Welcome to our first installment of Old Tyme Sign Classics, a montage of signs I USED to have and in some cases, wish i STILL had...

These were made from negatives i took back from 1991 to 1993 when i started being forced to sell some of them off to pay bills (at the time, i was working two jobs and STILL not able to totally make ends meet.....)   Some of them landed in other collections, others, i have no idea where they may be now, but most of them....well, i sure would like to get them back!

all of today's signs fall into the "want them back"....

Lets start off with the batch of four....all Ohio issue and a common-sense acknowledgement that roads didn't just run in four directions only...until the Feds told them to "knock it off and play it straight!"  All standard sized tabs




Next is this lovely example...24x24 non-reflective except for the buttons...this sign came off a BGS. This was returned by me to the local ODOT garage i got it from in early 1994 (I know, I know....'FOOL!!!')


Next is this little 16x16 cutout.  Long after cutouts disappeared from Ohio highways, the Department of Natural Resources used these cutouts to mark roads in the State parks...Very few of these original shaped markers still exist in the wild,  mostly replaced by weird-shaped cutouts or other signs.  This sign was green on a white paint background, but later signs were brown on a semi-reflective face


And this 36x36 cutout was seldom seen off major freeways...rather bulky but conventional in layout.  Scotchlite sheet and stickied-on numbers


18x18.  The unusual feature of this City of Dayton made sign was the face was beaded glass....the black background and number were silkscreened over the beads....


24x24 cutout 'screened inside a square'  This sign spent its service life hanging on an overhead wire next to a stoplight with an arrow underneath .  Some did find use as pole signs, but most were overhead signs


18x18.  Standard shsield on square for city use.  This was the ONLY sign of this sized style i ever had and have never been able to locate another one


24x24, old style 3-di sign.  A few still reside in Cincinnati in both 24x24 and 18x18.....i may see about heading down there my next day available...


That ends tonight's first installment.....Jake , feel free to use these in the AA Gallery

See you next time for more Old Tyme Classic Signs!

...couldnt find one of these when i was in Massachusetts in May (I suspect more than a few were in that one District office, but the guy had strict orders NOT to unstrap strapped signs!),  but this came up and naturally i pounced on it....thankfully, it stayed where it was reasonable in price....

24x24 aluminum.  Black painted background, but the shield was cut from beaded glass sheet (is rough like beaded glass) and the numbers were silkscreened on the sheet....the Mass Dept of Public Works is stencilled on the sign.....



one more blast from the past as well....

back in my early days in the field (December 1992), i found this (I forget now which Connecticut town it was, but the cross street, North ST was US 1) still standing in the wild....one of the last complete Connecticut Turnpike assemblies in the wild as the Turnpike was decommissioned as such in the mid-80s...



I got a quick hold of the local STC Signs and Lines shop and two days later i was headed home with the complete assembly!  It has been a key part of my collection ever since....



Also, given my current circumstances, for a while you will be seeing the results of a discussion i had with Jake not long ago.....i used to have quite a few signs back in the early 90s until my deteriorating finances forced me to sell off quite a few (some landed in the collection of Scott B, others, well, who knows where they are now......)

Anyway, please stay tuned as we proudly (and with some shame at the same time for letting some of them get away) bring you 'Old Tyme Sign Classics', over many of these Livejournal Friends Lists!

Please look forward to it!

....these were landed BEFORE i was handed a $1,100 IRS tax bill (I know i owe the money, but at tax time, i paid what i could, plus applied for an installment plan......but i guess my pleas werent eloquent enough.....serves me right for inadequate withholding!!!  Fixed now between removing a workday at the second job, plus increased withholding, but a wee bit late for '08!)

First, for my good friend, and current NWA United States Heavyweight RPG Champion, Ocha the Tea Lady....

