Typophile

1900s Railroad Font

Big Mike

I am having a really hard time nailing down a font. I know almost nothing about fonts so I'm lost like last year's easter egg. Anyhow, I'm into train modeling and consider myself a stickler for the details. I have a reprint of a 1913 Southern Railway Standards book about trackside signs. I have chosen to reproduce some of these signs for my railroad and I have everything but the font. After asking for help in railroad forums I have decided to try here. Some of the letters match certain fonts but then the rest don't match and vice versa. Sorry for the bad quality photos I'm sure they aren't the best for this. Any help would be greatly appreciated and thank you in advance.

-Mike

It's unlikely that you'll find a font to match exactly. What you're seeing here are not fonts, but lettering templates to be used by sign makers. Fonts were not used to make signs back then the way they are today.

Why not simply scan these into your computer instead of using a font?

I could probably do that. The reason I was hoping to get a font was so that I could get an unmounted rubber stamp made. These signs were cast out of iron and the letters were raised. The font would help me define the height for scale reasons and the rubber stamp would make the letters raised. The original sign is being made out of wood with the rubber stamp letters so I can make a silicone rubber mold and cast several signs in polyester resin. If that makes sense.

[[http://www.letterheadfonts.com/viewallfonts/|Letterhead Fonts]] have a few similar ones. Full Block is probably closest but also try Burbank or Pullman Train.

Still seems like a scan would work. Note that there some inconsistencies (see the R). Scans would capture that more authentically than a font.

Thanks for the suggestions! There was a font on Letterhead that matched the closest that I have found so far. I also think that a scan might also work. I looked into the scan a little more after your post. I think that I will try both on one sign to see which one I like best and go from there.

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