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I received a catalog with a number of railfan items including what looked to be steam and early diesel era advertising featuring pinup girls printed on metal to be used as decorations.

Questions:

1> Are these illustrations flights of fancy or did railroads use pinup style illustrations in their period advertising?

2> Would it be in poor taste to post the illustrations so that people understand better what I mean? They probably were racy for their time but relatively tame in today's world.

Any information is appreciated. Thanks!

Last edited by MG Brown
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My Dad was a "car knocker" for the Reading Lines from the 40's thru 1980. I visited his shops many times as a kid and remember a lot of "pin up" girl posters on the walls. But none of them involved anything to do with railroading.  

You can do an internet search and find a lot of old photographs with pretty girls posing with new locomotives and passenger equipment. I would hesitate to use the words "pin up" with these photos however.

That being said....I have quite a few of the pretty girl and trains tin metal signs displayed in my train room. I like them and do not find them offensive at all. If guests do, I politely show them the way out.

Donald

Combining WWII "B-17" - style nose art with trains just don't seem quite right to me.  I dunno, but these tin signs seem more "tasteless" than "offensive" to me.  In that case, nobody would have to worry at all about seeing any of these signs displayed in my train room.

I'd keep them out of sight, stashed away in a drawer somewhere.  

What they're doing is taking 1940's-50's pin-up art as painted by artists like Gil Elvgren for calendars and such, and combining them with paintings of railroads. It's possible some of the railroad images were used on calendars or other advertising, but not the two together. I'd note that none of the images use any nudity; the models are portrayed wearing low-cut evening gowns, lingerie, swimsuits etc.

3rail 2 posted:

My Dad was a "car knocker" for the Reading Lines from the 40's thru 1980. I visited his shops many times as a kid and remember a lot of "pin up" girl posters on the walls. But none of them involved anything to do with railroading.  

You can do an internet search and find a lot of old photographs with pretty girls posing with new locomotives and passenger equipment. I would hesitate to use the words "pin up" with these photos however.

That being said....I have quite a few of the pretty girl and trains tin metal signs displayed in my train room. I like them and do not find them offensive at all. If guests do, I politely show them the way out.

Donald

Jack Delano Photo

Jack Delano 1943

 

KansasMike posted:
3rail 2 posted:

My Dad was a "car knocker" for the Reading Lines from the 40's thru 1980. I visited his shops many times as a kid and remember a lot of "pin up" girl posters on the walls. But none of them involved anything to do with railroading.  

You can do an internet search and find a lot of old photographs with pretty girls posing with new locomotives and passenger equipment. I would hesitate to use the words "pin up" with these photos however.

That being said....I have quite a few of the pretty girl and trains tin metal signs displayed in my train room. I like them and do not find them offensive at all. If guests do, I politely show them the way out.

Donald

Jack Delano Photo

Jack Delano 1943

 

The internal "decorations" of cabooses and shop areas were not part of railroad advertising campaigns.

Rusty

This may not be quite the type of calendar or pin-up that has been the topic of these posts, but I recently found at a local swap meet this 1947 desk calendar which not not only features great railroad related photos but also a print of a painting by Howard Fogg.  Mr. Fogg is credited inside as the official American Locomotive Company Artist.  Alco apparently produced a desk calendar annually for a time.  

97F172CD-9B76-4782-A8ED-071AE30AA18344902EF9-75EF-47D4-B1FB-4AD69B34F0C9FE0923EB-6EC7-4BD7-A785-66DE78BE3261

The above photo was among the 53 photos that “were selected by a distinguished jury from more than 1200 exceptional photographs” with the help of some noted railroad journalists of the day.  Eight photos were included with the permission of author Lucius Beebe from his then yet unpublished book “Mixed Train Daily.” 

While “Locomotive Pin-up” is the only picture in the calendar that is even remotely related to the topic of these posts, the rest of the pictures also were still very enjoyable for this lover of photos of vintage railroad related subjects.

And it didn’t hurt that the year of this like new, unused vintage calendar happened to be for the birth year of a certain forum member who shall remain unnamed at this time.

Cheers!

Alan

PS: That is the shadow of the clumsy photographer (who shall continue to remain unnamed) on the bottom of the pin-up photo, not a stain on the calendar page.

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  • 44902EF9-75EF-47D4-B1FB-4AD69B34F0C9
  • FE0923EB-6EC7-4BD7-A785-66DE78BE3261
palallin posted:

I wasn't just the images:  the words were patently (and obviously) sexual in nature, if perhaps over the head of the average 4 year old. 

Exactly.  The images of the ladies: fine.  The pictures of the locomotives: no problem.  The wording on the signs: totally vulgar.  Once again, you wouldn't find them hanging on the walls in my train room, or anywhere else in my house for that matter.  I wouldn't pay one red cent for any of them.

On the other hand, if I spotted some in a dumpster or a trash can or someone gave me some for free, I'd bring them home and stash them out of sight.  But that would be the only way I'd even consider having any.

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