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From: "Paul R DOT Tupaczewski" paultup AT comcast DOT net
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2018 08:14:09 -0500
Subject: DL&W station signs... a survey
"DL_W_station_signs_4.jpg" - image/jpeg, 1331x1907 (24bit)

This topic recently came up on Facebook, and last night I felt compelled to do some research...

Bob Bahrs was wondering that the correlation between station sign style (rectangle versus rectangle with curves cut out of the
corners) and station style typefaces. So I went through my collection and tried to get a survey of all the signs (at least all the
ones I have photos of in my collection)

I've attached the survey (sorry it's separate screens, it was the only way I could find to export an Excel spreadsheet). The first
column has the station name, second column is the sign shape, and the third column is the typeface.

There are two shapes: "rect" for rectangular, and "curv" for curves-cut-of-corners rectangular.

There are a number of typefaces:
* "RR" - Railroad Roman, the most common DL&W typeface
* "WR" - "Wicked" Roman, my term for the lightweight Roman typeface with point angled serifs
* "Olde English" - self-descriptive
* "WS" - "Western" block typeface

As you can see, the vast majority of the signs are curved-corner-cutout with Railroad Roman lettering. The two stations with the
Olde English signs (and Lake Hopatcong really belongs here as well) are from very affluent neighborhoods.

There are only a small number of rectangular signs with Railroad Roman lettering, all in NJ: Berkeley Heights, Boonton, Lincoln
Park, Millburn, Short Hills, South Orange and Totowa-Little Falls.

Two stations (Denville and Lyons) both have a different version of Roman that I call "standard Roman", which lacks the heavier
strokes that Railroad Roman does.

Mountain View, NJ has a completely unique Block lettering typeface (any theories here?)

All of the "Wicked Roman" signs were rectangular, with the exception of Far Hills, which got a curved corner sign. I don't know the
significance of the towns that received them, but I do have a theory that these signs were replacements for their original signs,
and the "font of choice" when they were replaced was this "Wicked Roman."

Lastly, two stations - Chatham and Convent, NJ - both had the thick square serif "Western" style typeface (and Chatham also
displayed Wicked Roman on some of its signs as well)

Now for the caveats/observations:

* For a railroad that prided itself on standardization there seemed to be a lack of that on the Railroad Roman signs. Some signs
used a smaller typeface (resulting in a thicker "black border"), while some used a larger typeface (or perhaps a smaller board?)
that just barely fit on the wood.
* Also, the shorter sign names (like Espy or Tully) were put on very small boards, almost cut to fit the length of the word.

So this survey is not overly specific, but just to pick out the basic typefaces and signs. If anyone has photos of stations I might
have missed (or corrections/additions to what I have here), I'd love to hear from you!

- Paul



DL_W_station_signs_4.jpg

Image EXIF Data:
Image Capture Date   2018:02:14 14:40:48
Image Digitized Date   2018:02:14 14:40:48
Sub-Second Creation Time   55
Sub-Second Digitized Time   55


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