Not Loewy

(Photo from Al Chione Collection)

Caption = “One of the most striking examples of the difference that an industrial engineer can make is the unmistakable silhouette of the Raymond Lowey (sic) designed GG1.”

2007 brings seven new calendars, one of which is the Charles Ditlefsen All-Pennsy color calendar, which I got online directly from his site for about $12.
“They saw you coming! I coulda got that calendar on eBay for only 15¢ plus 89 dollars shipping and handling.”
The calendar continues the hoary mistake of saying Industrial-Designer Raymond Loewy designed the GG1.
The January entry of the calendar has a bunch of Gs lined up for service at Sunnyside Yard on Long Island, and claims they were designed by Loewy.
My Christmas-card made the same mistake. It has a GG1 supposedly on the Corridor (actually it looked more like the Main Line west of Philly), and claimed it was designed by Loewy.
In fact, the calendar also makes the mistake of calling Loewy an “industrial engineer;” it also misspells his name (doesn’t matter).
“TRUMPETING ALERT!” True engineers will go ballistic. Loewy didn’t engineer the locomotive.
All he did was fiddle the styling of an already existing design, “Old Rivets,” the first G, #4800 (originally #4899, because they expected R1 #4800, a 4-8-4, to triumph). I.e. the basic steeple-cab design of the loco is Pennsy; not Loewy.
Loewy’s input was small, though extraordinary.
The shape of the windows is Loewy, as is the curve at the top of the front man-door around the headlight.

“Old Rivets;” #4800 — the first G.

The side-vents are also Loewy, as is the original cat-whisker paint-job.
Loewy’s major triumph was to convince Pennsy to use an all-welded steel shell, unlike the riveted panels on 4800.
Loewy’s minor fiddling made the mighty G the most gorgeous railroad locomotive of all time.
But the original design is Pennsy.

My blowhard brother in Boston claims misspelling doesn’t matter.