This painting was started right on the heals of Century 1. Slowly the painting materialized and was finished after Modern Power. Some of the ideas from both paintings carry over into this one. The colors I used are supposed to give a heavily industrialized feel, and the darkness of the locomotive adds to the shear mass and power that it exudes. The locomotive is based on the freight hauling Reading T-1. Four of these locomotives still exist, although none currently run. They are beastly engines, and quite a sight to behold, even in the cold silence of their dormant state. Once again, I didn't put an identifying number or a railroad name, therefor allowing the brutishness of the behemoth be the focal point. Although many artists who paint trains tend to focus on recreating times and places in history, I want the viewer to see the train as a symbol and an object of beauty, rather than a historical reference.
Of course the history is still present. The T-1 Northerns were built in the Reading's own shops, using the boilers from smaller Consolidation type locomotives.
