In 1935, GM was just getting started in the Diesel business and these two images show locomotives and trains that were first built in that year. The paintings are not signed but may have been done by Leland Knickerbocker or Paul Meyer.

Click images for a larger view. Click here to download a 4.0-MB PDF of high-resolution images of these two locomotives/trains.

The Flying Yankee was a near-duplicate of the first Zephyr. The train was built by Budd and General Motors provided the propulsion. This painting is so precise that close-up views look like a photograph of a model. Unfortunately, part of of the painting is torn off at the far right.

We’ve previously seen a postcard that was based on this painting. When the locomotive in the painting was built as Baltimore & Ohio number 50 in 1935, it was completely unstreamlined. B&O used it to haul trains between New York and Washington until replaced by the first streamlined E unit in 1937.

B&O then put a slightly sloping shroud on the locomotive, which didn’t make it any more beautiful and hardly made it more aerodynamic. The modified locomotive was used on the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio, which at the time was controlled by the B&O. This image must date from about 1937. Today, the locomotive, restored to its pre-shrouded look, is in the National Museum of Transport in St. Louis.