“…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.