One of my favorite things is to trace the subway's graphic design language through the colorful and vibrant late-1960s and 1970s during the Vignelli period. Colors were vibrant, designs were crisp, and changes were incredibly frequent. I think the best looking designs the system's ever had came during these years, and thanks to the great photo archive on nycsubway.org, we're able to look back on that period with total clarity. While there are many photos here, this is more of a discussion thread, so I've put it here in this section rather than the photos one.
The first design I want to focus on is what I'll call the "central-color" roll. These rolls accompanied the 1968 'color explosion' and were the first time color was ever used on a subway roll. Until then, lines were listed in white text on a black background only. But in 1968 that changed as the newly-arriving R40 cars brought these new rolls with them.
These cars actually predate the introduction of Akzidenz-Grotesk (Standard) into the system as brought by Vignelli, so the cars use the block font all-caps of some of the 1950s and 1960s signs with a colored square for the line in the center.
Joe Testagrose collection
Joe Testagrose collection
As you can see, the front of the cars used the same block font over a massive colored roll:
Doug Grotjahn photo
That design was slowly altered, however, and R40Ms and R42s arrived with the center-color design using Akzidenz-Grotesk as the font, lower-case letters, and the first circular 'bullet' design of any cars.
This is the general design of these rolls (houseofmemories802 photo):
At the front of the trains, the same colored roll was used, but now with smaller letters in Akzidenz-Grotesk:
Joe Testagrose collection
The R44 fleet, which arrived slightly later, used an identical side roll. At the front, rather than a colored rectangle, was an enlarged version of that 'bullet' on the center of the side signs.
This is how that looked:
Doug Grotjahn photo
Those rolls could also be used, rarely, on R40s/R42s:
Doug Grotjahn photo
Keeping track of the year is important here, however. The R44s were built beginning in 1971, according to the design specs of the late 1960s years. By 1972, Massimo Vignelli and Bob Noorda had codified the design system for the subway, and they outlined the new rollsign design in their graphics manual. The bullet, using the same 1968 color scheme, would go on the left of the sign over a white background, while the destinations would be printed on the right-hand side. New IRT rolls were printed with a version of this (not many were made, however--see the R17 rollsign thread I started to see how those were used and then modified), and I believe a design was planned for R32-R38 B Div cars to follow this format. The immediate result was that R46s, arriving beginning in 1975, would follow this design:
Here's that design in action--note that at the front is a colored bullet of today's general standard, for the first time:
Doug Grotjahn photo
One eBay seller now lists these rare R46 rolls on his page. The prices are high, but very negotiable, and quite rare. Here is the design for the N line:
houseofmemories802 photo
That design, introduced with the R46s, would then spread to the rest of the R40, R40M, R42, and R44 fleet. Between the mid-1970s and 1979, new signs were printed for many of the cars following Vignelli's new standards.
In this photo, you can see an R42 set at left with the original rolls and an R40M set at right with the new, mid-1970s rolls with the new standards:
Steve Zabel photo
At the front of the trains, new rolls were also being printed that followed the bullet design. Like the originals, these rolls (still using 1968 colors) scrolled vertically rather than horizontally:
Steve Zabel photo
David Pirmann collection
That new pairing of a circular, Akzidenz-Grotesk bullet with 1968 colors and the side roll with a white backing and left-justified bullets would be retrofitted onto cars right up until the 1979 transition to trunk line colors. Many cars kept the old rolls--including the out of date colors--well into the 1980s. For me, those designs are cleanest the subway ever saw. The late-1980s retrofits to the rollsigns were clunky Helvetica without the white backing that made the Vignelli signs so crisp and clear. Upon GOH, R40s and R42s lost the single-piece rolls--which were admittedly impractical, as they only had the colors and lines of a certain section of the system--for three-piece signs that last today. And by the early 1990s, a significant portion of the fleet--all R44s and R46s--had lost side rollsigns entirely. But those bullets live on, and Vignelli's design remains the best the subway has seen.
would done if the Polo Grounds shuttle never closed and if the Culver Shuttle was never demolished?
Line.
& 
trains ran local between Manhattan and (the Bronx)(for the 
trains between DeKalb Av and Bedford Park Blvd. 
Line from DeKalb Av to Whitehall St, terminated, and went back to Brooklyn, no service.
Express line to Midtown-57th St/7th Av, and terminated. 
service has been suspended between 34 St-Hudson Yds and Flushing-Main St in both directions.
and 
