Bern Hill had another banner year in 1952, with 15 locomotive paintings on the cover of Railway Age. He also did the Christmas painting for the year.
A Texas cowboy looks down on a Texas & Pacific passenger train passing through cattle country. This and all other images today are from Greg Palumbo’s collection. Click image to download a 2.4-MB PDF of this magazine cover. Click here for a 10.2-MB higher-resolution version of this PDF.
This cover is a cowboy’s-eye view of the Texas & Pacific Texas Eagle passenger train passing a fenced-in area holding an improbably small number of cattle. Hill’s signature is near the lower right corner.
A giant grain elevator looms over a Chicago Great Western freight train. Click image to download a 2.2-MB PDF of this magazine cover. Click here for an 11.9-MB higher-resolution version of this PDF.
The Chicago Great Western was one of the “granger railroads,” meaning it carried lots of grain. So it was appropriate for Hill to picture one of its freight trains next to a grain elevator. Hill’s signature is barely visible beneath the tracks in the lower right part of the cover.
An African-American picks cotton as a Cotton Belt train passes in the background. Click image to download a 2.0-MB PDF of this magazine cover. Click here for a 7.7-MB higher-resolution version of this PDF.
Somehow using a poor black farm worker to frame the image isn’t as romantic as using a horse, as Hill did for a Northern Pacific train in 1950. Note that this cover appeared just one week after the previous one. Hill’s signature is on a ball of cotton near the lower right corner.
The Texas Special rolls into MKT’s San Antonio train station. Click image to download a 3.0-MB PDF of this magazine cover. Click here for an 11.8-MB higher-resolution version of this PDF.
To make the masthead stand out and yet still be a part of this painting, Hill made it the same color as the walkway outside the station. Hill’s signature is clearly visible near the lower right corner.
A Union Pacific freight train follows a major river. Click image to download a 2.6-MB PDF of this magazine cover. Click here for a 10.8-MB higher-resolution version of this PDF.
The train in this painting is about to enter one of two side-by-side tunnels. Union Pacific went through two tunnels at Hermosa, Wyoming, but there was no river nearby. The river in this painting is probably supposed to be the Columbia, but I’m not aware that Union Pacific had any tunnels on the Columbia, much less twin tunnels. Nevertheless it is a stunning view. Hill’s signature is near the lower right corner.
Tomorrow I’ll present more Bern Hill covers from 1952.