36x36....probably the last real shot i might have at a state-named Washington I-shield.....everything but the '5' is silk-screened...the 5 is stickied on...


and to complete Washington State...an older Washington sillhoutte state route marker...note the detail implying his neckwear and tail on the back of the wig...24x24 , and one of the coolest route markers in the country....along with ND's Indian Head markers


16x16 aluminum from Wyoming.....a bit thicker than the usual Wyoming shield, and everything was stickied on...still a nice piece that DID see road time


Now, everyone boo and hiss the following piccy....RIDOT invades the South!!!   24x24, hex sheeting.  At least it is state-named....


From Oklahoma.....

Another of the Panhandle shields....only this one is silkscreened on engineering sheet, not like hi-intensity sheet of the OK 7 previously seen on this fine journal.  Still amazed that recent vintage signs as this manage to escape captivity...


Also from the OK State, this fine I-shield....us44mt 's favorite number!


From the State of Georgia, home of former two-time NWA World Heavyweight RPG Champion Diana LeSkye, this loverly 24x24 I-shield....


as well as this APD route shield, nice in blue!


Finally, this lil piece from Pennsy....an early wide shield from the late 1950-early 60s era....16x20....


i have a couple of other pieces out there, but right now, things are pretty much on hold until the IRS is happy enough to leave me be for another 6 months!

After a weekend without home Net....due to a filter being fried during recent storms, time for an update...

This arrived last week.....very nice.  15x15, steel.  Incredibly good condition!  Even better, a helluva lot cheaper than the $640+ Kansas signs in a particular eBay store....



One more winning....this sign is 24x24 steel with scotchlite...and never been used!  and man, was it heavy...it was more cost-effective to actually drive to W VA to pick it up than have it shipped!  (dig that spiffy font!)

anyway, after i picked up the sign, i had this harebrained idea to take US 250 back....man what a nerve-wracking drive!  Between Fairmont and Wheeling, it has steep inclines (5-9%), hairpin turns, and more curves than the Playboy Mansion. 

Saw a speed sign about 10 miles in  that said "Radar enforced'....you dont need no stinkin radar for that highway....the curves alone would deter most people from going too fast...and those who DO drive too fast?  Well, after you track their scattered car parts for 300 yards or so, give 'em a ticket for littering!  Too narrow for any truck or car wider than 7 feet (some stretches look like they hadnt been widened since the 20s!), i dunno HOW that road was a US highway!

....wow......

Some might recall this old bare-assed ......ummmm.......bare metal, excuse me... R+R sign i picked up a couple of years ago....



....well, it had been in the hands of a guy i know awaiting restoration.  The holdup all this time was two-fold....his mom was having some serious health issues and when he wasn't busy in his store, he was trying to help her out.  The other reason was we didnt have any real idea how it should look.  I had this crazy idea of  yellow background, black outline and bars, and a white cross inside the double bars.  Well, i finally found some photos of the correct appearance and here you are....(compare to the other one i have...



It isnt totally smooth, and the dents and bends in the R+R area pretty much ruled out the roller brush on the embossed areas...it be plain, but it is accurate. (The original paint scheme was the same color-wise, but if i recall, white and black porcelain was used instead of paint)

now, if i can just get my hands on a wooden Connecticut  R+R or RxR sign....

This US 30 cutout shield is neutered...and it isnt from Ohio.    The shape looks familiar, but i cant place the state that it may have seen service in...



Can anyone out ion the signgeek community help out with this one?

Sorry Jake!  I liked the idea....and i finally had a sign to do it with!



*snerks!*

Armed with my trusty Fujifilm F480, i went out sign hunting while on vacation.  While i was unable to locate good signs in Delaware, i came up with enough stuff otherwise to fill a good-size page!

Going state-by State (not date shot)

( So your Friends List doesn't have a nervous breakdown... )

coming tomorrow or Monday...the winnings of this trip!

Well, lessee...where did I leave off?

well, i ended up not really going out in the rain...as it turns out, the skies were too dark for any really good photography...so i stopped by the store, picked up some tuna and mayo, and made lunch for the trip back....

