Tuesday, 21 June 2011

Giants of the Rails


These images of all-American railroads come from a 1944 picture book, Giants of the Rails, illustrated with spirit by Glen Thomas (a name that seems to have evaded the historical record). Images of steam, diesel and electric power from an era when all three were to be seen hard at work in the war effort. Similar trains could often be seen thundering across the pages of National Geographic and the Saturday Evening Post. The passenger trains seem to be all distant relatives of the jukebox in both colour and form while the freight locomotives are designed to convey muscularity and brute force.





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