Railroad Logos Do They Change Much, Or Stay The The Same?

They very much change over time. Here is UP's logo history.

Illinois Central:

Rusty

Railroad logos have changed over time. But many retained their basic form over many years, with just minor changes or revisions.

Just for fun, I Googled Southern Pacific Railroad logo history, then when it came up, I hit “Images.” That shows you the logo and the changes it went through over the years. Then I tried New York Central railroad and it shows the same thing with that railroad’s logo. Very interesting.

There's YouTubes about Canadian Pacific and Canadian National logo's:

Rusty

So some of the color changes may just have depended on what the base color of whatever it was(boxcar, caboose, etc). I wonder though if engines was whatever was new being different from the rest of the field. I do know that the Pennsylvania would reserve the Keystone logo primarily for passenger service engines only(or dual purpose ones), others would have just a round plate housing the engine number on the front.

I did quickly browse some New York Central logos, but all of the say "System" on there. Wondering if that is because that is the most recent "searched" result. I'm thinking I may have to ask one of the New York Central guys on here to see if they have further information on the logo changes and colors.

I believe the NYC used "Lines" as part of their logo prior to system.

And dont forget BNSF

once SF red, BN green, SF target, BNSF swoosh/vector, etc.

@Scotie posted:

I believe the NYC used "Lines" as part of their logo prior to system.

Yeah, on another post I think in the 3 rail forums the F-12 Ten Wheeler that was released by Lionel had "Lines" on the end of "New York Central", this I believe was an error on their part as it should have been just New York Central. IIRC our resident New York Central experts had said that it should not be there based on what the time period was for that particular model(engine number), and I believe that the font lettering may have been incorrect as well. That was a discussion from a few years back in which that was just one of the engines discussed.

Some of the other things that had come up were some of the subsidiaries of the New York Central like the P&LE as well as a few others. It was a long and lengthy discussion and I wish I remembered where it was exactly as that would help with some of what this topic discusses.

Great Northern went through many logos (or "heralds" as railroads in the 20th century like to call them) back to the rectangular one from 1895, to the first "goat" herald of the 20s with the goat facing you, to the side facing goat, with various versions of the railroad name and "See America First" slogan, ending with the Big Sky Blue era "Modern Rocky" in the late 1960s.

https://www.gnrhs.org/gn_logos.php