NYC Logo Details

Does anyone know the size and dimensions of a typical NYC logo? Say you wanna make one yourself and need to know the right sizing n placement of the letters. Should look like the photo attached...

The NYC 'cigar band' logo came in various sizes for locomotives, cabooses, boxcars, etc. I have not seen any dimensional drawings. Your best bet would be to work from a 'straight on' photo and scale it to the size you need. Here is a link to the Canada Southern Freight Car Roster that lists dimensions of various logos. http://www.canadasouthern.com/caso/NYC- ... REIGHT.htm

Yes! Thank you very much!

terminalfanatic wrote:Does anyone know the size and dimensions of a typical NYC logo? Say you wanna make one yourself and need to know the right sizing n placement of the letters.

Why don't you tell us what you're trying to letter instead of making us guess? There are paint and lettering diagrams available from various resources....

I'm building a logo to put on display. But I need the dimensions in order to cut and paint the sheet metal.

These are notes I took at NG Field in Buffalo in May, 1978.

The cigar band is a 30° ellipse with a bar through its horizontal center line. There were different sizes, but the proportions of all the normal heralds remained unchanged. The larger of these two is the cab-side herald of the simplified scheme. Overall, it's 25" high, 52(52¼)" long, and the bar is 9" high. If you draw this correctly, the bar extends past the ellipse 3¾". Height to length ratio is 0.48.

The smaller herald is the nose herald for road switchers, and the end plate herald for yard switchers. The ratio remains 0.48.

The end plates were hand cut to fit the heralds--sometimes they were a little oversize, but not much.

Have fun.

Todd Roberts

Where can i obtain the fonts to make such a logo?

There is no font or typeface for this logo. In present day terms, you should think of the letters in the logotype as part of the artwork and not separate characters applied to a design. If you are able to find current fonts, your skills are way ahead of mine.

I say, take a good picture (or even a mediocre one) and clean it up, and scale it up. You can even do this by hand as it used to be done.

I wish you success.

Todd

When did the NYC change from its original logo (with the Victorian typeface) to the more modern one depicted above --- and why was the change made?

trainsinmaine wrote:When did the NYC change from its original logo (with the Victorian typeface) to the more modern one depicted above --- and why was the change made?

One poster here seems to think the renaming to the NYC System took place in 1936, and I would guess that the logo was updated at that time (I also suspect that it neatly coincided with streamlining efforts of the day).

The cigar band logo depicted above began being used in the late 50's/early 60's. It was part of the reimaging/rebranding effort (i.e., "Road to the Future") in the decade or so prior to the Penn Central merger.

Jmark wrote:Where can i obtain the fonts to make such a logo?

There are no fonts to replicate the "cigar band" lettering or the earlier serif lettered logo, but you can get an NYC-style alphabet for lettering equipment...

http://www.railfonts.com/cgi-bin/font_s ... page9.html

-otto-