Cesar Vergara recipient of Railway Age Graham Claytor Award

Railway Age has selected noted railway industry industrial designer Cesar A. Vergara as recipient of the 2015 W. Graham Claytor Jr. Award for Distinguished Service to Passenger Transportation. Vergara will accept the award at the 22nd Annual Passenger Trains on Freight Railroads Conference in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 28, 2015.

The Graham Claytor Award, determined by Railway Age’s editors and publisher, is presented annually and is based largely on a lifetime of achievement for an individual who has contributed significantly to the advancement of passenger rail in America.

Vergara, President and Chief Designer of Vergarastudio, “is internationally recognized in passenger transportation design, with three decades of experience managing and leading design teams in consulting firms and transit agencies in Europe, North America and Latin America,” said Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono. “He is the Raymond Loewy and Henry Dreyfuss of his generation.”

Vergara, who recently accepted the position of Principal Industrial Designer with SNC-Lavalin Group subsidiary Interfleet, formed Vergarastudio in 2009. Prior to that, he held industrial design positions with various organizations. He was National Principal of Design at Jacobs Civil from 2003 to 2009; Chief Designer and Assistant Executive Director at New Jersey Transit from 2001 to 2003; Senior Director of Rail at Teague from 1999 to 2001; Director of Vehicle Design and Manager of Car Design at Amtrak from 1990 to 1999; Chief Designer of National Railways of Mexico (N de M) from 1987 to 1990; Senior Industrial Designer at Henry Dreyfuss Associates from 1986 to1987; and an industrial designer at Gustavsberg Villeroy Bosch and Utveckings Design, Stockholm, Sweden, from 1980 to 1982.

Among Vergara’s numerous designs are the Wabtec/MotivePower HSP46 diesel-electric locomotive for MBTA (pictured); the Siemens DMU for SMART (Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit), California; the Kawasaki M8 EMU commuter train for Metro-North and Connecticut DOT; the Brookville BL36PH diesel-electric locomotive for SFRTA (South Florida Regional Transportation Authority); the Alstom PL42 diesel-electric locomotive for NJ Transit; the General Electric AMD 103 diesel-electric Genesis locomotive for Amtrak, and the Cascades Talgo trainset for Amtrak and the Washington State DOT. He is the recipient of several Brunel Awards and a Cooper Hewitt Triennial Award. Since 1991, he has been an active member of the Watford Group of railway architects and designers. Vergara also participates in APTA and COMTO (Conference Of Minority Transportation Officials).

Vergara, who hails from Mexico City and came to the United States in 1970 when his father, a World Bank executive, accepted a U.S. post, holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Fine Arts in Industrial Design from Konstfack University College of Art and Design, Stockholm, Sweden. He resides in Ridgefield, Conn., and has five children with his wife, Aideen, a nurse practitioner.

Railway Age established the W. Graham Claytor Jr. Award for Distinguished Service to Passenger Transportation in 1994 in honor of the now-legendary Amtrak and Southern Railway president and U.S. Secretary of the Navy. It is presented annually at the Passenger Trains on Freight Railroads conference.