Tonight, our final installment of Old Tyme Sign Classics goes back in the vaults of repressed memories....the signs i used to have and this time, we are in states around Ohio, aside from the Indy I-74 seen previously....

This is one i was lucky enough to replace...with a better example


Two typical KY State route markers.....sure wish i kept the 4-di one!



and an old-style neutered KY US 60...


THIS was actually a trade FROM Scott.....dig that funky Weasel font.


Now for an assortment of yellow STOPS from all over....

Steel, with a reflective silverish band in the center


This one was a PA sign....and made (re-embossed) from an old square embossed curve sign!

a lil cutie...


I'll have to go back...i dont recall this sign if it was really red, or was really yellow and the negative was starting to go bad...must not have had it long...


flat steel...


This was a 30x30, and steel...man, it was heavier than i expected!


and a nice assortment of jewelled signs....i had several of them at one time, but sold them to a English sign collector for like $1,000 back in early '94


Well, that concludes the current look back in the vaults......and man, it broke my sign collecting heart to have to unload some of the signs you have seen in the last few posts....but at the time, economically, i did what i had to do....and i pray i wont have to do anything like that again

Welcome back for today's edition of Old Tyme Sign Classics.....last time i shared with you old piccys of signs from far away places that i wished i could get back....for THIS installment of The Trip Down Terror Lane, we stick closer to home...namely Ohio.....

( More idiocy!!!! )

Stay tuned for out concluding chapter where we visit nearby states, and continue to cry over losses.....

A couple of weeks back, i posted some signs that i used to have in my collection some 15 or so years ago, some (well, most all of them actually) that i wished i had back in my collection...

Tonight, we will look at the signs that, if i still had them, would have filled a LOT of significant gaps in my collection!  (hence the subtitle above!  Who knows if i would ever be able to replace these.....)

( Gloom, despair and agony on me.... )
Next, Part 2, Closer to Home!

See you for our next installment of Old Tyme Sign Classics!

Well, i spoke to Jeff at the ConnDOT Sign Shop this morning...he did get the email with all the photos you saw in the previous entry attached, your opinions as expressed in LJ as well as the AARoads Forum and the Signal Traffic Forums (which had the blue 15 ahead by a significant margin over the blue on white, with support for a black and white versions as well as the original outline sign.   He did forward them to his superiors....

The consensus he got was that there was no real interest in pursuing any changes now, even under a 'grandfathering' situation as in South Carolina (there, they are not replacing old with new designs pell mell, but as sign replacement needs dictate).  It was also felt these signs might not meet MUTCD standards (Dunno how in the hell Vermont gets away with their green markers then, but oh well), but that at some point, when the economy improves, maybe they could revisit the issue with standard black and white coloring.  But as he also noted "We Connecticut Yankees tend to not like to change things just to change them...."

So that is where the matter rests for now......

Thanks for all your help in this project...even though it didnt end as maybe we might have liked, at least we tried to do something positive...

(Those of you who have seen this on either the AARoads Forum or Signal Traffic Forums or my main LJ can feel free to not vote, but please do add your feedback
Based upon some wild whim i had been kicking around for quite a while, i took it upon myself to take this classic CONN 15 photo and work it a little bit on Photoshop....


I showed the photoshopped examples to the guy in charge of the ConnDOT STate Sign Shop back in May and he liked what i had done...we discussed making prototypes and showing them to the Commissioners to see if they might go for a change from the Boring Square (trademarked by Dangermoose!) to something a bit more modern looking...and certainly a helluva lot different from Mass, Rhody and Maine!

Anyway, allow me to present my real life prototypes normally as well as under flash

Replica of the original 1970s design (engineering sheeting)




Prototype A




Prototype B




What design do you guys like best...and which do you think would be the best one for nighttime as well as day driving?

Results will be shared with the ConnDOT guys when i go back up in a few months

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!

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!

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 i now have a complete set of I-shields for one route! 

Starting in New Haven.....


Rolling into Springfield


and on into Brattleboro...all the way to the Canadian border!




(so it is only 3 shields, whoopie-doo!  if i wanted to REALLY impress, i should try for all 16 I-95 shields....

First things first....Mike i am sorry i missed you completely last Sunday....as I was afraid of, I didnt even get to Scranton until way late.   when i got to Slate Hill, and called on Sunday morning, your wife told me you were out ...i am sending the S.H.I.T. a lil' something to apologize with for my mess-up.

Saturday, got a late start....i wasnt terribly unhappy that i overslept by two hours...i figured that if that was the case, i must have needed the sleep (and i did...i worked a LONG week to get ready for this trip and to make sure nothing would go wrong while i was gone at my day job....)

On a whim, i decided i would drive US 6 acrioss Pennsylvania and New York into Connecticut...i took only a few phots....not as many as Jake would, but since i dont walk and chew gum at the same time, i figured i couldnt drive and shoot at the same time either...

