The Roadside Diner, that sleek immobile railroad image in the landscape, once marked a peak in industrialized building. The ultimate technological item in the factory built process. Design followed precedents in trolley car and railroad construction, and just as the railroad was always at the forefront of technological progress so was the Diner. The Diner is a good example of the building as a sign; it is both a sculptural symbol and an architectural shelter. The manufacturers picked up a form, the railroad car, (as it developed from the horse drawn wagon), and were able to produce the greatest example of efficiency in the restaurant industry. Designed to operate at minimum overhead and operational expenses, Diners were able to serve good wholesome food at lower prices.
The railroad was a perfect national image, familiar to all. It was progressive, revolutionary, and based on a machine-aesthetic attitude. What the dining car manufacturers did was to combine traditional technology, essentially carpentry and metal work, with the latest in building materials; stainless steel, aluminum, formica, porcelain, enamel etc., in a process of mass production and industrialization.
The automobile that once spawned the many Diners along the state highways also, in a way, signaled the end of the age of the Diner; from the birth of the Drive-in restaurants to the Drive-through restaurants and especially with the vast super highways that left the old roads deserted.
The research and photography was done by Richard Gutman for EC.
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