Sign, sign, everywhere a sign

Matt_Hutson · July 15, 2023, 10:32am

Hi guys,
One of my favorite things to make for my railroad are the typical signs along the line. Most of these were drawn up in AutoCAD and printed to scale on waterproof self-adhesive vinyl. All are made per Grande standards for “Roadway Signs”.

This one is a bit hard to see. It’s a black triangle to tell engineers to raise their flanger. These are placed at railroad crossings, switches, and bridges.

This is a whistle post to indicate to the engineer to blow the whistle for a crossing.

A snow depth gauge. this particular post has served on at least four of my railroads and gets re-painted and re-lettered every couple of years.

A speed limit sign.

A typical milepost.

A crossing sign and a no trespassing sign.

A clearance warning sign.

A no trespassing sign in Spanish. The prototype was once located at Lumberton, NM.

A yard limit sign.

Cheers,
Matt

Pete_Lassen · July 15, 2023, 1:50pm

Nice work, just another, not a bother like it originally said added layer of detail that brings the whole railroad alive.
My apologies for not reading before hitting post

JRad · July 15, 2023, 4:41pm

Neat. I snapped this prototype sign in the Royal Gorge this week…

Yves_Belanger · July 15, 2023, 4:51pm

I love the plow in front of your GP9!

Rick_Marty · July 16, 2023, 1:59am

Jon,
Were the guys still mining across the river?

Pete_Lassen · July 16, 2023, 5:46pm

My first comment has been edited because I didn’t read it before posting , I hope no one got the wrong idea that it was a bother, when I meant to say another.my apologies

Cliff_Jennings · July 16, 2023, 7:35pm

Really nice work, Matt. The signs sure add realism. Have they ever been conversation starters, like explaining what a whistle or yard limit sign means?

JRad · July 17, 2023, 3:44am

If they were, I missed them.

Matt_Hutson · July 17, 2023, 10:19pm

Thanks for the nice comments. Yves, the plow was added and painted to match the prototype - wish it HAD been my idea to paint it like that:

No Cliff, I can’t say that the signs have ever prompted a discussion among visitors. Most of my visitors are my age or older and can’t read them anyway!

A family friend passed away a few years ago and I ended up with his code 332 track. Since I only use code 250 and 215 rail, I used his track to build a branch to the garage and a staging area. In his honor I made a station sign with his name on it. I grow hops along the retaining wall below and every summer they find his sign:

This is not a sign (obviously) but is a phone box. My son used to call these birdhouses when he was a kid. Anyway, a fun detail to model:

Cheers,
Matt