( Drive-by shootings....photo style! )

Oh, the rest of the trip?  Did ok in Connecticut and Mass, struck out completely in Rhody (I was telling their shop boss "Take my blanks, PLEASE!!! I dont want to bring them back to Ohio!!!")  More seriously, the Rhody shop is going to be changing their set-up...they will be installing gates soon, and nobody will get to see the sign shop guys without an appointment from the front desk. The guy (who like most sign guys i have met, was very cordial) told me they had problems with people walking out taking signs, traffic lights, even metal lightpoles, so now they wont give away anything any longer....and they are vigorously going after sign thieves (some kids in a  nearby town were caught copping a sign, and unlike the old days when they were "kicked in the ass and told to go home", they are now facing years in jail and lives ruined before they get started...)

Never got south of Jersey.........my trip was a bit too ambitious, but that was ok...had fun anyway!

The winnings, such as they are, will be posted privately...

Went back to visit Joe K today as he had some stuff for me...he took some pictures of some of my stuff (look for them in any upcoming issue of the SIGNPOST newsletter!) plus we had the usual sign discussions, viewing of some nice license plates from Mississippi (hows comes you guys have such COLORFUL plates?  You too, Utah!) and some other goodies....also picked up some interesting stuff as well....

24x24 aluminum, hex sheeting


also 24x24 with hex sheet, opening Utah, the Beehive State...


And now the more colorful characters...

not even a mile long...part of a group of eight sub-highways off the same route (611)...also note that the layout isnt as neat as the 3262 shown back in May...(must have been a post-lunch special....)


You may recall just over a year ago i had a Idaho US 91 where the shield was placed over a brown background to denote it as a scenic route.  Now, we share the opposite scheme from Idaho...also scenic...


Now, to complete Idaho....the red crown has almost totally faded away....and the sign was put up some 25 years ago (dated 83 on the bottom)


This sign was stained but the number, a stickied-on number, has held up pretty well...


Finally, this unusual sign from Mississippi...no state markings, but the color is unusual....Joe says this is a rare scenic sign that he only saw a few of when he was down in Mississippi...ordinarily. plain circles dont have much interest for me without some form of State ID...hell, they could be New Jersey, Iowa, Kentucky, MIssissippi, old Oklahoma, or Delaware for all I know...but THIS one was too good to pass up...


he also gave me some information i would need for my trip next month along with some places to check on, and some places to avoid....and what states it would be cheaper to gas up in...

a great visit!

but these are my office walls as of Saturday.....i have one more wall to fill but in the meantime, here you go...









More soon...i hope

Well, as previously posted here, i snagged this old Ohio 661 (stamped on the back 1937, but the route wasnt commissioned until 1938...



....well, Ohio 661 isnt that far from where i live....so today, just for shits and giggles, i took a mini-trip and came up with this...


top sign, 24x 30 aluminum, with diamond sheet....from 2008
lower sign  14.5 x 15, embossed steel, no reflective abilities beyond what the paint will allow...from 1938

What a difference 70 years makes in sign technology!

...fortunately, no penalty yardage was involved....  i finally met up with Joe Koldys at his home today.  Spent a nice afternoon discussing signs, and seeing bits and snatches of his vast empire of licence plates and signs which take up roughly 65-70% of his living space (and my SO thinks I am bad....she  might change her mind if she saw Joe's place.)  He operates the Signpost newsletter which he took over from Scott some years back  so i signed up (pun intended) for the newsletter....

we chatted about our various adventures and misadventures in sign collecting.  Seems part of the problem with the rising hostility of sign shops and garages towards us collectors has been those few who take a bunch and then sell them on eBay.  By and large, it isnt the older stuff that caused the concern, but when the newest stuff shows up, and higher-ups see them, eyebrows are raised and questions asked.  No legit sign collector wants to see someone lose his job due to our hobby, so some states are now kinda dicey in regard to what can be gathered (I wont name the states to preserve the collector's ability to be able to visit and get a few pieces off the scrap piles...)   We looked at each other's photos and i must say Joe has had quite a few (and even more on his hit-list)  He also recounted when his house was broken into that the thieves stole most of his electronics....but gave up on anything else after ripping open some boxes of licence plates and wondering 'What the hell is THIS place??"  Surprisingly, the cops asked no questions about the signs when they came over to investigate, prolly figuring that anyone who had THAT many signs was most likely legit....

I also walked away with a small haul which pleased me, but probably will displease the SO greatly when she comes home tonight  ^^;; hehehe!  Rather than give your FLs a nervous breakdown ...

( we proudly prrsent these.... )

Well, there you are....now to figure out where to put them all!

(damn spelling glitches!!!!)

....*L* Sorry, Mike, i had to do that!

Mike Summa paid a return visit this morning...a nice two-plus hour visit devoted to our favorite topic...signs...

I showed him some of the goodies added since his last visit...he was impressed with the restoration job Jake did on the W Va 9 embossed shield...it reminded him of the old W Va sign he saw in the old sign shops, and neglected to get a piccy of (it was a bit larger and flat with more modern fonts...it did please him to know the W Va guys are now working in a more modern shop than what they were in during his last visit..

