CNR "Courtesy and Service" Billboard Bridges

Camrose sub mile 0.16, Type 1, May, 1999 — Mike Swick
(Camrose sub mile 0.16, Type 1, May, 1999 — Mike Swick)

"...Courtesy and Service go hand in hand. The slogan of the Canadian National Railways is "Courtesy and Service"..."

This excerpt was taken from the December, 1956 edition of the Canadian National Railways' Station Employees Handbook. CNR not only used this term as a slogan, but expected courtesy and service from their employees. In 1911 the Grand Trunk Railway's Rulebook specifically stated that railway employees "...will be held responsible...for the courteous behavior and proper deplortment of all employees...". As an advertising slogan, "Courtesy and Service" dates back to 1924. It was a marketing device developed under the guidance of Henry Thornton. By 1961, it had become a way of doing business and a slogan well known by their rival competitor. In a copy of a Canadian Pacific Railway Form 19Y dated June 11, 1964 which was issued to a CP Extra travelling along the Oakville subdivision between CP/CN Canpa and Burlington, ...(Remember Boys — "Courtesy and Service") ...is handwritten below the subdivision's special instructions. Although courtesy and service may still be expected by CNR employees today, it's no longer the official company slogan.

Throughout the '40s and '50s, the slogan was printed on Passenger System Timetables, various travel brochures and internal company documents. Nowhere however, was it more in the public eye than on their billboard bridges. The C&S slogan is visible in a photograph taken on opening day of the Dunblnae Bridge in 1926 and continued to be applied to hundreds of bridges for nearly thirty five years. A number of bridges exist today still sporting this lettering. Although at least one concrete structure does exist, this lettering was typically large white letters on black steel bridges. Interestingly enough, not all of these bridges were over public roadways. Some were over CPR tracks with no roads nearby. The bridge at mile 0.2 of the Graham sub. [abandoned] is over a river with CPR tracks beside, again no road nearby.

It's not entirely certain if this bridge lettering was applied in the shop prior to shipment, or painted in the field after the bridge was erected. It's quite likely that it was a combination of both. The number of bridges that either cross a watercourse or another railway would tend to suggest that the lettering was shop applied. The number of variations in lettering styles and fonts used would tend to suggest that different bridge painting crews worked a district, and as a result, no two Scistine Chapels were alike. The application of this lettering on bridges ended with the new corporate image introduced in 1961 which was heralded by the now familiar CN "noodle". With the new corporate logo now being applied to the bridges, CN also ended, as did Henry Ford before them, the philospohy that the public can have a bridge in any colour they like, just so long as it's black. CN now began painting their bridges in colour. Despite the change to coloured bridges sporting the CN "noodle", The "Canadian National Railways — Courtesy and Service" lettering will long be remembered as the true Canadian billboard bridge.

CNR ENGINEERING STANDARDS

The earliest CNR Engineering standard found to date for the Courtesy and Service logo is the, "Standard Sign on Bridges Over Highways" — Plan No:S14C-20, dated Nov 1, 1927. This placement drawing was courteously provided by the National Museum of Science and Technology, Canada, and shall not be used without the express written consent of the NMSTC [dmonaghan@nmstc.ca ]. A revision to this drawing [Plan No:S14C-20-1] dated Nov 1957 does exist and apparently shows the placement for Type 1 lettering.

An interesting feature of the NMSTC's copy is the handwritten note in the centre of the drawing: "Inclusion of Maple Leaf with Slogan. see file E4035-34" . To date I have not been able to locate this file, but it's quite likely that it led to the development of the lettering style Type 11. If anyone has a copy of file E4035-34, details would be appreciated. As you will see by the drawing, some freedom appears to have been left to the creativity of the painter.

CN Standard Plan No. S14C-20 — Nov 1, 1927 (Photo)

LETTERING STYLE TYPES

Notwithstanding numerous variations in fonts and sizes of the individual lettering, not to mention levels of talent amongst the painters themselves, twelve distinct variations of the lettering scheme have been reported to date. Slight variations do exist within the types themselves, but only reasonably significant variations are noted.

