railroad crossing watching those horribly ugly Burlington Northern engines go by I'll see an old Santa Fe engine that has somehow escaped the paint shop, still decked out in a faded yet classic Yellow Bonnet or War Bonnet paint scheme, and I become that wonder (and wander)-filled kid again, standing in the lobby of the Norman train station staring at one of those classic old travel posters and dreaming of the big, wide world...
But I digress...
This morning I stumbled across a collection of very cool art deco and steampunk-ish train pics and ads from the twenties and thirties and thought I'd share, via Dark Roasted Blend. They're worth a look...
Hmmm Steam punk, the golden age.
ReplyDeleteSBW
Very cool!
ReplyDeleteI haven't taken a real train trip since I was a baby, but I keep threatening to do a cross-country trip sometime soon. In fact, if Amtrak ever gets their stuff together on transporting firearms, I'll probably use a train for my next elk hunting trip (Emeryville, CA to Grand Junction, CO). I can't wait!
Phillip, I think it would be incredibly cool to take a hunting trip by train. One of these days...
ReplyDelete