He got a template of the GA 332 cutout for his own use, and we discussed replica signs like the projects Jake has been working on in his spare time.  Mike had no problem at all with making replica signs insofar that real collectors would recognize the real things from a replica on sight, and as long as they were sold as that....replicas...

we also agreed signs arent as they used to be...too many sloppy signs with misplaced or misaligned (or flat -out wrong) numbers...prolly caused by the sheer numbers of signs demanded by todays standards compared to years ago...and placements were sloppy.  He suggested that instead of hiring traffic engineers to plan and put up signs, signgeeks should be hired to do that...we would notice if a sign isnt placed to give enough warning for a upcoming turn, and would know where to place them for maximum effect and safety

We also had an 'exchange of hostages' ....i swapped a couple of extra signs (PA 507 and Oh 49 cutout...both were to be trade bait anyway when i got them) and some cash...and anyway, here is the entire list of goodies

16x16 aluminum....Mike tried to give this a reflective surface while keeping the original outline and fonts...it doesnt look bad, and while it was altered some, it fills a gap in my Ohio collection!


This fills my Vermont line in my photo album


From the great State of Virginia....16x16, older scotchlite on a steel shield...embossed outline everything else was flat (the brown wasnt rust but sheeting that had weathered away


Also from Virginia...aluminum with scotchlite  17x17


From Florida...an old-style marker (note the Keys, which you dont see on current signs)  24 x 24.  Dig that spiffy B font!


24 x 24 wood....seems to be scotchlite with the numbers cut out stencil-style...and more B-font goodness.  Must have been a Sunday sign as the front is all holey.....(ok, on the count of three....one...two...three....BOOO! HISS!@ the awful pun!)


This is a nice looking sign..24 x 24


Finally the big prize, rescued by Mike from a  literal scrap pile...one jewel is missing, and the backplate is gone, but it still is nice and unique..and the color appears to be original as well...first, under normal lighting


and under flash


Next on the docket is a visit with a local signgeek in a couple of weeks...if we can get a day hammered out..

be looking forward to that report

Well, we were visited this morning by a legend among sign geeks and road scholars!   Michael Summa came by this morning to pay us a visit,  drop off some stuff and take a gander at my sign collection.  (Rebecca watched this, all bemused the whole time!) 

For those of you on the other LJ who don't know of him, he was a chap who was taking pictures of signs back in the 1970s, during the 'transition period" between the older smaller signs and today's super-reflective large signs...allow me to link one of his sites...

http://mryamamoto.topcities.com/summa5/summa5.htm

His photos also are scattered among many other sites on the Net showing the wide range of signs that the individual states had before the Feds started enforcing uniform appearances in the 1980s...

He brought in a large photo album of sign photos he had acculmulated off the Internet (ebay, other sites, some piccys from my LJ as well!) that Mike would want to replicate through his own efforts, plus a suitcase full of homemade mini-signs that i know Jake would lust after!   He wanted to take some photos of some of the odd signs in the collection (The Maine 1A, NH 101C, the Speed 45 Limit, and green CT US 5) and we just discussed and cussed about the trends in the sign-collecting hobby, namely the increasing price of good cutouts....he says that his real collection is pretty much complete, and while he might occasionally play on eBay, he is content with things as they are....

First things first...he confirms the US 11 i got from Dale last week as a Virginia sign....
the angle of the crown edges and the sign being a bit taller than the standard small US cutout  shields...the bolt holes are a bit off in placement, but it definitely was from Virginia.

As to the goodies brought here (all wood signs)...

Non-reflective (more likely that the reflective beads had all pretty much weathered away.....18"w x 12"h


Also non-reflective....probably paint rather than scotchlite  12x12...pretty tiny so i would guess an in-town or neighborhood street sign


Usually seen under 'No Parking" signs.....12"w x 8"h  (now i gotta go try to find a wooden STC No Parking sign on eBay!)


Mike wasnt sure what kind of assembly this was to....i thought either a directional sign with either the arrow and/or mileage number hacked off, or a BGS attachment, but neither was true.   46" w x 8" h...if someone from New England knows, let us know


Standard JCT sign....21X 15 and reflective beaded glass


A standard size, but rare....an early orange DETOUR sign
21x9 (for years, states used 'Temporary' signs....
\

finally, a sign that wasnt very common.....it was used briefly before the larger 24" signs supplanted them.  18x18, scotchlite shield placed on a black painted background 


Mike also took an up-close gander at the replicas Kim made and commented that they werent quite right...the font was a bit off on letters and numbers (Mike can attest to that with his replica blue US 44 and the real blue US 44....)   He also couldnt understand why non-reflective material was used for the letters and numbers if the trouble was taken to use reflective surfaces for the signs themselves...(I think Kim's reasoning was it kept the cost down, but i dont recall....)

Also discussed were Flordia's colored shields, and the best techniques to get the sign shops and maintenence garages to see us collectors more positively...

In large part to inflict feelings of guilt and inadequacy on him for what goodies he missed when he blew by here at 3 frickin' AM.....

Taken over a nice holiday weekend...

( Read .....and see....more... )