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  • COMPASS RAIL: Pittsfield / Springfield / Boston East-West Passenger Rail

  • Discussion relating to commuter rail, light rail, and subway operations of the MBTA.
Discussion relating to commuter rail, light rail, and subway operations of the MBTA.

Moderators: sery2831, CRail

 #1554677  by wicked
 
It’s interesting that you mention this. The font on the signs at Holyoke and Greenfield is the MBTA font (some Times variant?).
Last edited by CRail on Tue Oct 20, 2020 11:16 pm, edited 1 time in total. Reason: Unnecessary quote removed.
 #1554805  by Arborwayfan
 
Who could the different-colored signs confuse? Or maybe I mean what would those people be confused about? It's pretty obvious that the signs tell the name of the place you've just pulled into. Everyone on the train knows they're on the train; everyone on the platform knows they are at the one train station in Northhampton or Bellows Falls or wherever. It would be confusing if South Station's CR/Amtrak wayfinding signs looked like Red Line or Silver Line signs, but in towns with one line and one station, it would be fine -- and maybe fun -- even to have each town design its own platform signs, though it would also be good to have the right service mark on the sign facing the street.
 #1555016  by Arborwayfan
 
When did station name signs start being branded?

I picture more or less plain lettering in one color on some other color, without any RR insignia, for the old signs. Railroad names and insignia I picture being separate, like Boston Terminal Company on hte facade of South Station, or Illinois Central Railroad on the platform-facing wall at Effingham, IL (a former union station with NYC/Big Four), or Boston and Maine on the old Garden, all those Overland Route shields on old UP stations, etc.

Tangent, more suited to railroads in other media: the newest Little Women movie used an actual station from some other town, but they put "Concord Station" or some such on the street side of the building, where I think it's more likely that the sign would have said "Fitchburg Railroad"; ignorance, or a realization that nearly all moveigoers would have said "Fitchburg???"? :-D
 #1555026  by jamoldover
 
Arborwayfan wrote: Mon Oct 19, 2020 12:46 pm When did station name signs start being branded?

I picture more or less plain lettering in one color on some other color, without any RR insignia, for the old signs. Railroad names and insignia I picture being separate, like Boston Terminal Company on hte facade of South Station, or Illinois Central Railroad on the platform-facing wall at Effingham, IL (a former union station with NYC/Big Four), or Boston and Maine on the old Garden, all those Overland Route shields on old UP stations, etc.

Tangent, more suited to railroads in other media: the newest Little Women movie used an actual station from some other town, but they put "Concord Station" or some such on the street side of the building, where I think it's more likely that the sign would have said "Fitchburg Railroad"; ignorance, or a realization that nearly all moveigoers would have said "Fitchburg???"? :-D
In some ways, station name signs have been branded for decades. Most, if not all railroads had a set of standards that covered the design and layout of station name signs (among everything else). Many of them included a logo as part of the station name sign (examples I know of off the top of my head would be the stacked NH used by the New Haven starting in the 1950's, or the keystone shape used by the Pennsy since at least the 1920's). That doesn't include specific styles of lettering, or the colors used (all of which were explicitly specified by each railroad).

Joshua
 #1557400  by njtmnrrbuff
 
MBTA isn't going all the way to Albany-Rensellaer. Even MBTA heading all the way to Springfield is a bit of a hike. A second track on the Boston & Albany is a must wherever it is single track is the state allows more passenger trains to run west of Worcester.
 #1557480  by russellsal8
 
Here's hoping at Springfield they set up coordinated transfers between the Hartford Line, Boston-Springfield route, and the Sprinfield-Greenfield route. Not expecting tight transfer times like in Switzerland, but even allowing a 15 minute transfer time would be helpful. The goal someday should be to have departure frequencies of one hour at Springfield, maybe 2 hours on the Northfield route, but even if they start out at 4 round trips per day, ensuring that the departure/arrival times at Springfield are coordinated to allow transfers should be a priority.
 #1557871  by Arborwayfan
 
If PanAm is acquired by CSX, what possible effects could that have on passenger service on the Boston and Albany? Could it become cheaper to pay CSX for more slots/higher speeds/dispatching for OT arrivals/etc over the B&A if CSX also owns the Hoosac Tunnel route and could send some freights that way? Or could it become harder to do when CSX abandons the western half of the Hoosac Tunnel route and runs everything over the B&A and through Worcester? But in that case, and maybe anyway, CSX might want to upgrade the line from Worcester towards NH and Maine (I forget it's name, but people write about it all the time here); they wouldn't need that much capacity for freight so they might be open to jointly funded upgrades and passenger service over that route some day. Thoughts?
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