I’m going by memory here, but IIRC, the safety slogans on cabooses were commonplace in the 1970s but they weren’t universal. I clearly remember the slogans in the Southern Railway era - they were NOT an NS initiative.

Maybe someone on this list can confirm or debunk, but what I remember is that Southern started to get serious about safety in the 1970s during the Graham Claytor administration. Safety committees were formed on each division, and I’m betting that one of the safety gimmicks was for each committee to come up with a catchy slogan(s) to be stenciled at the steps of cabooses, maybe at a local rip track. The Union Pacific had been sloganeering their cabooses for some time before Southern, and Southern’s practice seemed to me to emulate the UP. 

Of the examples illustrated up to now, it looks to me that the slogans were localized. What I mean is that if anyone had come up with a list of slogans and where they originated, you could tell what safety committee came up with a given slogan. 

I’m not surprised that the slogans continued into the NS era. What we sometimes forget is that much of the Southern still looked like the Southern five years or so after merger with N&W in 1982. The reason is that the operating departments of the component railroads were operated separately until Robert Claytor retired in 1987. Because railroads were trying hard to phase out cabooses in the early 1980s, and because, operating-wise, there still was a “Southern” and an “N&W” in the mid-1980s, I’m not aware of any caboose that was painted “Norfolk Southern” and used in regular caboose service. They stayed SOU or N&W to the end, and the SOU slogans would have stayed intact on the steps of their cabooses. 

—Bill Schafer

On Apr 10, 2020, at 3:39 PM, Warren Calloway <wcalloway@...> wrote:

I have a number of caboose photos that have them. Most are two lines in small white letters and not readable in lower resolution scans. I have not gone back to my original slides or negatives to check but there appears to e numerous slogans!

Warren

On Apr 10, 2020, at 10:57 AM, George Eichelberger <geichelberger@...> wrote:

Warren:

I don’t see references to safety slogans on any cab drawings or documentation we have scanned.

I don’t recall ever seeing any on a photo but I’d expect they would be like on steam locos, done at a Division, shop or even roundhouse level rather than a “system” standard we’d see in Mechanical or Engineering Dept. documentation?

Have you seen an example?

Ike

PS Things have been hectic for everyone lately, but we are moving ahead to get quotes on casting parts for the ex-WrightTrak bay window cabs so SRHA can make them available.

On Apr 10, 2020, at 10:43 AM, Warren Calloway <wcalloway@...> wrote:

YIs there a list of the safety slogans on Southern cabooses!

W Calloway

Hello, new to the group. It was highly recommended by a fellow modeler.  I need some information regarding a photo of a Southern Ps-4.  Does anyone recognize the area, date, and most important the cab number of the engine?  Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks so much.