Houston has it, but I reckon not many other cities do......

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

I was recently having a yarn with Ed about the Houston City Crest. I noticed on the official City of Houston website that crest/seal for the city had a steam loco on it! (For a view of the Houston City seal, go to www.cityofhouston.gov then click on City Government under the About Houston tab.)

So I asked Ed about it, and he explained to me that the loco was on the seal due to the huge role the railways played in the development of the city. He said that at one point, 18 different railroads entered Houston! [:0]

So, to all you Forum Folk, does any other city "up over’ have a loco on their seal/crest? [;)]

Dave

2

I don’t know about cities, but the state of Nevada has a Virginia & Truckee steam loco on its State seal.

3

Espeefoamer, a good idea - let’s expand it to States…thanks for that. [:)] [;)]

Dave

4

Palmer Mass

5

Unfortunitly, my city and state(Philadelphia, PA) doesn’t have a ventage steam locomotive on their seals or flags. :frowning: I wish we did. I think we should since the Pennsy was the heart and soul of ground transportation at one time. Ya know?// LOL. This seems like a good idea to propose to Govenor Rendell, and Mayor Street.

6

Clevelandrocks, I’ve tried a few Palmer websites, including the Palmer library, but no sign of the the City Seal - do you know of a website that shows it?

Dave

7

How many railways enter Houston now?

8

Macguy, from the map in the Trains Mag article about chemicals transported by rail, it showed BNSF and UP feeding in, with the PTRA - the rail company Ed works for - handling the port rail activities.
However, I don’t know if other smaller railroads feed in.
Let’s ask our Houstonians in the Forum, such as Ed, to fill in the picture…??

Dave

9

That makes at least 3, I can’t imagine it’s anywhere near the 18 of the hey-day’s.

10

Espeefoamer, I checked out the Nevada State Seal on the Nevada State Goverment website. That train crossing the viaduct in the background, in front of the distant mountain range, is quite small in comparison to other features in the Seal. How did you know it’s a Virginia and Truckee train? From other sources??

Dave

11

Macguy,
Currently,
UP, BNSF, and KCS(TexMex) Class1 roads.

Prior to the SP/UP and Santa Fe BN mergers, it was those five, BN, Santa Fe, UP, SP and KCS, along with the Katy(MKT), the Missouri Pacific, theTexas and Mexican, (prior to KCS purchase) and the joint operation of the Rock Island and CB&Q as the Forth Worth and Denver, plus four local lines, the now gone HB&T, the Houston North Shore Railroad, GH&H and us, the PTRA…

At one time there was three passenger stations in Houston,
SP’s Grand Central, torn down in the 60s, now a Amshack, the Katys station at Main street, and Union station, (now Enron Feild , then Miniute Maid Park, a baseball stadium) host to the Rock Island, Missouri Pacific, the Santa Fe and the CB&Q, plus the local street car line, the GH&H and the Houston North Shore railroad, one of, if not the last, electric freight railroad/interurbans built, (now the UP’s north shore district).

I will do a little digging and see if I can come up with all the railroads that have enter the city, keep in mind that Texas had one of those odd laws that required any railroad doing business in the state to incorporate inside Texas, hence the Rock and CB&Q formed the Forth Worth and Denver, and of course, the Texas and Pacific, Texas and New Orleans…so several of the roads were formed just to operate inside Texas.

Ed

12

Here’s one close to home for me: West Chicago, Illinois

http://www.westchicago.org/

13

Nebraska.

14

Here’s a website with the State Seals: http://www.netstate.com/state_seals.htm

Lots of native peoples, explorers, pioneers, covered wagons, sailing ships, animals, people plowing fields, mining prowess, and agricultural bounty. I didn’t look in close detail at all of them (and the resolution is not great), but I only saw trains in NV and NE, as already indicated above.

I didn’t find any sites for Seals of cities (and of course there would be lots of them), but I didn’t spend a lot of time looking.

15

Montgomery county pennsylvania has a train on the county seal.

16

Bensenville, IL has a steam loco in their seal.

17

Well three Class One’s that pretty good these days.

I suppose Vancouver has 3 class one’s running into it as well, CP, CN and BNSF.

18

Thanks everyone for your help (I’ve been away from the 'puter for a few days).

Dave

19

Dave,

Don’t forget Junee Municipality in New South Wales has a green streamlined 38 class on their crest! A side elevation of the whole locomotive and tender!

Peter

20

Thanks Peter for the New South Wales angle. This is becoming an intriguing thread…[;)]

Dave