Portraits of Amtrak
Alex Craghead “Talgo Tilt"
Watercolor on Paper, 9” x 12”, 2011
The tilting Talgo train sets, used for Am- trak’s Cascades service between Vancou- ver, B.C., and Eugene, Oregon, are among the most distinctive of Amtrak's equipment in service. Living in Portland, I have ridden them often, and I have grown very fond of them; they are the closest Amtrak comes to having a true streamliner. Although I consider myself to be a pretty traditional representational painter, I greatly admire Tom Fawell’s dynamic EMD advertising art of the 1960s-’70s, and wanted to combine a depiction of my favorite Amtrak train with a bold, stylistic approach.
Michael Schwab “Acela/Washington, D.C.”
Mark Desobeau “Pioneer at Strawberry,” Oil and Acrylic on Canvas Board, 16” x 20”, 1995
Amtrak’s Pioneer began service in June 1977, initially operating as a Seattle- Salt Lake City train. With the April 5, 1992, timetable change, the train connected to the California Zephyr at Denver, enabling the Pioneer to serve parts of Wyoming. It was discontinued in 1997. Here, the year is 1995 and we are trackside on the Union Pacific Railroad just east of Ogden, Utah, as Amtrak’s eastbound Pioneer is rounding the bend at a location known as Strawberry; a short consist of Superliners is led a venerable EMD F40PH.
Pen and Ink on Vellum, 12” x 18”, 2004 (Michael Schwab, Art Director Sissy Estes, and Arnold Worldwide, Washington, D.C.)
My task was to create a graphic style uniquely appropriate and identifiable with Amtrak’s Acela high speed rail system for a campaign portraying the train within each of the major East Coast cities it serves. This particular artwork needed to be quickly identified architecturally as Washington, D.C., which, with its historic Union Station, is a very proud destination for the Acela. Beyond speed, we needed to portray sever- al messages: to graphically evoke a sense of many destinations and choices, and, for this series, be a modern, vibrant and color- ful depiction of the key cities.
46 JANUARY 2012 •
RAILFAN.COM
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