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big or small logos

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big or small logos
Posted by TH&B on Saturday, April 17, 2004 6:24 PM
I saw a big old CN logo on a boxcar and it looked COOL! I otherwise noticed that lately they paint small cn logos, same with stuff like UP, just a little logo on boxes. Ya gotta have big logos on Railroad cars. What are they trying to be? descrete or something? Railroads should brag!
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Posted by tree68 on Saturday, April 17, 2004 10:39 PM
Paint = Money, Painting = Money. ROI = Small.

John Q. doesn't care about the RR. Despite the fact that the car he's driving and most of the clothes he's wearing probably travelled by train, all he knows is that the train is holding up his trip to wherever.

The shippers don't care if the car has a lot of fancy advertising or just reporting marks and the mandatory stuff. As long as it's where it's supposed to be, when it's supposed to be.

As much as we'd like cars to be lettered like the old days, those days are for the most part gone.

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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Posted by UPTRAIN on Sunday, April 18, 2004 1:20 AM
I agree with the tree (I made that up [:P] ) people used to wave at trains...now the flip us off!!! Except for the railfans out there!!! [:D]

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Posted by TH&B on Sunday, April 18, 2004 3:06 AM
OK but brown paint cost the same as white paint.
Or even better, graffitti is free.
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Posted by TH&B on Sunday, April 18, 2004 3:12 AM
Graffitti is worse, .....not better.
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Posted by rixflix on Sunday, April 18, 2004 3:30 AM
Yep, the old boxcar ads used to tell siories to everyone who watched!!!
Everywhere West
Route of Phoebe Snow
the great RF&P route map
Serves the South
They would tease your mind, take you on journeys.
What's the Katy bringing to my neck of the woods?
Shouldn't I be more specific and Ship Union Pacific?
Western Maryland and Nickel Plate (speed lettering) can move the goods!!!

Today's railcars give us the whiff of gulags, concentration camps, and pinched imaginations. Competition and bragging are gone, gone, gone.

Some of us would hate to admit it, but when a well done and witty piece of grafitti rolls by, doesn't a part of our soul just leap out to embrace it? There is such a need here. I feel a nagging dread and a real ache in the heart about recent developments.

AAR contributory Paint Fund???
I'm ready for the Stencil Committee or the nut-house, but I guess it's just me???

Rix

rixflix aka Captain Video. Blessed be Jean Shepherd and all His works!!! Hooray for 1939, the all time movie year!!! I took that ride on the Reading but my Baby caught the Katy and left me a mule to ride.

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Posted by JoeKoh on Sunday, April 18, 2004 5:18 AM
On the way home I saw some covered hoppers just with cargils markings and small logos.they were mostly back too .thats a big canvass for a graffiti artist.
stayin safe
Joe

Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").

 

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Posted by locomutt on Sunday, April 18, 2004 10:58 AM
QUOTE: Originally posted by tree68

Paint = Money, Painting = Money. ROI = Small.

John Q. doesn't care about the RR. Despite the fact that the car he's driving and most of the clothes he's wearing probably travelled by train, all he knows is that the train is holding up his trip to wherever.

The shippers don't care if the car has a lot of fancy advertising or just reporting marks and the mandatory stuff. As long as it's where it's supposed to be, when it's supposed to be.

As much as we'd like cars to be lettered like the old days, those days are for the most part gone.


[:)]I think Larry said it better than anyone.

IT COSTS MONEY!

I think back to the 'OLD' C & O ;they were painting Locos Black/w white stripes,
It was 'Supposed'? to be a cost cutting endeavor? but appearentally did't work!

And YES! I'm a C & O FAN!
Ask C Shaver!

Being Crazy,keeps you from going "INSANE" !! "The light at the end of the tunnel,has been turned off due to budget cuts" NOT AFRAID A Vet., and PROUD OF IT!!

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Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, April 18, 2004 3:18 PM
CP still has that nice golden beaver logo on the sides of its newer loco's, I really like that logo compared to the CN "map" of north america. -- The CN locos are usually to dirty to see the map anyway.