Type 1
(Photo)		 The words 'CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAYS', are all capital letters with the first letter of each word larger than the rest of the letters which are placed approximately on the horizontal centreline of the first letters. All words, less the first letter are underlined. 'COURTESY AND SERVICE' is centered below, again all caps which are the same size but smaller than the CNR words. No underlines on 'COURTESY AND SERVICE'. (photo May 1999 by Mike Swick)
Type 2 Similar to Type 1, except 'AND' is smaller and is on the horizontal centreline of 'COURTESY' and 'SERVICE'.
Type 3 Similar to Type 1, except 'COURTESY & SERVICE' uses an ampersand.
Type 4
(Photo)		 Similar to Type 3, except the first letter of both 'COURTESY & SERVICE' are larger than the rest of the letters in those words. (photo by Bryan Martyniuk)
Type 5 Similar to Type 4 except no underlines are used and the bottom of all letters in the CNR words are on the same horizontal line. The word 'AND' is spelled out, smaller and is on the horizontal centreline of Courtesy and Service. In one example, periods are placed after the words 'CANADIAN' and 'NATIONAL', and a dash is used after the word 'AND'.
Type 6
(Photo)		 All words are all caps, all the same size, and all on the same horizontal line across the length of the spans. The word 'and' is spelled out. (photo June 1998 by Les Kozma)
Type 7
(Photo)		 Similar to Type 6, except the word 'and' is smaller and is oriented vertical. A period follows the word 'RAILWAYS. (photo June 1998 by Les Kozma)
Type 8
(Photo)		 Similar to Type 6, except 'COURTESY & SERVICE' is smaller and centred below the CNR words, and an ampersand is used. (photo by Bryan Martyniuk)
Type 9 Similar to Type 8, except 'AND' is spelled out.
Type 10 The lettering for 'CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAYS' is similar to Type 1. The word 'COURTESY' precedes the words CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAYS, and the word 'SERVICE' follows the CNR words. Both words are on the horizontal centreline of the CNR words. (This type appeared on a bridge shown on a postcard photo taken in June of 1959. The caption indicates the train is arriving into Winnipeg, MB from Russell, MB.)
Type 11 On the bridge, appearing to be centre over the span is a round maple leaf herald. The leaf, perhaps green in colour and having the "soft edges" of the earlier versions, is superimposed on a white circle. Overall, the herald resembles a horizontal caboose maple leaf logo, with "CNR" across the top and "COURTESY AND SERVICE" on the wafer inside (instead of the customary "CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAYS"). This is far and away the most interesting and unique application found on a bridge. Unfortunately, as much as I'd love for you to see this type, the photo is slated for publication and therefore is unavailable for distribution. Sorry.
Type 12
(Photo)		 Similar to Type 8 except that the year [1959] is located between the words Courtesy and Service. No AND, or ampersand is used. The numbers, the year of completetion, are the same size as the CNR words. (photo 1999 by Pat Scrimgeour)

EXISTING "Courtesy and Service" LETTERED BRIDGES

The following is a list of Courtesy and Service bridges that are still in existence as of April 2000.

SUBDIVISION MILEAGE NOTES TYPE
Camrose 0.16 west leg of wye over Hwy 16 west — Edmonton 1
Camrose 0.23 east leg of wye over Hwy 16 west — Edmonton ((Photo) — photo May 1999 by Mike Swick) 1
Oakville 3.89 Parkside Dr. northbound from Lakeshore 2
Oakville 4.17 Colborne Lodge Drive 2
Oakville 4.54 Ellis Avenue 2
Oakville 4.70 Windermere Avenue 2
Oakville 5.15 South Kingsway ramp to Gardner Expressway 2
Oakville 6.77 Royal York Rd. 2
Kingston 331.89 Eastern Avenue ?
Weston 1.99 King St. West Overpass ?
Penetang ? near Wyevale ?
Ontario (sub?) ? Elora-Fergus road (no tracks left, just bridge) ?
Ft. Frances ? Atikokan (near old iron ore mine) ?
Ft. Frances ? east of Ft. Frances station ((Photo) — photo 1999 by Pat Scrimgeour) 12
Kashabowie 7.2 Rosslyn Rd. — Thunder Bay ((Photo) — photo by Bryan Martyniuk) 4
Kashabowie 7.3 over the CPR mainline — Thunder Bay 1
Graham 0.2 [abandoned] one span of the structure over the Mattawin River. Tracks removed in 1996 but structure still remains intact. ((Photo) — photo by Bryan Martyniuk) 8
Calgary Industrial Line 3.6 Over the CPR & Ogden Road. North elevation Type 2. South elevation Type 5 2/5
Avonlea 87.5 Fairford Street — Moose Jaw (concrete spans) ((Photo) — photo June 1998 by Les Kozma) 6
Avonlea 87.6 Athabasca Street — Moose Jaw ((Photo) — photo June 1998 by Les Kozma) 7
Central Butte 42.6 Moose Jaw — adjacent to the Lynbrook Golf Course ?

HO SCALE APPLICATION

The following HO Scale application of the Courtesy & Service lettering by Rich Chrysler is based on modelling Type 3 lettering and is sized for a Micro Engineering Open Deck 50' Deck Girder Bridge [ME 75-501].

I ended up using the dry transfer lettering by Woodland Scenics, #MG721, "GOTHIC R.R. WHITE". The sheet contains six different sizes of block capital letters. I used the 1/4" for the C, the N, and the R, the 3/16" for the ANADIAN ATIONAL AILWAYS, and the 1/8" for the COURTESY & SERVICE. The underlining was done by utilizing the white lines on the sheet which are used to seperate the different sizes of font. These were cleaved to about 2/3 their original width.

All this dry transfer stuff was burnished onto Microscale decal paper, and then all lettering and lines were cut individually and applied wet, where it could be slid around and located exactly, with the help of a steel rule and careful eyeballing! I found that taping the girders flat to a seamstress's cutting board with the squared inch grid lines (which is my normal work surface for almost all my modelling) helps me to keep everything square. I don't apply any sort of coating to the decal paper once the dry transfers are applied. The only finishing is the normal application of a decal setting solvent, and next day an application of a dullcoat.

Oh yes, I of course worked from the centre point out to the ends when applying the lettering. I was quite pleased with the results, though it took me two evenings to get both sides done.

Watch someone come out with some nice decals, now that I sweated this one out! <g>

Rich Chrysler

Although a number of rumours exist, commercial decals are still not available.

Thanks to Les Kozma, David Monaghan, R.G. Burnet, Ian Wilson, Bryan Martyniuk, Pat Scrimgeour, Grant Morgan, Rich Chrysler, and the host of others, primarily those on the CNet, that provided input into the history and the existence of the Courtesy and Service billboard bridges.

If you have comments, suggestions, revisions, and/or photos please contact Mike Swick via the CNET email discussion list.