The true story of Raymond Loewy, whose designs are still celebrated for their unerring ability to advance American consumer taste. Born in Paris in 1893 and trained as an engineer, Raymond Loewy revolutionized twentieth-century American industrial design. Combining salesmanship and media savvy, he created bright, smooth, and colorful logos for major corporations that included Greyhound, Exxon, and Nabisco. His designs for Studebaker automobiles, Sears Coldspot refrigerators, Lucky Strike cigarette packs, and Pennsylvania Railroad locomotives are iconic. Beyond his timeless designs, Loewy carefully built an international reputation through the assiduous courting of journalists and tastemakers to become the face of both a new profession and a consumer-driven vision of the American dream. In Streamliner, John Wall traces the evolution of an industry through the lens of Loewy's eclectic life, distinctive work, and invented persona. How, he asks, did Loewy build a business while transforming himself into a national brand a half century before "branding" became relevant? Placing Loewy in context with the emerging consumer culture of the latter half of the twentieth century, Wall explores how his approach to business complemented—or differed from—that of his well-known contemporaries, including industrial designers Henry Dreyfuss, Walter Teague, and Norman Bel Geddes. Wall also reveals how Loewy tailored his lifestyle to cement the image of "designer" in the public imagination and why the self-promotion that drove Loewy to the top of his profession began to work against him at the end of his career. Streamliner is an important and engaging work on one of the longest-lived careers in industrial design.

"An examination of the introduction of streamliners to American railroading, including the technology and styling trends"--

When World War II came to an end in 1945, America was on the verge of an unprecedented economic boom that carried over to its vast rail transportation system. Railroads placed orders for new streamlined passenger trains. Passengers wanted new, fashionable trains with sleek cars and locomotives. In addition, steam was out, diesels were in. Railroads saw good times coming and they prepared well for them. This 200-page color book features 335 photographs in a 10 x 10” hardbound volume. Covers numerous name trains.

Richly illustrated with over 200 photos, this book tells the story of railroad streamliners, from their early days as short little articulated speedsters to their halcyon years as 20-car "cities on wheels"--Places that were going somewhere. And it also tells a story of a time of individuality, when streamliners reflected the personality of the regions they served.

An abandoned stretch of road in the middle of thedesert, a rusty old gas station, and a plume of dust rising in the distance...When Billy Joe steps onto old Evel O'Neil's property, trouble follows closebehind: misfits, criminals, cops, and media, all of them in search of freedom,justice, and glory... But only the fastest one among them will get it... Ahigh-speed rock-n-roll blockbuster full of fast cars, mysteries, questionableantiheroes, and a whole lot of action.

An authoritative, lavishly illustrated history of Union Pacific's revolutionary passenger services from 1934 to the end of the railroad's passenger operations in 1971.

"Streamliners tells the steamliner story and takes you aboard a wide range of steamliners, from UP's historic M-10000 to America's most talked about train, the California Zephyr, whose descendant was still making tracks across the continent as late as the 1990s"--Back cover.