Thanks for watching the video! I hope you enjoyed! I recommend you check out Herbert Matter's other works if you're interested in design or photography ( herbertmatter.org/ ), as his portfolio expanded far beyond the New Haven and Boston & Maine. He definitely deserves far more credit than he got for his railroad-related work, given McGinnis' name unfortunately overshadowed the actual artist behind it all. Also minor correction: McGinnis' hi-rail was a Cadillac, not a Chrysler, the source I read got it wrong apparently.
Thanks for another enjoyable video. I do have a question though, do you think it would be possible to do a mini deep dive series on important railroads which molded and helped to form the modern Class 1s. Railroads like the N&H, New York Central, Chicago & North Western, Rio Grande, ect ect. Its always interesting to learn how our nation's railways developed but most stuff out there is very broad stroke based on the national view of things. Regardless, thanks again for what you do and stay awesome, take care.
I got a video idea, maybe do a video talking about Amtraks recent problems with there Siemens equipment and how the venture coaches have some quality issues. Also the softwares of the acs-64 and sc-44.
There is a sunken steam locomotive from the new haven at the swing bridges it's likely an 4-4-0 and it's likely in bad shape but I guess one steam locomotive from the new haven still exists kinda
Technically the closest thing we have to preserved New Haven Steam is the Daniel Nason locomotive in the St Louis Museum of Transportation. Originally built for the Boston & Providence RR, in 1888 that company was leased to the Old Colony RR for 99 years, and then in 1905 the New Haven took on that lease. So while not New Haven built, it was New Haven owned.
Lucille McGinnis was friends with Florence Knoll architect, interior and furniture designer, and founder of Knoll Associates (Knoll Furniture). Herbert Matter was a design consultant for Knoll during these years and Florence Knoll recommended him to McGinnis as the graphic designer for the task. The New Haven also had great poster design in 1920s ,30s and 40s. Sascha Maurer was one of the more prominent graphic designers for the railroad during these times.
My great grandfather worked for the B&M and later the New Haven around the time these designs were introduced. I’m not sure exactly what he did, but he likely worked within the yards and other facilities. Retired under Penn Central in the early 70s. Wish I knew more about him, but my grandfather didn’t speak of him that much before he passed
Another video of railroad history of a design. Very cool video about this. The New Haven Railroad is so cool in the past, even though it’s kinda sad that the railroad had been merged back then. I would like to see you doing the history of a design with one of my favorite American railroads, the Santa Fe.
The Santa Fe only change the color from red&silver to blue&yellow And then back to red&silver again of their sceme with same design over their existence though 🤣🤣
Pretty good! Always been a shame we only discuss the McGinnis paint jobs, and never the bad management, rather than the 'kinda dull' look of a fantastic railroad it was only a few years prior. As for the video, you hit the nail on the head and did another outstanding job!
Most of the problems that plagued the New Haven during and after the McGinnis era would've still happened without him. They were always a struggling road due to their higher-than-average share of passenger traffic and lack of any major commodity business - which was the only type of freight railroads remained competitive with road on during the regulation era. Wasting money didn't help, but they were always going to fold.
@@GintaPPE1000 The New Haven was certainly facing those problems, but they would have been in much better shape if McGinnis had not been there cutting out maintenance, selling off rolling stock for an outrageously low price to have the railroad lease it back (and line his pockets in the process), and getting rid of perfectly good electric locomotives. At least if they had gone bankrupt later, it would not only have been later, but also leaving the infrastructure and equipment in better shape.
When I was a child, I had a copy of Trainz Classics with the Metro-North Harlem Line as one of the routes included, in it were an M7, some Shoreliners 1 to IV, an APCU, that weird Amfleet DMU thing, an FL9, and a P32, in both Metro-North and New Haven liveries. I loved the P32 in New Haven livery, it was so striking and cool
I love your videos. I've been bingeing them lately. You alone have gotten me quite interested in American railroads. And your editing style is quite unique! Keep doing what you're doing, love it man!
I feel like this design was very influential on the MBTA commuter rail as well, considering matters worked for BM and NH, that would make a lot of sense
As a citizen of the Greater New Haven area for all of my 75 Years, we always knew that McGinnis had some shady dealings. Now I know who designed that beautiful logo. Thank you. For the record, the automobile you illustrated as McGinnis, was a Cadillac, not a Chrysler.
Oops! The photo of the car at 5:10 isn't a Chrysler Imperial, but apparently a 1954 or '55 Cadillac. Interesting story on the paint schemes and logos of the New Haven RR. Thanks for sharing!
The Black, White & Red colors with the rectangular letters of NH are an Iconic symbol of a fallen railroad flag. Anyone involved in railroading will automatically recognize that paint scheme and lettering instantly, with no doubt in their mind as to exactly which railroad and where was located. It's sad how corruption & mismanagement caused such an iconic design to be lost in history, just like the Santa Fe color schemes, the New Haven stood out and will always be remembered that way.
Excellent video. One other piece of equipment that features the NH scheme which was not mentioned are ConnDOT's fleet of Mafersa railcars. They are used on the Hartford Line & Shore Line East services.
Excellent video about the history of the New York New Haven & Hartford Railroad's logos. They had a wide variety of paint schemes, great-looking ones too. It's ironic that the New Haven helped construct Interstate 95 from New York City to Boston and Interstate 91 from New Haven to Springfield, MA, then when those highways were [more or less] complete in 1957, the New Haven's passenger revenue was cut in half in 1958. It's as if they were carrying their own tombstone on their backs, leading to their bankruptcy in 1961. It has always been a treat to see the New Haven McGinnis "heritage units" owned by ConnDOT in the Metro-North territory east of the Hudson River. Sadly and ironically, ConnDOT is going in a new direction with their paint schemes, going with the CTRail "Coke Zero" logo, while other commuter railroads across the nation are making their own heritage units of railroads that used to serve their territory.
