[N&W] Re: Script Mongram (Was freight car paint schemes)

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

[Jim Brewer wrote:]

The gothic, or script, monogram, first appeared in 1958, and was used on
locomotives and company publications, but no freight cars.

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[Rick Morrison replied:]

Unless I am misunderstanding something here, the gothic, or script monogram
dates way back before 1958.  1958 was the first year it was applied to any
equipment.  In this case it was all new locomotives delivered from 1958 on
into the 1960's. The masonary underpass where N&W passed over Maryland Rt.
34 near Sharpsburg, MD has a script monogram cast into the concrete on each
side of the structure.  That underpass (as we locals call it) was built
about 1938 or 39.

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I agree with Rick here, there are early incarnations of the logo design as
far back as  the mid 1920s, I have not found anything further back than that.

Regarding application to freight cars, the logo also appeared on the
railroad's first piggyback trailers and I distinctly recall seeing the first
autoracks carrying that logo.  I have a photo showing the autoracks,
somewhere, but will have to dig quite a bit to find it.  I saw one of these
cars parked in a group of shop cars east of the passenger station in Roanoke
about 15-20 years back, but there was no place to shoot a photo. It must have
been the only survivor of such a scheme since the logo was only in use on
equipment for a very short period of time before the half-moon logo was
introduced.

To the best of my knowledge, this was the only equipment ever painted with
such.  In fact there may have only been a very few cars or a one of a kind.

Ken Miller

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There is another bridge, though in Bristol, VA near the old Kern's Bread 
plant, that has the N&W Gothic emblem in concrete. Mr. Ed King: do you know 
when it was built?
Dave Grigsby