Yellow B Train Sign

[midnight_ride]

The other day I caught the B train at 42nd Street-- it was one of the older slant-front cars-- and the sign on the inside displayed a B within a yellow circle rather than an orange one. Is this an old sign or just a bad patch job? And while we're on it, how did the powers that be choose the colors for the different lines (and for that matter, why did they choose colors for different lines since it seems like nobody refers to them that way anyhow?)...

[Raritan Express]

The other day I caught the B train at 42nd Street-- it was one of the older slant-front cars-- and the sign on the inside displayed a B within a yellow circle rather than an orange one. Is this an old sign or just a bad patch job? And while we're on it, how did the powers that be choose the colors for the different lines (and for that matter, why did they choose colors for different lines since it seems like nobody refers to them that way anyhow?)...

I think the color groups are based on the line that the service runs on in Manhaten (Green for the Lexington Ave. Line, Blue for the 8th Ave. Line, Red for the 7th Ave. Line, etc.).

[hs3730]

The yellow B was used in the 80s when only the south side of the Manhattan bridge was open. Rather than do what they did more recently (with the <Q>(Q)(W)), they had an orange B and D for the 6th ave / upper west side service, and a yellow B and D for the Broadway / Brooklyn service. It was quite confusing, especially since you could take the yellow (B) to Astoria from 34st. Casually telling an out-of-towner to take the uptown B at 34th resulted in people getting quite lost. The N/R terminal swap occurred during this time I believe, making it even more confusing.