Friday morning, packed lunch, ate a fast breakfast and checked out.  Drove to the other place, but the guys were gone...the only people on site was a state trooper who was helping with some guys trying for their CDLs....so i decided to go ahead and drive back to Old Saybrook and pick up the grinders....also decided to take the Merritt Parkway (Conn 15) and skip the Turnpike (good choice too....a LOT of south construction on I-95....got into Jersey just after 130, and decided to visit the NJ Signs and Lines ...and picked up 5 signs.  The guy told me "If you can actually get in the scrapbin and fins anything you want go ahead, but if you get hurt, i dont know you"  I told him that was OK, being as tall as I am, i had no real trouble getting in or out and came away with five nice pieces (4 for me, 1 for elsewhere)  At that point, trip over and "time to get the hell out of Dodge"...got back at 1230AM.   Got all 40 signs unloaded by 130....washed most of them today, and sent Jake out his two....

Oh, about those prototype Conn route markers?

Here are the photoshopped prototypes....

Prototype A....the cooler sign in Jeff and my opinion...


And Prototype B...the better choice if number readibility is the issue


either way, no more boring state route markers!!!

*g* once we get Connecticut changed over, then we work on Rhody, Mass and Maine!

The actual wild signs later tonight, and the winnings maybe tomorrow or Monday!

Left early Monday morning to head East for my semi-annual sign shopping trip.   Stopped in Wheeling W VA first to see if i could scarf anything up there (not likely as the guy i needed to speak to was out until mid-afternoon, but the answer was likely 'no' anyway.  Stopped by PennDOT in Pittsburgh and had no luck there either.  Headed east on the Turnpike but unfortunately, did NOT make it to the state sign shop in Harrisburg before they all were fleeing at 3PM.  So, i headed to Delaware (after dropping almost $20 in tolls on the Pennsy Pike).  Unfortunately, i was unable to find the last I-95 before it started getting a bit nervous (the sign is located in 'the hood'....not a  happy area after dark to be)  So i drove north on the Jersey Pike and the Garden State parkway dropping another $10 in tolls....and $5 more at the Tappan Zee bridge north of New York (when i paid the toll, i asked the guy what they would do if i didnt have the money....his response was "We have a giant rubber band that would shoot you back across!  Nice to know that late at night, some state employees have a sense of humor!)  Skipped I-85 and drove up ther Merrit parkway in Connecticut and arrived in Springfield Mass at close to 1230AM

Tuesday, hit the depot across the street, but all i found was a lonely Mass 19 (possibly earmarked for another signgeek).  After ward, went to the STC State Sign shop and talked to the head shopmeister.....i gave him a couple of phtoshopped portotype shieldsthat he liked...but he told me that the Commissioners may not go along (I will post the photos in my next entry....both were modified off the classic CONN 15 state outline signs...one was a white Connecticut with blue backgound and blue 15...the other was a white background with blue Connecticut and a white 15.  We agreed the blue background was cooler, but if readibility of number was the top issue, the white shield was likely the better choice.  I think he may make up a couple of prototypes off my photos and see what happens when he presents them to the higer ups. 

I hit my usual haunts elsewhere and came away with just 6 signs in one place (but 2 important gap-fillers!) but hit the jackpot the other site.  I lost count now, but i picked up close to a dozen signs there including 3 I-95 shields, all in decent shape.   Afterwards, i did some driving around and shot a few photos of signs...

Yesterday, i headed out to see what other luck in Massachusetts I might have.  Found some of the legendary older Mass signs including possibly the LAST cateyed route shield ijn the wild).  As to stops I made, stopped at a diustrict office where they guy i spoke with was helpful enough to give me the number of the head sign guy...plus tell me three places that signs usually go to when taken down.  Went to one of those palces....picked up 3 signs including a Mass DPW US 20 square, so now massachusetts is officially complete in my catalog  I hope to hit one or both of the other places tomorrow before i leave...

After that i drove all over eastern Connecticut and shot more sign piccys.....then ordered some grinders for my mom for Friday pickup (she cant travel anymore, so she needs a taste of home any chance i get) then met with my cousin and his family for dinner and conversation (my uincle and aunt were there too, visiting from Tennessee)

This morning, only two places....the local district office which was a washout...they were helpful enough....just that their old signs were already bundled up and the guy was told 'Do NOT unbundle them, no matter what!"  and they called one other guy about a sign i spotted who was distinctly unhelpful....however i did call the other chap from the office i visited yesterday...and he said when i had a better idea to definte date i would be back, let him know and he would try to make sure the signs i seek would be ready for pickup...

