Swindon Town Football Club

[Sweeps]

Only noticed today because PNE are playing them, that Swindon Town Football club badge has a red tank engine pulling a tender, looks odd and strange for such a town with all that Railway history, suppose it's been commented on before?

 

Sorry can't work out how to post a picture.

[MarkSG]

The current badge is a fairly recent one. The first to sport a steam loco (which obviously reflects the railway heritage of the town) had a far more plausible tender loco, at the top where the current one is. This was replaced in the 1970s with a more abstract logo that didn't use the traditional shield design at all, and didn't have a loco on it either.

 

The loco came back in the 80s, with a return to a the traditional shield design, and stayed there through the 90s albeit with various tweaks over the years. Again, it was a plausible tender loco at the top. Here it is in 1990, for example:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Swindon_Town_F.C.#/media/File:Swindon_town_fc_badge_1990.PNG

 

In 1991, the shield disappeared again, and the loco with it, replaced by an abstract design based on a diamond. This lasted until 2007, when the shield and loco both returned. This time, though, fans were given the opportunity to vote for their preferred design. Two of the options featured the loco in one of the quarters of the shield, rather than on top of it. The third option, and the one which was chosen (and which is the current badge) had it on top, in the traditional location.

 

However, it's clear that the designers of the three options used the same loco outline for all three, despite the quarters not being wide enough for a tender loco. So it's actually a tank loco in all three options, but the third simply appends a tender to it. I suspect that the designers assumed (probably correctly) that very few of the clubs fans would know enough about steam locos to care.

These were the three options they voted on:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Swindon_Town_F.C.#/media/File:Swindon_town_fc_badge_choice_2007.PNG

[andyram]

I noticed the return of the locomotive to the club's badge, a shame that they did not bring back the orignal design. Perhaps with a proper tender engine on board they may not have run out of steam so spectacularly at Wembley today. I feel for the fans who made the trip having been to Wembley and lost last year.

[caradoc]

I don't feel sorry for Swindon Town, but then I'm an Oxford United supporter !

[CUTLER2579]

I don't feel sorry for Swindon Town, but then I'm an Oxford United supporter !

 

Who !

[Jongudmund]

However, it's clear that the designers of the three options used the same loco outline for all three, despite the quarters not being wide enough for a tender loco. So it's actually a tank loco in all three options, but the third simply appends a tender to it. I suspect that the designers assumed (probably correctly) that very few of the clubs fans would know enough about steam locos to care.

 

 

Not wanting to besmirch the reputations of graphic designers, but they probably didn't know anything about trains either. They were just asked to include a train. That's a train. Problem solved.