Little footnote, the WP’s official designation of the “wings” on the nose of their passenger service F units as shown at the start were actually just big feathers.
Great video! If I was on the naming committee I would just go with NH&Y. Not really proper however the longer the name the least memorable. A golden rule of marketing.
I ride this RR every day! I can attest that those overhead catenary wires you can see in the photos at 1:15? Those same wires and supporting structures are the still there and still in use, and still (sort of) work.
Great video, but I'm disappointed you didn't mention CT Rail and how it's services (which began in 2018) have trains and designs based on the old New Haven look.
The New Haven did live on in Penn Central's scheme, as some units had one of the two letters painted in the same red. NH is also probably the only modern heritage NS doesn't have a unit for, MTA probably owns the rights.
I oddly would love to see an Acela in this livery, even if it would not exactly make sense because its Amtrak. Also that 1960s CN lettering looks a lot like the NASA worm logo.
I’ve see one of the new ones carrying some cargo near my town I don’t know there was such a story behind the paint job. Also I will now always associate Penn Central with spamtons song.
Hi Amtrakguy365, I was wondering could I pick up where you left off. I found some information of the New Haven rail logo being made into the current CTrail logo?
That's the problem with rebranding: If it doesn't go along with a noticeable improvement in service quality, it can't turn the company around. NH tried to make its passenger services more attractive and economic as well, following up on their 1935-built "Comet", a one-off unit by Goodyear-Zeppelin that wasn't followed by a series order. In 1956/1957 they ordered three different trains: John Quincy Adams (Fairbanks-Morse/ACF/Talgo) Dan'l Webster (Baldwin/Pullman Train X) Roger Williams (Budd RDC) They operated for a while, but never really came out of the prototype stage. NH should have decided on one concept, worked out the teething troubles and ordered a series of trains to improve their services across the board, but that never happened. Having just one unit of each type was inherently troublesome (in case of any technical problem it must be replaced by a different train, impossible to offer a consistent service that way). There's nothing wrong with trying out new concepts and comparing their advantages and disadvantages, but if you don't have the means to go ahead and order a series of the most successful design it's just cost without the benefit. (Incidentally of all the companies involved, only Talgo is still in business, having steadily improved upon their original idea, even making a comeback in the USA with the Cascades trains, though their Wisconsin trains fell victim to political troubles, being shipped to Nigeria after long storage ...)
The New Haven was truly one of the electric railroads, up there with the NEC, Milwaukee Road and the South Shore Line. Though Mr. McGinnis was extremely stupid, everyone can agree his paint scheme is a looker.
It was the NHRR that pioneered overhead AC traction, with the overhead catenary being powered at 11 kV/25 Hz AC. The PRR, when experimenting with electric traction for its trains in Manhattan, tried the third rail (700 V DC) for its New York-Philadelphia-Chicago trains between the Manhattan Transfer (where the Sawtooth Bridges are at today) to New York Penn station (as well as the LIRR) and overhead catenary, at the same voltage and frequency, between Philadelphia and Paoli (later expanding to Chestnut Hill, West Chester, and Wilmington, DE). Eventually the PRR chose to use the overhead traction (plus the accompanying 132 kV/25 Hz transmission lines first employed on the Wilmington and West Chester electrification projects) on the entire NYC-DC Main Line (today part of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor) and the PRR Main Line between Harrisburg and Philadelphia (now Amtrak's Keystone Corridor). As for the NHRR, a modification to add transmission lines and autotransformers would lead to the Reading Railroad to adopt a similar architecture (using 24 kV/25 Hz AC "feeders" stepped down to 11 kV/25 Hz AC at strategically placed autotransformers), but in the end, despite the NHRR becoming part of Penn Central, PC's bankruptcy would lead to the NHRR being divested to the State of Connecticut, and with Metro-North taking over commuter operations from Conrail in 1983, the NHRR's pioneering overhead traction system would be changed so that, while still powered at the "uprated" 12 kV as used on former PRR and Reading systems, the switch from the Cod Cob generation facility to ConEd's generators (at utility-standard 60 Hz) meant that locomotives designed solely for the older 25 Hz infrastructure (such as the GG1) could not be used past the Sunnyside Yard (where the Bowery Bay phase break is located).
McGinnis wasn't stupid, just crooked. As a former New Haven train service employee, I can tell you that pre McGinnis, the New Haven was just about the best company in the country to work for. And, as for the circus paint jobs, we, every one of us, just hated them! To this day, I still dislike them. The green and gold "cats whiskers" paint jobs just looked elegant. And then, he went to the B&M and changed their beautiful red and gold to that horrible blue and white! At least they managed to stick his b u t t in jail for a while.
@@rwboa22 at some point in the shit show years before MNRR and the state took over, they pulled down the electrification on the Danbury branch for some reason. in Bethel near the old RR station you can still see some of the steel structure that once held the lines. I hear every few years they look into wanting to bring electric back up the branch.
I'll be honest, I don't like the "McGinnis" livery. I think it looks ugly. Kinda like someone was given a bad description WW1/WW2 naval "Dazzle Camouflage," and then decided to make that into a customer-facing paint scheme by adding red, and calling it a day. For similar reason, I dislike CN's pain scheme, as well as SP's "Bloody Nose" livery. It's personal preference, obviously. I think I generally dislike black paint, except on steam locomotives. My favorite freight RR liveries are probably CSX's blue & silver, and ATSF's red "Warbonnet," but the latter very specifically on wide-cab GE locomotives (aka, Dash-9s.)
