Nostalgia & History > Greatest RR slogan ever?

SURE it is!! (Just ask any Santa Fe fan… ;^) And here’s proof positive: This world-famous slogan ran up & down, all over the nation’s rails on this boxcar for decades, carrying Santa Fe business. Everywhere it went people could read that simple, ubiquitous rhyme. It was the friendly mantra for arguably one of the greatest transportation companies in railroad history.

Then this elderly Santa Fe boxcar was re-classed, painted over, retired, sold and literally put out to pasture in a competitor’s territory. It has since been nicked, gouged, scraped, scratched, dinged, shot at, rusted, rained on, snowed on and blasted with decades of solar radiation. AND little kids have probably thrown rocks at it. But you know what; after all that, it’s still perfectly legible. So it should be obvious to any fan at all with a righteous sense of history that the greatest RR slogan in the world is still just that. All the way… For ever…

1. This venerable old 40ft Santa Fe boxcar, retired long ago, has been in storage service at the old Dwight Coop elevator complex right next to the former Rock Island GSR in Dwight, KS.
Photo date: September 19, 2013.

2. Close-up of same.
Photo date: May 1, 2010.

Santa Fe all the way!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/22 01:17 by santafe199.

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Nice find Lance !
I certainly remember these cars in service - nice memory.
Gary

"Thru the Roclies, not around them", ain't bad either.

While I am partial to the Santa Fe, I would nominate "Freight Goes Great when it goes Great Northern" as a contender.  

Thanks for posting, Lance.  

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

Those who have ridden trains on the Rio Grande and its successors in Colorado would be likely to agree with its slogan "Scenic Line of the World." 

A slogan with panache was graced some Milwaukee Road boxcars, "Route of the Electrified Olympian."

Of several the Santa Fe slogans on its boxcars, I'm partial to "The Grand Canyon Line."

The Water Level Route should merit consideration.

AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

The slogans put forward have been few, but good so far. I'm a bit surprised nobody came up with "Standard Railroad of the World". Maybe everyone was glued to the TV all day. I guess I should have posted this slogan thing once the weekend was past. But how in the world was I supposed to know Tiger would make one of the greatest comebacks in all of sports history?

Lance  

I thought "Were pulling for you America" was the very best Santa Fe ever used...


Norm

Norman Orfall
Helendale, CA
TIOGA PASS, a private railcar

How about Chattahoochie Industrial's "Better By A Dam Site" ?

Here's my all-time favorite pick:

"WEATHER OR NO,
GO NEW HAVEN!"

HRGXguy,
"The New Haven's COMET -
Boston to Providence
44 miles in 44 minutes!"

I have always been partial to:  Be Specific, Ship Union Pacific

Here would be my choices per decade...

1930s: "Sleep Like a Kitten..." (in air conditioned comfort) (a slogan that helped rename the railroad 40 years later, and provided the lead letter for the current company name 87 years later)
1940s: "Ship and travel Santa Fe all the way"...
1950s: "Be specific, ship Union Pacific"...
1960s: "Southern gives a Green Light to Service/Innovations"
(okay... now the ones I can remember...)
1970s: "Next Load, Any Road" and (late 1970s) "Keep On Truckin... By Train..."
1980s: "The Thoroughbred of Transportation"
1990s: "Quality in Motion"
2000s: "Building America"

The Erie and Lackawanna logo The Route of the Phoebe Snow. Reminds me of my late grandmother whose name was Phoebe.

The Southern Railroads logo the green light to innovations.

Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/19/19 07:47 by SanJoaquinEngr.

Relax, Ride the Reading.

santafe199 Wrote:
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> The slogans put forward have been few, but good so
> far. I'm a bit surprised nobody came up with
> "Standard Railroad of the World". Maybe everyone
> was glued to the TV all day. I guess I should have
> posted this slogan thing once the weekend was
> past. But how in the world was I supposed to know
> Tiger would make one of the greatest comebacks in
> all of sports history?
>
> Lance  

Yeah, I had that thought too, after I posted my NYC slogan.  With NYC and PRR, it's hard to think of one without thinking of the other behemouth....but, by that time I was already in bed.  There are a lot of good ones, but, to me, the "standard railroad" best hits the sweet spot for this question.

Great thread, by the way.

AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

"Serving 13 great states and the nation"

chakk Wrote:
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> "Serving 13 great states and the nation"

Good job....our first railroad has to be in the mix somewhere.

AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

I always thought "Sourthern serves the south!" was nicely on point.