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"Texas Warbonnets and Bluebonnets"
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TEXAS WARBONNETS AND BLUEBONNETS
The Texas Chief near Brenham, Texas
The Texas Hill Country is gently rugged land, where rolling landscapes are sparkled with the color of bluebonnets and other
wildflowers, including the Indian paintbrush. It is in this setting, that Robert chose to depict the Texas Chief, running
northbound between Sealy and Brenham, Texas circa 1965, along the Bledox Hwy. The chief ran on a daily shed between Houston,
Texas and Chicago, Illinois, by the way of the hill country in Central Texas. A defiant thunderstorm offers a moment of
spontaneity as the train thunders past, in a flash of stainless steel and glory. Company artists at Electro Motive, a division
of General Motors, designed the paint scheme on the diesel locomotives. The scheme was contoured so that it resembled the
warbonnet headdress worn by Navaho Indian Chiefs. Robert felt it appropriate to have warbonnet Diesels passing through a field
of Texas Bluebonnets, the Texas state flower. The Warbonnet paint scheme has adored the fleet of Santa Fe Diesels since late
1940's and can still be seen on today's modern high-tech diesels!
Print Size 22-1/4" x 14-1/2"
Image Size 19-1/4" x 12-1/2"
©2002 Robert West
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