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. Continue reading →

We’ve seen plenty of paintings by Ben Dedek, but here are ten more. Some of these have already been seen in the form of data cards, but the original paintings are higher in resolution and uncropped. Dedek’s name appeared on more than 100 data cards and as far as released works are concerned he was EMD’s most prolific illustrator.

Click any image for a larger view. Source: Palumbo. Click here to download a 18.5-MB PDF of high-resolution images of all these paintings. The size of the images in this PDF is based on the resolution of the original images, not the actual size of the paintings in inches.

This painting associated with an F3 data card we saw a few weeks ago. The full painting doesn’t give us that much more information, but it certainly shows that Dedek was dedicated to providing detailed vegetation and other landscaping surrounding the locomotive. Continue reading →

Paintings recently sold by Soulis Auctions reveal that GM proposed several different ideas for painting the E6 used for Illinois Central’s City of Miami, which began operating as an all-coach train in December 1940. In retrospect, I don’t think they picked the best design.

Click image for a larger view. Click here to download a 6.5-MB PDF of high-resolution images of these paintings. The size of the images in this PDF is based on the resolution of the original images, not the actual size of the paintings in inches.

The locomotive paint job had to coordinate with the train’s passenger cars, which were to be yellow with a green roof and green skirts with red stripes, a little too thick to be called pinstripes, between the green and yellow bands. Judging from the drawing numbers the above image was the first idea. This would have broadened the bottom green to become dominant on the locomotive nose, interrupted by the vertical red stripes reminiscent of vertical yellow stripes on the Santa Fe Warbonnet. Since IC’s green diamond logo is already green, it got a little lost on the green nose, plus dark green would not be highly visible at night. Continue reading →

The past few weeks have presented art by Leland Knickerbocker, Paul Meyer, Ben Dedek, and Harry Bockewitz, plus one data card whose painting was by Rex A. Prunty. Among images of original artworks provided by Greg Palumbo are three other paintings signed Rex A. Prunty plus I’ve found on-line evidence of a fourth painting.

Click any image for a larger view. Click here to download a 2.9-MB PDF of all three paintings shown here. The size of the images in this PDF is based on the resolution of the original images, not the actual size of the paintings in inches.

Prunty was born in Illinois in 1899 and may have worked for GM Art and Color; his name is on a drawing of a race car from the 1940s. The above F3 locomotive was delivered in November 1948, so by that date he would have been working for EMD Styling. Continue reading →

GM sold 496 E8 locomotives, all but 46 of them being A units. This was down only slightly from the 511 E7s sold. I only have eight data cards for E8s, possibly because GM stopped making such cards.

The signature has been cropped out of this card but Soulis Auctions says the painting was by a GM artist named Rex A. Prunty.

Erie bought 14 E8 A units, the first of which (including number 820) were delivered in January 1951. Continue reading →