Beginning in the 1960s, maybe earlier, it seemed to be trend to “modernize” old brand names with new, flashy, “memorable” combinations of the alphabet. Like many ideas, in low numbers, maybe it worked, but pretty soon everybody was in on the act. Corporations became like the alphabet soup federal agencies of the Great Depression. And, at some point, for the general public, IBM, NCR, ATT, CSX, GM, CPR, BNSF, UP, UAL, and the remainder of the list start to look all about the same precisely because they don’t communicate a history.
An older generation remembers General Electric and that can carry over to GE; but RCA Victor is gone, and poor “Nipper” is owned by something named HMV.
Yep - for example, does UP stand for Union Pacific, or United Parcel ? Well, the former - and the latter is UPS - but USPS is the United States Postal Service . . . there must be a song or comedy skit in here someplace . . . . [:-^]
The funniest one I ever saw - and a cautionary tale for those who create such things - was in the late 1980’s at the Fairless (Hills ?) Works in Morrisville, PA of what had been U.S. Steel, or USS. The name had been recently changed to “USX” fo no reason that I can remember, and graffiti spray-painted on a toolbox near the ingot-strippping building read simply as follows:
USX
SUX
Then again, it was “Saturday Night Live” that pointed out that after ESSO changed its name to EXXON, it could be referred to as "The sign of the ‘double-cross’ " ! [(-D]
Running on a tourist railroad, I get a fair amount of interaction with the passengers, young and old.
The little ones are often interested in trains - sometimes rabidly so. We made the day of several youngsters when they ‘won’ a cab ride during our Pumpkin Trains before Halloween.
I suspect that a part of the problem is simply time. Dad (and sometimes Mom) were also interested in trains at that age, but technology (games) and life get in the way, and by the time Junior comes along, the thrill is gone, as is spare time to go “chase trains.” Some parents note that Junior is excited about trains, but there is almost a resigned air to their comment, like it’s just another phase.
Another big part is the fact that years ago, everyone had tracks in their ‘back yard.’ Now they hve a nice hike and bike trail…
Just curious, who from the general public refers to United as UAL? Growing up in United’s “home town” the only time I have heard it refered to UAL is when talking about its stock symbol.
I prefer real names as well…many years ago the railroads gave themselves grandiose sounding names…in order to attract investment capital…hence the Sherbrooke, Eastern Townships, and Kennebec Railway became the Quebec Central… letters only lacks imagination.