As every U.S. commuter knows, a railroad station should not be drafty, ill-lighted, noisy, depressing; but many are. U.S. railroads, long conscious of this situation, have been kept from doing anything drastic about it, first by Depression, second by war. But, despite these handicaps, many U.S. railroad companies have hired industrial designers to experiment on a small scale with the problems of modern railroad design. One is Manhattan's Raymond Loewy, who believes with simple passion that "a railroad station is not a house," and who is busy modernizing stations for the Pennsylvania Railroad.*
What Loewy's staff thinks a railroad station should be is exemplified in two brand-new, spick & span stations of the Pennsylvania, designed by Loewy Architect Lester Claude Tichy, which last week awaited only a job of spring landscaping before making their full-dress bow to the traveling public. These stations (at Edgewood, Md. and Ridley Park, Pa.) are as light, airy and cheerful as a country-club terrace.
Edgewood's station (a twin of Ridley Park's except for some differences in building materials) is a bright, clean-looking, boxlike structure faced with natural-finish redwood and brick, materials expected to keep their looks without maintenance for many years. On its track side, where an 8-ft. overhanging shed roof offers shelter, a huge plate-glass window gives waiting travelers a complete view of all incoming and outgoing trains.
Tickets are bought, not through a cage-barred wicket, but over a hip-high counter of light natural birch. Washrooms have bright red, non-defaceable metal partitions. The waiting room has walls and ceiling of Flexboard (no plaster to chip and crack), is brightly lighted at night by round, porthole-like fixtures built almost flush with the ceiling. Slightly more expensive to build than old-style stations, Edgewood's (at $18,000) is expected to save money through virtual absence of maintenance costs.
Raymond Loewy has lots of face-lifting ideas for U.S. railroads. Other jobs he has done:
¶ Redesigned the Long Island Railroad level of Manhattan's Pennsylvania Station with translucent glass store fronts.
Though not yet complete, modernization has upped business in bakery, bar and barbershop concessions 50-800%.
¶Transmogrified downtown ticket offices in Chicago and Boston, from bank tellers' grilles to desks that look like bank executives'. For tours and bigger trips, private consultation rooms are provided. On the wall, an illuminated map (a "visual time table") flashes routes of the company's crack trains.
*Some other leading industrial designers noted for work on U.S. railroads: Henry Dreyfuss, who designs for the New York Central; Walter Dorwin Teague, who has done de luxe coaches for the New York, New Haven & Hartford; Paul Cret, who designs interiors for stainless-steel trains of Edward G. Budd Manufacturing Co.