Railroad Herald and Logo Design Evolution

[Big Train]

I stumbled upon this website about the design and evolution of railroad heralds and logos during the last hundred years or so:

http://annyas.com/railroad-company-logo-design-evolution/

While it has been approached from a graphic design point-of-view, it's interesting to note how herald styles have been influenced by the culture of the times.

This is a follow-on from a discussions several months ago when Sirenwerks was looking for feedback on a free lance paint scheme for the Chesapeake Piedmont Midland.

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=38364.0

[MVW]

Great find! Thanks for the link.

Jim

[MichaelWinicki]

What's amazing is how timeless some of the logos are like "Burlington Route", "Frisco", "Rock Island", and "Sante Fe"...

They could be rolled out today and would look just fine.

[tom mann]

What's amazing is how timeless some of the logos are like "Burlington Route", "Frisco", "Rock Island", and "Sante Fe"...

I was thinking the same thing.  This tells me that the best designers of the day worked on these projects.  Contrast that concept with today (CSX boxcar logo, BNSF swoosh, etc). 

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I kinda like the CSX one, but that BNSF swoosh is just terrible.

[Dave V]

Love seeing the Colorado Midland represented.  The Pikes Peak Route logo is about as railroady as it gets!

[C855B]

I kinda like the CSX one, but that BNSF swoosh is just terrible.

I dunno... the new emoji CSX grates on me a bit. Too trendy, trying maybe a bit too hard. It'll get old quickly.

Low-level logo design was under my purview when I was in the print biz. Both CSX and BNSF look like something I would've done after being told "See what you can come up with... spend no more than half an hour." The real travesty is that high-dollar image agencies are producing this dreck. There may be no accounting for taste, but if there was, these firms would be bankrupt.

[Dave V]

The Rock Island bankruptcy "Route Rock" logo always looked to me like a virus: