In an interesting commentary in the New York Times today Michael Cannell writes that design thrives in hard times. It reminded me of the streamlining of locomotives, many of which were designed at the height of the Great Depression and were born of the hard times the designers, engine manufacturers and passenger car makers were experiencing along with everyone else.
The PBS American Experience documentary Streamliners: America’s Lost Trains, makes the case that industrial design rose from the ashes of the Crash of 1929. This led to the iconic passenger trains that even today excite and inspire us.
Futuristic-looking shrouds were added to steam locomotives, providing a hopeful, forward- looking design that became enormously popular. The Commodore Vanderbilt, Dreyfuss Hudson and Hiawatha locomotives provided striking contrasts to the heavy industrial looking steam engines that were a vivid reminder of an industrial economy in collapse.
Even now, long after the heyday of passenger rail in this country, these trains evoke great interest and each has hardcore fans.
Cannell says in hard times designers are constrained by money and market needs. As they adapt to new conditions they take a second look at utilitarian needs for furniture and appliances among a broad audience. Out of this economic constraint comes the inspiration for creatively designed quality, low-cost, useful products.
Working with the inefficiency of the steam engine, the Southern Pacific Railroad added drivers and wheels to its streamlined GS-4 locomotives and brought high-speed rail service to the Pacific coast. The GS-4 has legions of fans, particularly in the Pacific Northwest where a restored operating GS-4 resides in Portland, and many have made YouTube videos of the prototype train and its toy models.
But the proof of Cannell’s point is the Zephyr series of locomotives, among the most exciting of the streamliners. The Zephyr employed a new diesel electric engine that was more efficient than steam. The train also employed new materials, the most significant of which was stainless steel for the outer housing, and a unique new design that made it significantly lighter than the old steam engines. Passenger cars were temperature controlled with scientifically designed recessed lighting and piped in radio. The streamliners in general made travel faster and more comfortable.
The Zephyrs in particular added the benefit of much greater efficiency by improving energy use. According to engineers, a diesel engine gets thirty percent more thermal energy from its fuel oil than a steam engine, which at the end of WWII (when the transition to diesel occurred) was getting six to ten percent energy from coal. There were other advantages to diesel which are discussed in lay terms at the railfan site.
The legacy of the streamliners is creative, functional design that benefitted passengers, and more. Beyond the bottom line numbers by which such things are measured–savings in maintenance costs and fuel, operating efficiencies, travel time–they accomplished something less tangible, but also important.They made the environment more exciting, romantic and uplifiting. They raised the human spirit.
Sources:Burlington Zephyr, http://www.gatewaynmra.org/articles/mt-zephyr.htm and http://www.msichicago.org/whats-here/exhibits/pioneer-zephyr/
Industrial Design, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/streamliners/peopleevents/p_designers.html
Train Images, http://www.louisvilleartdeco.com/feature/Transportation/Trains/Trains-index.html
Posted on January 4th, 2009 by larryhol
Filed under: Trains
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