Vermont was a great stop...came away with 11 signs (but only 7 for me....the other four are earmarked for agentsteel53  or one other guy from the AARoads forum  Well, it is rainin g but i am headed back out to shoot some more photos before it gets too dark....

Conclusion to this report (plus more sign photos than Carter has little liver pills) coming this weekend!

Please look forward to it!

and i have lots of piccys of signs....plus a trunk of nice sign talent for the collection.....

hopefully i can add a few more before i head back to Ohio on Friday!

Yesterday, went to a ALPCA gathering near where i live...in part to meet up with a guy who had a couple of signs for me, and also to see what else might be had....and if this was something worth checking out for possible membership...ran into Joey K there and he introduced me to a couple of other Signpost members, and handed me the next issue of Signpost ( Signpost spoiler!  )....

First off, even though plates hold no real interest to me (prolly due to too many summer weekends in my youth using old plates to pick up doggy dip in the backyard....ewww!), you still see some interesting plates and other transportation-related things....so i think when i get back from my mini-invasion, this is something worth following up with.

The winnings....first from Chuck

Opening up Washington State, for my good friend ochahime .  16x16 steel


and from Louisiana....24x24 hex sheet.  The red is totally faded to the point that it is practically gone and the hex sheet number is flaking badly, but i figured this might be my only chance to snag a state-name LA I-shield...


And one more pickup, from one of the booths....24x24, hex sheet, from Colorado. Not really a need, maybe possible trade bait, but it jumped into my arms and said 'Take me home, Daddy!"


Now, allow me to show off the walls as they currently are decorated...

Cutout Alley (Arizona?  We have a place for you, Arizona!)


And the US shield cutouts.....




The plan at this time is to hit the road early Monday morning.....hit W. VA in Wheeling and PennDOT.....Tuesday depending upon things, i will either hit Maryland and Delaware then scoot up to New England, or head straight to New England...either way, i expect to be back Thursday night or sometime Friday.....

See you when i return....

Prices have been coming down a bit for some of these items, but i suspect it wont be for long...once the economy picks back up again...

a nice pick-up....16x16 painted and silkscreened....and dig that spiffarific B font!


one more cutout....leaves me now with just Arizona to try to locate (rotsa ruck!)  Cheaper than i thought as well, but no complaints


and this was a nice pickup....much thinner wood too, than expected (maybe a bit more than half the thickness of my Conn shields...my guess is likely a wartime sign


oh, and i do have one more New England raid planned for next week, but it will be a quickie...

Between trying to figure out taxes and other issues,  havent gotten much lately.

But the new arrivals....as they are...

Montana secondary route marker.....why is it that Montana and Texas have such cool secondary markers, but boring-as-hell primary markers?


Stole this piece off eBay for 60 bucks!  (the one edge has been since straightened out a bit....)


a larger keystone....24x24....


This sign is in sorier shape than the picture shows....both the Ohio and the 17 were embossed at one time, but both got mashed flat into the sign...and the middle is bowed outward like the metal was responding to the flattened embossing.  This is in agentsteel53  's hands right now....hopefully, Jersy Rod can re-emboss it....if not, we will have to figure that to do next....


finally, as threatened.....i recently took the old 1920s Ohio 213 to meet its modern counterpart.....was an all-day drive for this picture as Ohio 213 is about 14 muiles long....and has damn few shields out in the open....but I finally found one and  got the shot.  Crazy, but worth it to me!


see you later

Some recent pickups from the Joehler showrooms....

36x36, 61-specs....while a nice sign, that will learn me to pay more attention to the description!


24x24  hex sheeting...yes, Virginia, you are completed!


24x24...and truthfully, ruined from a collectors standpoint.  I will simply have to hope at some point a better example falls into my hands


picked this up, which made my OK 31 panhandle expendable (as you will see later)


and one more weasel sign...


