In the 1960s through the 1980s, Ralph Brillhart became known for painting spacemen and aliens for covers of science fiction books. But before that, he painted at least eleven pictures of General Motors locomotives for Kudner to place on the covers of Railway Age. Today I’m presenting ten for which Greg Palumbo has high-resolution images.
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The first cover art signed “Brillhart” was in the landscape format. Later ones would be in portrait format.
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Were it not for the signature at lower left, this might be mistaken for a Bern Hill painting. Since both worked for Kudner, it is likely that Hill had an influence on Brillhart.
One week after this, Railway Age‘s June 20th cover had a painting of a C&NW passenger train passing through downtown Chicago, which I believe was by Brillhart. I don’t have a good image of that cover.
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This is a U.S. Army train operating next to a rice paddy in South Korea.
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This overhead view of a Bangor & Aroostook train is not as successful as the previous two. Like Hill’s first painting of a Southern Railway train, it looks a little like a toy. Brillhart’s signature is in the stream on the left.
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This painting of a Western Pacific train going over the Keddie Wye is much more authentic looking. Maybe it is hard to paint a realistic Diesel locomotive from above. The signature is to the right of the right-most bridge pier.
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EMD must have been pleased that Brillhart was able to include three different kinds of its locomotives in one painting. The artist’s signature is in the tree on the left.
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Note that Brillhart, like Hill, felt free to paint the skies just about any color he wanted, and at least in this case the color matches the stripe on the locomotive. The Railway Age issue after this one repeats Brillhart’s first painting shown above of a Frisco train. The signature is in the ballast on the right.
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Note also that many of Brillhart’s paintings replaced the thumbtacked note with a note in a colored ellipse. I suspect this painting shows the City of Portland entering the Snake River Bridge from Oregon to Idaho. If so, then Brillhart missed an opportunity as that is the longest and highest bridge on the Union Pacific system. Also the train must have been late as it was scheduled to cross that bridge at about 2:00 am. Brillhart put his signature on the canyon wall on the right.
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Here’s a more realistic looking overhead shot of a New York Central freight train. Unfortunately, the ellipses have given way to large rectangular text blocks that are more intrusive on the art work. The signature is in the road on the left.
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Finally, the second-to-last GM cover before another advertising agency took over the account shows a Southern Railway GP-9. Though he was born in Oakland, California, Brillhart, whose signature is in the lower left, spent most of his career in New York and died there in 2007.
I have to disagree with you caption for the Union Pacific passenger train cover. The UP crosses the Snake River between Oregon and Idaho three times near Huntington, Ontario, and Nyssa Oregon. None of these bridges look like the bridge in the painting. Also none of them are really very high or long and they are all truss bridges. The vegetation doesn’t really match the area either.
The longest and highest bridge on the original UP is supposed to be the Joso Viaduct in southern Washington. It crosses the snake river. See this web page: https://portofcolumbia.org/port-properties/lyons-ferry-marina/joso-bridge/ The City of Portland wouldn’t have used the Joso Viaduct but there was passenger service over it at the time the cover was issued.
Also, all the bridges I’ve mentioned are single track where the painting has two tracks. I suspect the painting is just a generic bridge dreamed up by the artist.