POLICY ON USE

The NRHS Service Mark (NRHS Emblem) is the official emblem of the Society and its use is controlled. For a complete description of our policy on use of the NRHS Service Mark, please click here.

HISTORY

On its return route to the city in the dusk of a beautiful Sunday in Spring, the 11-car railfan special stopped at a suburban station to discharge a portion of its satisfied riders. Lingering on the station platform to watch the train pull out on the final leg of the interesting trip, the alighted fans and their friends displayed admirable smiles as the rear car rolled past them. For there, brilliantly illuminated in full color, in the form of a drum sign on the trains end gate was the attractive emblem of the National Railway Historical Society. The drum sign gradually disappearing into the early evening darkness signaled the end of another good day in our excellent hobby.

The train-end drum signs owned by several of our chapters are probably the most dramatic presentations that are seen by railfans and the general public alike of our Society's emblem -- an insignia that was once described by a noted industrial designer as an "extremely pleasing and well balanced herald that emphatically conveys the firm purposes of the organization: The emblem appeared in many forms printed on stationary, publicity literature, flyers, menus: formed into lapel buttons and tie-clips; woven into banners and shoulder patches and made into decal transfers.

The official emblem now in use is the second one designed for the organization since its founding in 1935. It replaced the original "Keystone" design, which was first presented and adopted at a board meeting held in Lancaster, PA on Sunday, February 13, 1936. It represented the first attempt to establish a herald for our then very young railway club. The thought behind the Keystone shape, as described in early publications of the Society, was "to symbolize the paramount importance of the work that this organization can and will do for posterity." The trolley and locomotive within represented models and indicated the extreme interest of our original members in scale model railroading. However, because many persons thought it gave an impression of a leaning toward the Pennsylvania Railroad due to the shape of its outline, the Board of Directors, at the suggestion of Ed Reese of Lancaster, authorized the groundwork for a new emblem design in October 1936.

Mr. David Bowers of the Philadelphia Chapter, a highly skilled professional artist and designer, finally perfected the present circular shaped herald with the attractively-proportioned 4-4-0 gracing its center focal point. It was adopted by official action of the Board at a special meeting held in Philadelphia on Thursday evening, January 7, 1937, and has remained the same ever since, with the exception of one slight design revision. The original drawing had a silhouetted map in the sky over locomotive, but because this may have blurred on small reproductions, it was removed from the design in October 1947.

Our present emblem first appeared on the April 1937 "Bulletin" and also on membership cards for that year. By July of that same year, Mr. Bowers had adopted the design onto a membership button, the first of which were hand assembled by another member, Martin Flattley.