Picked up this nice piece as a BIN...24x30


Went to visit Joey K again last weekend....we chatted about the recent sign experiences we had in our travels and the sun cooperated by coming out so we can photograph my signs for his sign logs...also picked up a  few items from him...some Connecticut STC parking signs tat nobody really cares much about (except me!), and picked up this one...the new version (the white bands are laser-cut from sheeting and placed over the green background....not silk-screened like my VT 12 and 100 signs from last year


earlier i mentioned that the OK 31 was made expendable...here is what i traded it for...36x36.  Joey found a few of them on a scrap pile, never used!  Turns out, there was no goof, and he was allowed to take them.  Temporarily covers Alabama, but i still want a state-named Alabammy US shield!


Also picked up this 1980s model Connecticut STC Speed limit sign


One more acquisition to share...snapped up as a BIN...and kinda rare right now as this route is signed only in North Carolina (it is supposed to run from Toledo Ohio through Columbus, Portsmouth, and all the way into NC....and may never get that far!)  Brand new and never used.....diamond sheet, and nicely silk-screened too!  This temporarily covers North Carolina, but i still want a state-named NC I-shield!


that is all, folks! (for now, for now!)

....and boy, do i have some great stuff for you guys to see!

Grabbed as a BIN...and half the price i paid for the orange US 41.  I am not mad about it, at the very least i can now try for green, red, or yellow Kodachrome shields...if nothing else, this one can be trade bait for a collector who wants a Kodachrome shield, but isnt fussy about the road or color...


Another BIN pickup.  Interestingly, this is the second sign in the last year i picked up that was the same layout as a sign i had in 1993 but had to sell off...(NH I-93 was the first)


A relatively cheap pickup.  Yeah the sign is rusted and had the hell beat out of it, but it looks more authentic than that other US 41 that looked too new..


and completing the Weasel State, 36x36 (but if a 24x24 state-named comes up, i will go for it...)

(for those who wonder about the Weasel State reference, it goes back  a few years at the second job when i would rag on one of the residents who was a big Michigan fan....i told him once that the mascot was changed to a weasel...then i asked him "Do you know what a weasel is?"  He said no and i replied "A weasel is a wolverine with no balls...."   Can't say he liked THAT one much, especially since Michigan has lost several games now to Ohio State...

Completing Minnesota.  Embossed steel, but only the outline is embossed....the crown line, lettering and numbers are silk-screened.  I now have 22 States completed...


a pick-up from Joehler's showrooms....Neutered and employed on a BGS, but the outline makes it seem this sign could have easily seen pole time.  The outline is very neatly painted on...not exactly screened on, but too neat for a hand-job.   The shape has me wondering...would any of you guys be able to figure out which State this may have come from?


Not really a  gap-filler, but i wanted a 1-di I-shield, and i figured that I-8 would prolly be out of my price range...and i wouldnt be likely to snag a FLA I-4


Opening up State #47  15x15 from tip to tip...bare metal like the sheeting had weathered away save for the painted surfaces.  A bit bent up, but right now, i have no complaints!  That leaves me signless for Rhoda Island, Alaska, Hawaii, and Washington State.


Fianlly the big prize, many thanks to dangermoose  for getting this into my hands.  From the mid-1920s, this was a design that Ohio stopped using in 1927 (Robert Edgar was going after some document a while back that showed the simplified Ohio as coming into service in 1928)  Three generations of this style....1A was stencilled on a white band painted around telephone poles (and falls into the 'good luck running THAT one down' along with those concrete US 10-12 shileds in Montana!); 1B was cast iron and this sign here was 1C (embossed steel) with probably the least time out/fewest examples put in the wild.  Jake thinks this has original paint...the original yellow as seen on the lower part of the '3'...the white/black seems to indicate 'field repaint'   We discussed restoring it back to its original black on yellow colors, but after Jake got it and sent it to me, he felt this should be left as is....after recieving it this week, i have to agree. 

