@Hot Water posted:It's interesting how EMD was involved in the painting process. I've read that their design department provided livery designs for many of their customers, so in many cases the paint schemes railroads used weren't designs they came up with, but those that EMD designers had prepared for them.
@Hot Water posted:
Except for the Santa Fe and PRR, the EMC/EMD Styling Group of the Engineering Dept. was responsible for styling ALL the railroads.
Do you know if GE, ALCO, Baldwin and FM provided the same design services, or did they just follow whatever EMD did? Would they have done some of their own designs for certain of their engines before EMD had done the designs?
Ben Dedek of EMD was their lead designer, I read, and was heavily involved with many of their designs. In many cases EMD would prepare several proposals and then let the railroad choose which one they wanted.
Apparently there were a few exceptions to railroads using EMD designs, other than Pennsylvania and the Santa Fe, such as Northern Pacific using Raymond Loewy's design for the North Coast Limited. I also read somewhere that the Southern Pacific Daylight scheme was designed in-house by Charles Eggleston, which of course was applied to some of their steam engines and then to some of their diesels. The Nickle Plate Bluebird scheme was their own as well. Another example was the New Haven McGinnis scheme, which was designed by Herbert Matter.
I find the involvement of famous industrial designers and graphic designers in the history of railroads to be of great interest.
