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Canadian National Railways Standard Monogram Style I

The design seems to originate in 1927 with the U-2-a class Northerns. Built in June 1927, the 6100 had the Standard Monogram applied on the sides of the coal bunker and had white lines and a black background. These early versions of the Standard Monogram were either painted on, or could have possibly been decalcomanias, but I can't be certain. Also delivered in July of that year were the U-3-a class Northerns from ALCo for the GTW. They too had a GTW derivative of the Standard Monogram, only it read "Grand Trunk Railway System" and also appears to have been black and white. As strange as that was, the GTW also received the P-5-e class of Eight-Wheeled Switchers from Baldwin that December, with the road name spelled out in a a horizontal line.

The T-3-a class of Texas type locomotives, delivered between October and December 1928 featured a Standard Monogram doctored for the Central Vermont but appears to be black and white.

The next power I can comment on are the P-5-f class of Eight-Wheeled Switchers of which the first ten were built by the Canadian Locomotive Company in January and February 1929 while the other half was manufactured by MLW that May. A builders photo of 8364 (from the MLW built batch) clearly shows the short version of the Standard Monogram.

Grand Trunk Western's K-4-b class of Pacifics delivered in November 1929 from the Baldwin Locomotive Works and featured a Standard Monogram with the words "Grand Trunk Western".

The K-5-a class of Hudson's delivered to the CNR in September and October 1930 were also adorned with the Standard Monogram. An examination of the builder's photo suggests that at this time, the Standard Monogram had been given some colour and may in fact be a decalcomania.

The CNR's Mechanical Department made a half hearted attempt to bring some order to all this chaos in May 1932. On May 9, the Mechanical Department released the drawing 3H-17471 (Standard Letters & Numerals) and drawing 3H-17470 (Standard Monogram) on May 10. These two drawings defined all of the lettering to be used on locomotives (Drawing 3H-17471 even went as far as defining the numerals used on numberboard lamps and number plates). In both instances, all Letters & Numerals, as well as the Standard Monogram were to be decalcomanias supplied by the Canada Decalcomania Company. The Standard Monogram defined two styles of decals. Style I was to be used on all power and measured 39" x 45". Style II was intended for smaller tenders for which the Style I monogram would not fit. It measured 34" x 45". The only thing that changed between the two monograms was the horizontal spacing between the lettering and the border. One item that is frequently neglected, is the use of black borders around just about all decals used by the railway. This is first encountered in drawing 2H-26054 (27" diameter Crest) first released in June 1, 1949 and later on drawing 4H-28834 (20" diameter Maple Leaf Monogram) released December 21, 1953 (The 36" diameter Maple Leaf Monogram for use on steam locomotives is first mentioned in February 7, 1955 in revision D to drawing 4H-28834).

Photographic evidence suggests that the Standard Monogram received a black edge as well (see page 6 in Trackside- Grand Trunk New England Lines, Page 5 in Duluth Winnipeg & Pacific In Colour, and page 1 in Grand Trunk Western In Color Vol. 1). Much like the Crest and Maple Leaf Monograms, I suspect that the black edging was 3/16" thick. The letter used on steam locomotives also had the black borders (see below). I suspect that in the earlier days, the black edge was meant to be sacrificial, as decalcomanias are very delicate and that way if the guy in the shop dinged up the edge, it would be the black that gets it. Later on, I guess it just looked nice and also helped the monograms stand out on green and yellow equipment.

The lettering used on steam locomotives also had a 1/8" black edge as seen on this tender number plate.

A close-up of the revision table of drawing 3H-17470. Is it a 9 or a 7? You decide.

A selection of Signal Red lantern globes and signal lenses.

Clues to what the colours actually look like have turned up in the most unusual places. The boss was once informed that the company 1-Shot was one of the original suppliers to Canadian National and to this day produces a shade of Imitation Gold (sign painters lettering enamel #191-L) that is an exact match to another clue. In the 1980's, the boss went back to Canada Decalcomania in order to have more monograms made for the restoration of 6213. Unfortunately, by that time, the original artwork had been discarded, but they were provided with the CNR drawings and had no trouble in whipping up a batch for the boss. Selecting the colour of the gold was easy, as in the Canada Decal. catalog was the colour "#WV-473 B Gold" which was the colour that Canada Decal. had been using for the decals it supplied the CNR with. This sample is an exact match to the 1-Shot sample.

Red on the other hand was a little tricky, as no-one could say for sure what it was. To solve this, the boss essentially picked the one that looked right to him (WV-1090 B Red). At the end of the day, I won't hold it against anyone who doesn't get the Red spot on, however, the guidelines of "Chinese Vermillion" and "Signal Red" should give us a general idea of what the colour really was, but at the end of the day, red is red. Gold however, has been clearly defined above.

A close-up of the letter "C" showing all finer points of the lettering.