Happy 120 Birthday to Raymond Loewy (Designer of R40 Slants.)

[Roadcruiser1]

Today is Raymond Loewy's 120th birthday. He was the designer of the R40 slant cars that ran from 1967-2009. Happy Birthday Mr. Loewy. He has been given a Google Doodle and to honor him even more a picture of his work will be shown down below.......

 

http://images.nycsubway.org/i5000/img_5193.jpg

[Union Tpke]

Thanks for posting

 

 

Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

[Vistausss]

I still think (just like on the rest of the R4x) that the big route letter looks better than the small one in use today. Am I the only one who thinks that?

[realizm]

Google commerates Raymond Loewy's 120th birthday. Just noticed it: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/google-doodle/10426680/Raymond-Loewy-Google-marks-his-120th-birthday.html

 

Snapshot of doodle on today's Google homepage:

 

[T to Dyre Avenue]

I still think (just like on the rest of the R4x) that the big route letter looks better than the small one in use today. Am I the only one who thinks that?

I think so too. With those big route letter signs, you knew what train was coming from far away. No need to squint your eyes like with the R32s, 142s, 143s and 160s. I'm not exactly sure why they switched to the smaller signs, but I think it was because the smaller sign boxes were easier to maintain and could hold more letter routes per roll.

 

BTW, when those R40s were delivered, they looked so much better than they did in later years, when they had to put all those extra gates and bars on the slant ends because it was unsafe to cross between them. It probably would have been better to use that design on a car with full-width cabs (maybe one day...). Basically they were R38s with slant-fronts, larger windows and large front roll signs.

[Turbo19]

Nice tribute.

[Lance]

I think so too. With those big route letter signs, you knew what train was coming from far away. No need to squint your eyes like with the R32s, 142s, 143s and 160s. I'm not exactly sure why they switched to the smaller signs, but I think it was because the smaller sign boxes were easier to maintain and could hold more letter routes per roll.

 

BTW, when those R40s were delivered, they looked so much better than they did in later years, when they had to put all those extra gates and bars on the slant ends because it was unsafe to cross between them. It probably would have been better to use that design on a car with full-width cabs (maybe one day...). Basically they were R38s with slant-fronts, larger windows and large front roll signs.

1) That's exactly the reason. The large letter rolls, while easier to read from a distance, only had a few letters on them, usually consisting of the lines of a particular yard. Their size also led to them bunching and getting stuck when trying to cycle through the roll.

 

2) I agree with that sentiment. They did look better before the gates and chains.