In my new book The Northern Pacific by Dale Sanders one of the pages show a photo of the Northern Pacific Ship Travel sign standing by the NP grade crossing in Yakima. is it still there or it's has since been removed if so,why.
Because you can no longer ship or travel via Northern Pacific?
Not such a foolish question, things do have a habit of slipping through the cracks from time to time. Ever see a gas station out in the boonies that still has a "Sinclair" or "Esso" sign?
By the way, on that NP question I don't know myself.
Good question indeed. Perhaps the answer can be found on the Northern Pacific Historical Society site. In Texas, the original Flying Red Horse, Pegasus, which rotated on top of the Magnola Building and was a Dallas landmark for many years, has been restored to it's former beauty and the 42 X 40 foot sign is now on top of a mock oil derrick in front of the Dallas Omni Hotel. Personally, I feel it should have been put on display at Fair Park, home of the State Fair of Texas, but it is still great to see this unique piece of Dallas history ridin' high again in the Lone Star State!
Lady Firestorm and I visited Fair Park in Dallas 20+ years ago, when the rail museum was there. VERY impressive architecture!
The buildings at Fair Park were built for the Texas Centenniel celebration and opened for the 1936 State Fair of Texas. My favorite remains the Hall of State. When I was knee high to a Texas grasshopper in the 50s there was a fine scale model of a Houston & Texas Central mixed train in a glass display in the building. I contacted them a couple of years ago but the remains of it are unknown.
The treasure was Texas & Pacific 2-10-4 #638 that T&P donated to Fair Park. Some dumba** had it scrapped. It was replaced by a NYC Mohawk disguised as a T&P steam locomotive. The #638 remains a giant loss to Texans who love trains. My grandfather took me to the top of the world on the tender shortly after it was placed on display in the early 50s. It made a life long railfan out of me!
Another novelty was the Trailblazer monorail which operated from the Midway to the Hall of State. It is featured in Kim Pedersen's new book Monorails, Trains of the Future Now Arriving. Visit www.monorails.org Disney is well covered as well as Seattle including Elvis in the movie It Happened at the World's Fair. The Trailblazer can be seen in the 1962 motion picture State Fair which starred Pat Boone and Ann-Margret.
The White Stag Outdoors Products sign in Portland, OR was such a Popular Icon, that when White Stag went out of business, public outcry motivated I believe the state to maintain the sign and change it to "Made in Oregon"
At Christmas time, a red bulb was/is added to the Stag's nose, mimicking Rudolph.
I haven't been to Yakima, WA in a Long time, so I don't know about the sign the OP askes about, but there are precedents for saving old signs.
Doug
May your flanges always stay BETWEEN the rails
Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!
Get the Classic Trains twice-monthly newsletter