A Controversial Train Sculpture by Jeff Koons

While we normally report here on the history of Canadian railway in our country and progress on the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre, we will also occasionally report on interesting railway oriented news from around the world. Today, we have a most fascinating item as reported in other news media and reported here in chronological order .....
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From the Feb 5th, 2007 New York Times
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"Proposed Jeff Koons Train Monstrosity

A giant Jeff Koons puppy (see image below) might be cute and bring smiles to the faces of thousands of people, but a giant train hanging from a crane probably won't do much for people - other than confuse them and make them think that all art sucks.

If realized, the 161 foot tall hanging train would be located at the entrance of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, just like his giant Puppy graces the entrance of the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum.
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Mr. Koons imagines periodic chugging noises. "It will be absolutely so authentic a performance of a train," he said, that it could fool "an engineer who's worked on a train his whole life."
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"Mr. Govan compared the project to the Eiffel Tower, expressing hope that the piece would become a landmark for Los Angeles. "The beautiful thing," he said, "is that we would see it from the 10 freeway and from downtown."


As reported in LA Curbed - Jan 21, 2009

"In these terribly tough times, who isn't cheered up by news of a dangling train on Wilshire Blvd? Talking to the Los Angeles Times, LACMA director Michael Govan drops this nugget in a story about the museum: "He added that money is still flowing for research and development on another high-profile project, "Train," a 70-foot-long replica of an old-time steam locomotive that artist Jeff Koons would create as an instant outdoor landmark for the museum, hoisted high above it on a crane."
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Technically, the sculpture is described an "operational replica of 1943 Baldwin 2900 class steam locomotive in stainless steel and aluminum and includes a 160 x 141 x 29 foot Liebherr LR 1750 lattice boom crane."
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More information about Jeff Koons can be found at his website and another example of his "train modelling" work can be found here.
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What do you think of this creative endeavour. Make your thoughts known on the TRHA Yahoo Group Forum.
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Story Researched by Russ Milland