Rail Locomotives
In 1947 Paul Arzens was placed on the payroll of the French National Railway Company (SNCF) and his first commission for them dates from that same year. Arzens was behind the designs of the BB and CC locomotives and their numerous derivatives which would together dominate the French railway network during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
One of his earlier designs was for the smooth fronted CC7100 series. It was one of these, the CC7107, which broke the electric train speed record in 1955. The record would stand until broken by a TGV in 1981. Arzens was also behind the reverse sloping front window characteristic of locomotives such as the BB15000, which he said had been inspired by the form of a "sprinter on the starting block".
Read more about this topic: Paul Arzens
Famous quotes containing the words rail and/or locomotives:
“If goodness were only a theory, it were a pity it should be lost to the world. There are a number of things, the idea of which is a clear gain to the mind. Let people, for instance, rail at friendship, genius, freedom, as long as they will—the very names of these despised qualities are better than anything else that could be substituted for them, and embalm even the most envenomed satire against them.”
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830)
“The flower-fed buffaloes of the spring
In the days of long ago,
Ranged where the locomotives sing
And the prairie flowers lie low:—”
—Vachel Lindsay (1879–1931)