Have any railroad museums developed exhibits recognizing the accomplishments of GE Designer Ray Patten, who was the principal stylist of the Alco-GE FA and PA series locomotives?

I am asking this because over the decades I managed to acquire examples of some of the consumer products he designed, and eventually we are going to have to eliminate some "stuff" to free up space, and the Patten memorial collection might find a higher use on display than on eBay.

PC

The former N&W passenger station in Roanoke VA now houses the O. Winston Link Museum, and also has an upstairs wing dedicated to the industrial design efforts of Raymond Loewy (who, among other things, re-designed said passenger station).

With GE's major presence in the Erie PA area, the Lake Shore Railway Museum would seem an appropriate fit. FWIW, their website does not appear to be updated for the 2023 season.

Most of the GE archives are at the Museum of Innovation and Science in Schenectady, NY. It is the merger of the Schenectady Museum Foundation and the Hall of History. The HOH was in the GE plant, consisted originally of the GE Publication Bureau files, and was run by retired GE employees. This collection includes all the corporate GE photos and a copy of all of the GE publications up until about 1950. They specialized in the oil paintings GE had done including the Milwaukee Pacific Extension. GE wanted to tear the building down they were in, so the merger with the city museum was arranged. They have a Alco-GE locomotive sitting on the grass in front of the museum. A RS something in Great Northern colors. This would be an excellent location for your collection. They are at 15 Museum Drive, Schenectady, NY 12308, info@misci.org, (518) 382-7890.

There was a smaller similar museum in Erie in the old training center. It was more employee oriented, but they had all of the Erie employee magazines, which contained a lot of information about their product line. Also all the company photos taken at Erie. But this museum seems to have dissipated about 10 years ago. I hope their collection is safe and in the hands of a responsible group.

Thanks for the excellent suggestions!

For those curious about the "other products" he designed, here is a jpeg (if it loads) of a wall poster I did for several historical groups 20 years ago showing Mr. Patten and his patents. Sorry, the posters and original files were all gone decades back, but something similar could be assembled from publicly available sources by anyone so inclined.

PC

Just to correct the story, the architect of the N&W Roanoke passenger station redesign was Allmon Fordyce, who worked for Lowey's firm in New York. While Lowey's name is bandied about a lot, period literature and the original drawings confirm Fordyce as the architect.

Other than the firm's name on the drawings, I've seen absolutely zero mention of Lowey on the drawings, or any period material.

I'm sure Lowey had some involvement in the process, but I suspect it was minimal, just another job for the firm. The Link Museum seems to think Lowey was the only person involved, and does not like the idea of someone else was the principal.

Ken Miller

Ken-thanks for the clarification. Reminiscent of the oft-repeated tale that Loewey designed the GG-1?

Just to clarify, those Patents of Mr. Patten appear to be "Design" Patents.

US Patents come in two common types, Utility Patents and Design Patents.

For example, a Utility Patent would be for a transistor, nobody else could make that specific type of transistor and legally offer it for sale for 17 years after a Utility Patent was issued (17 years is the old timeframe, I think its 20 years now).

Design Patents are more like a "3D Copyright", nobody can make and sell something that looks "exactly" like your design for 17 years (maybe 20 years now).

So the design patent for the Alco/GE PA locomotive only stopped other companies from making locomotives that looked exactly like that. The design patent had no effect in preventing EMD from selling E7/E8 styled locos.

Design Patents are largely useless, and can't stop a competitor from selling a product that functions like your invention but looks different.

Utility Patents can keep a competitor from selling copies of your invention for 20 years.