The Train of Tomorrow (1947), by Addison Wechter

The Train of Tomorrow Slidecast

7 Responses to "The Train of Tomorrow (1947), by Addison Wechter"

Anthony says:

April 25, 2014 at 5:38 pm

The narration was clear but I thought that there could have been more narration on some of the slides. Even the slides that had text explaining some of the images could have had more narration associated with them because I’d rather hear things than read them. I thought the slides were attractive and did a good job of grabbing my attention and interest. The images were meaningful to the discussion. I felt that there was adequate time to observe the image on each slide and read the accompanying text. Although there was some mention of the historical context regarding the promise of a better life after World War II, there could have been more information about why General Motors had these visions for a trains of the future. What values were embedded in these trains? Why were the features such as comfort, spaciousness, and a view of the surrounding so important to the American people?

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Noah Steinberg says:

April 26, 2014 at 1:35 am

I kept on thinking how, during a 28 month trip, all of the cars really emphasized the ability to have nice views. After a few weeks, let alone a few moths, I don’t think passengers can enjoy the views the whole time. Like Anthony said, I think there could be a little bit more narration on each of the slides. For example, while it might seem obvious, stressing the fact that this train is for entire families, or how it is the 1st to incorporate an entire electric kitchen on a car. These indicate values such as family time and efficiency of combining technologies into a singular unit. I thought the images used were of important relevance and were explained nicely. As with other images of the “train of the future”, it would be interesting to compare and contrast the values in each of them, and if the values came and went as the “train of the future” changed over time. I liked the flow of the slidecast and appreciated how the importance of the values of the time correlated with the technology was clearly stated.

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Brandon Smith says:

April 27, 2014 at 11:00 pm

I was surprised to learn that this train was actually built. I haven’t been on any modern cross-country trains, but this one seems so cool that I have trouble imagining it not being very common unless it was also very expensive to construct. This “train of the future” seems like it more than met the expectations for it. I was impressed that each individual car in the train was designed for a specific purpose, but each one also made optimal use of the space and experience offered by the Astra Dome. One thing I did not like about the slidecast was the number of slides that were just text without narration. My suggestion for a way to improve that would be to replace the text with more pictures, either of this train or of other trains of the time, and read the original text as a narration. Hearing it is a lot more interesting than having to read it.

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Mike Fogarty says:

April 28, 2014 at 1:19 am

I found your slidecast to be very interesting. The audio was a little muffled, but overall it was not hard to hear. The images used in the slidecast are really fun to look at and really made the slidecast enjoyable to watch. During this time, transportation via cars and planes were primarily still in their infant stages, trains were the main source of transportation for people travelling from city to city, or state to state. Having some background on the development of train cars, the images of the GM astro car really remind me of George Pullman’s train cars; they were high end and very modern for the time period it was in. There were lavish amenities such as air conditioning and dining services, which was a major break from the smelly, hot train cars currently in use. It is interesting to see the different views of each car and how seriously people took train as a main source of transportation. Awesome job on the slidecast.

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Drew Beyer says:

April 28, 2014 at 1:49 pm

Good job. I like how you highlighted the fact that this vision of the future was meant to foster hope and patience for a brighter future after WWII. Call me a presentist, but its crazy to me that people would buy this concept of “After total war, comes total living.” I would’ve appreciated more focus on the historical context, however. For example, at least a mention of racial discrimination conveyed in the drawings of the train’s passengers. In addition, maybe a slide on what values of the time were brought to light with this futuristic idea, and how they differ from today’s values and existing technology and why. Great pictures, and good narration, though. You went slowly, so I caught every bit of info.

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Ethan Ossolinski says:

April 28, 2014 at 3:29 pm

I like the topic that you chose, and it was interesting to see how each of the different cars reflected the ideals of the times. I also liked how you pointed out that World War Two had an impact on how the train was envisioned in the future. However, it seemed to me like a lot of your more in depth analysis of the topic was displayed via text rather than being shown verbally. I think this could be improved in the future by adding more narration and less text. I also think the project could have been improved by bringing in pictures from some other context of the times, to emphasize how this idyllic train was a product of the times in which it was spawned. Overall it was nicely done, a more analytic narration would certainly make it great.

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Zack Benedetto says:

April 29, 2014 at 12:08 am

Overall I think this slidecast did a good job of describing all of the luxuries that the futuristic train of tomorrow could offer. It also explained the context of how people would be rewarded for their patience after the war. It would have been nice to have the context talked about out loud though instead of just text on the slide. I thought it was nice that the context of the war was talked about later, when relating it to the poem. There was a couple slides that had a lot of text that may have just been more effective with less text and a picture instead, with talking about the text that was taken away. There were some really nice other slides though, the ones introducing each train car, that had a nice combination of pictures, text and speaking. I think also maybe not having audio would be more okay if things in the frame were moving or zooming in or out.

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