Chessie loco on my hotel room placard - Chessie logo: Sleep like a Kitten

My room placard at a hotel in Massillon, OH. Theme of all placards was transportation but mine was only one with a locomotive.

Little did they know - The message of the Chessie logo "Sleep like a kitten."

Nice, how would they know about your interest in railroads.

I didn't know that either regarding their marketing slogans.

JCitron said:

Nice, how would they know about your interest in railroads.

I didn't know that either regarding their marketing slogans.

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RE: My interest: they didn't know - it was pure chance. Other rooms had images of stop lights, street signs, anything dealing with transportation.

RE: Marketing slogans - Of course, that was back in the day when the railroads were fighting for rail passengers to fill their "Luxury" passenger trains.

1611mac said:

RE: My interest: they didn't know - it was pure chance. Other rooms had images of stop lights, street signs, anything dealing with transportation.

RE: Marketing slogans - Of course, that was back in the day when the railroads were fighting for rail passengers to fill their "Luxury" passenger trains.

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That sounds like a neat place to stay. Did they have any models in the lobby to look at, or other interesting stuff like old photographs?

Those definitely more interesting days. The Lackawanna had Phoebe Snow who wore a white dress that wasn't covered in coal dust because they burned Anthracite coal which is "clean". Their big named train between Hoboken and Chicago was the Phoebe Snow and the trains ran on the Route of the Anthracite. There was a whole marketing campaign around that as you can see. The nearby New York, Susquehanna and Western had Susee-Q who donned their boxcars and cabooses. They were a much smaller operation mostly associated with commuter trains and anthracite business. They made a comeback of sorts in the 1980s as a very successful short line, but lopped off a big hunk of their mainline west from Sparta Jct. to Scranton PA.

The railroads up my way had named trains, but nothing in the way of the a real marketing slogan I can remember. B&M had The Flying Yankee and other named trains. The New Haven had the Cape Codder which ran from Boston to Provincetown, and other trains such as the Senator and others that were associated with the Pennsylvania since these were essentially extensions of those trains.

It was not only an interesting time in history for the railroads, but also for advertising, art, and typography.

No.. that was what was odd.... No other "themed" items at all. Only the room placards had "transportation" photo's on them. There was a railroad within view of my room. In fact, gazing out my hotel window I watched a couple of trains roll by going through an old steel bridge. The rails were running parallel to the Tuscarawas River in downtown Massillon.

I see on openrailwaymap.org it is the old Fort Wayne main line - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Wayne_Line

Here's a Google Earth screen shot... similar to view from the room - the hotel was much further away.....

What is that cement pier and platform, jutting out from the highway bridge in the lower right hand corner ? Can one railfan there ?

Yep... here's an overhead view: https://www.google.com/maps/place/M...4c254786b9fca6!8m2!3d40.7967244!4d-81.5215093

Looks like there is a walkway and that leads to the bridge walkway. "Congressman Ralph Regula Towpath Trail" . So you could Railfan from the bridge itself or the walkway on either end.

Sadly, I didn't have time to do that. I was there for 4 days shooting video at a conference so I even had my camera's with me!