When all you do is put the small reporting marks on a boxcar it is also easier to change ownership and the reporting marks. It seems that I always see big brown boxcars that have a nice fresh square of paint right where the old reporting marks where and the new reporting marks right overtop.
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Posted by espeefoamer on Sunday, April 18, 2004 3:23 PM
It makes no sense for a railroad to paint a logo or map on a freight car when some #$%^ with a spray can will spread graffiti all over it.[:(!][:(!][:(!]
Ride Amtrak. Cats Rule, Dogs Drool.
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Posted by locomutt on Sunday, April 18, 2004 4:25 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by espeefoamer

It makes no sense for a railroad to paint a logo or map on a freight car when some #$%^ with a spray can will spread graffiti all over it.[:(!][:(!][:(!]


"GREAT ANSWER!"

It really doesn't make any sense?
Other remark! [censored]

Being Crazy,keeps you from going "INSANE" !! "The light at the end of the tunnel,has been turned off due to budget cuts" NOT AFRAID A Vet., and PROUD OF IT!!

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Posted by CShaveRR on Sunday, April 18, 2004 5:12 PM
I think tastes can change, too. UP, for example, put a lot into the cushion-underframe box cars when they first came out: yellow, silver ends, huge decals. That would look positively garish in today's world.

On locomotives in recent years, most railroads have devoted more space to something other than the base color: UP added a flag (and, before that, lightning stripes to break up the monotony). NS added white and a horsehead on the sides, BNSF went completely overboard, CP added its resurrection of the old image, CN and KCS stayed about the same. CSX? Dark blue with gold lettering that will quickly vanish under a layer of coal dust.

Yes, I, like Walter (Locomutt) am a big fan of the old C&O, and think that the black paint job was about the most ill-advised thing they ever did (happily, about the most short-lived). As I said, it seemed to go in cycles, and there were ups as well as downs: Chessie System paint replaced the blue "dip" job (and on the other side, gray with red and yellow "Family Lines" replaced SCL black and L&N pale gray), and later a tasteful blue, yellow, and gray replaced the CSX "Stealth" paint job. Maybe CSX will survive long enough for things to come full circle again.

Carl

Carl

Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)

CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)

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Posted by locomutt on Sunday, April 18, 2004 5:30 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by CShaveRR

I think tastes can change, too. UP, for example, put a lot into the cushion-underframe box cars when they first came out: yellow, silver ends, huge decals. That would look positively garish in today's world.

On locomotives in recent years, most railroads have devoted more space to something other than the base color: UP added a flag (and, before that, lightning stripes to break up the monotony). NS added white and a horsehead on the sides, BNSF went completely overboard, CP added its resurrection of the old image, CN and KCS stayed about the same. CSX? Dark blue with gold lettering that will quickly vanish under a layer of coal dust.

Thanks Carl!

I still like the BLUE!

Who's to say?

Yes, I, like Walter (Locomutt) am a big fan of the old C&O, and think that the black paint job was about the most ill-advised thing they ever did (happily, about the most short-lived). As I said, it seemed to go in cycles, and there were ups as well as downs: Chessie System paint replaced the blue "dip" job (and on the other side, gray with red and yellow "Family Lines" replaced SCL black and L&N pale gray), and later a tasteful blue, yellow, and gray replaced the CSX "Stealth" paint job. Maybe CSX will survive long enough for things to come full circle again.

Carl

Being Crazy,keeps you from going "INSANE" !! "The light at the end of the tunnel,has been turned off due to budget cuts" NOT AFRAID A Vet., and PROUD OF IT!!

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Posted by northwesterner on Monday, April 19, 2004 5:58 PM
Of course it's all about money! But it is nice that some RRs still have an interest in keeping their equipment in good shape. The UP GP15s at the yard between Division and North by I-90/94 look great, as does the new CP switcherthere with the huge Golden Beaver logo,
C&NW - Route of the Kate Shelley
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Posted by UPTRAIN on Monday, April 19, 2004 7:51 PM
I saw a ex-SSW car with brand new paint with a HUGE Cotton Belt Route logo on the side. I've seen about 3...really suprised us each time we saw them.

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