What do you guys think?  Did we make the right call?

incredibly tiny as well...10.5x10.5....and makes my 16"x16 signs look HUGE.


oh, and yes, once the weather turns nicer, this sign WILL 'go home' for a bit...i want to take its portrait under a modern Ohio 213 sign like i did with the 661s last year....
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...a giant Eagle....32x36.....

opening up Oregon

(Officially, i now have 5 states to go....i need signs from North Carolina, Alaska, Hawaii, Rhody, and Washington State...)

The embossed Nevada US 6 was shipped out to Jake for other considerations...one of them as this gem


and Jake also helped snag this gem....and now add Wyoming to the 'Closed' list


finally to bring a happy ending to one ongoing story...

long time readers of this journal may recall back in July of 2007, i wrote about a possible acquisition...

ctsignguy.livejournal.com/2007/07/03/

well, i had been in regular contact with the site supervisior since that July...every few months i would call or stop by to see how the new bridge was progressing and in Novemebr when i called, i was told they should be open around Christmastime...well they were off by a week, but i contacted them as soon as i read the new bridge was open for traffic....the following week (last Tuesday), i got a call i had hoped for...and headed to the old bridge this morning

here is the before piccy taken by me last spring


And some after shots......



and under flash


yeah, the signs are bent forward a bit, but after consulting with jake, at this point, i am inclined to leave the assembly intact

well worth the wait!

some fine sign talent and a few completed States as well!

24x30 with scotchlite...a bit cracked due to those harsh New England winters....completes Maine, but i would never rule out going after an I-95 Maine shield


Completing Nevada....24x24 hex sheeting


And completing Arkansas...24x30, but i still want to locate and snag an Arkansas cutout like us44mt has....dig that spiffariffic 'B' font!  Unusual to see B font on a wider sign...(Ohio would have used a shorter C or D font)


And some other stuffies picked up from his showrooms....

Way, way rough and faded....but i wanted this one anyway....


And just because i like the number....now i need a PA I-76...24x24, hex sheeting


and this one is odd in how it was made....the background is black, with the old PennDOT logo silkscreened on...the keystone shape is cut from engineering sheeting (with a half-circle cut out of the bottom as to not cover up the PennDOT logo) and centered on the sign, and the numbers are stickied-on vinyl....i guess you could almost call this a 2 or 3-layer sign


next time....a Giant Eagle will swoop upon us (and no, i am not referring to the grocery store chain!)

After a back and forth on my last entry with Mike that led to his photo shoot here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55173627@N 00/3024701941/



well/////i felt like i had to do something....

so, feel free to blame Mike!

Had to do this.......sorry, Mike....i just had to!  *LOL* but it was fun!

( So your FL doesnt get a nervous breakdown! )

any kids i do have WILL know their numbers! 

although i can see it now....

"Mr K, your child is terrific in class....knows the numbers, but i have two requests to make..."
"Oh?"
"Yes. Please, tell them to STOP drawing US and Interstate shapes around the numbers on their math homework and tests...it is very distracting!  And two...."
"yes?"
"Would you PLEASE explain that US 1 plus US 5 does NOT equal US 6!!!!"

hmmm.......new sign math?

and we have a few new additions to the collection....

Just in.......and a prize i wasnt expecting given the ad in eBay mentioned very little about dimensions....this sign is 18x18....1958 specs! (the 18-inch shields were intended for city service...


the 18x18 size was withdrawn from the 1961 MUTCD, but you still find a few of them in service here and there...Dangermoose had a photo on his LJ recently of an SD I-90, and there are those legenday I-95s in Delaware...

Also added this week...21x22....aluminum with beaded glass...opens State #44


two more additions from that estate sale....
 

Courtesy of Dangermoose who snagged this for me....thanks Jake!  Standard embossed shield


and this is a sign i have wanted for years...and the price was right.  24 dia, embossed...from the 20s-early 30s


and finally, from the Odds'N'Ends Zone, this unusual piece.....Jake, Robert and Mike Summa all think this is New Hampshire.  24x24 planks nailed together....non-reflective


........maybe someday i can finish this.....