Do You Favor any of the Tin Signs?

I like the tin signs that combines bomber art and trains!

http://www.historicrail.com/Signs-Art/departments/86/

I like the one with the disconnected hand pointing "To The Trains".  The only one I have, however, is "Watch Your Step" on the door to the train room, because it's one step down to enter the room and people don't expect it.  Personally, I don't favor a lot of train items adorning the walls; I'd much rather fill them with shelves of trains.

Where do you buy tin R/R signs ?. I would like some for the walls. Thanks for your replies.

          ROZY 205

Look under Retoplanet or simply search for reproduction metal signs.

Lots of good stuff there.

Joe,

If you want MTH signs try contacting, PaperTRW.(A fellow forum member)

This is over the door at the doorway to the layout room, it's the only non-original sign I have...

Most definitely.  I plan to add some when I complete my new layout. 

--Greg

I have received a lot of comments on this one my daughter and son-in-law gave me for Christmas last year.  I have a couple of other Lionel ones, but can't recall seeing any for MTH.

PRRHORSESHOECURVE, Where can I find some of those?

Mark - I like your sign too that is one of the ones I want to get.

JoeG

Joe,

Thank you.  Someone asked this week where I got it.  My daughter said she bought it online, but is looking to see if she still has the receipt to remind her of the seller.

The signs are nice, there are all kinds of them for just about anything. However the sellers seemed to have disappeared from most train shows. So I guess online is the way to go.

I got the signs here from a mail order house called Historic Rail.  They sell all kinds of train stuff; books, DVDs etc.  I like tin signs for trains I have.  Bonus:  pin ups!

I got this on that popular auction site:

It's steel with porcelain paint and brass grommets.  It will be the first thing visitors see as they walk up the stairs to the train room.

Steven J. Serenska

I do not plan to buy any of the tin signs with the pin-up art & locomotives because these are modern creations (not historic RR art) and are inconsistent with how the RRs presented themselves to the public.  I certainly understand the appeal of these signs with RR "models" to many model railroaders.  My RR's stockholders (wife & adult daughter) would also not appreciate these pin-up signs, which would detract from my RR's ability to receive future funding for expansion & continued operation.  Our granddaughter is 4 months old now, so my stockholders require that my eventual layout be "G-rated".

I collect the tin signs that share the amazement & fascination of children with model trains & with train travel from the hey day of the pre-Amtrak era passenger trains.  

LIONEL & American Flyer Signs

I have the Hallmark Lionel signs from the 1990s.  I believe that they are based on historical Lionel catalog covers with boys looking & pointing excitedly at the model trains. I also have the same Lionel sign that Mark Boyce has.  If I ever see any AF signs with the Pioneer Zephyr, I will certainly buy one of those, too.  I have a large Atlas O sign (cardboard or plastic) from a raffle prize.  I also like those high barstool style layout chairs with MTH, Lionel, & AF logos and RR heralds on the seat cushions (don't have any now, but plan to get some once I have a layout).   

Burlington Route Tin Signs

Desparate Enterprises made several historic RR signs in the 1990s, including BR signs based on CB&Q's ads in their annual calendars, heralds, & depictions of Zephyrus (God of the West Wind).  One has a lady checking her make-up in her reflection in the stainless steel nose of the Denver Zephyr while a red cap holds her baggage. Another depicts the DZ passing a steam engine on a starry night with the Chicago skyline in the background.  Another has a farmer by a fence chatting with a cowboy on his horse while in the valley below a BR FT east-bound freight train passes a steamer west-bound freight train with the Rocky mountains on the horizon.  There are other examples and Rebel Rails is producing more all of the time.  There is a BRHS calendar with a reproduction of BR calendar with a boy & girl excitedly looking over St Paul's Dayton's Bluff Yard with FTs, steamers, and the Twin Cities Zephyr passing by the yards along the Mississippi River.  All of these signs visually communicate BR's slogans  "EVERYWHERE WEST" and "WAY OF THE ZEPHYRS".       

CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR SIGNS

Rebel Rails also has some CZ signs.  I have a Rail Plaques' version of the oval California Zephyr logo with Zephyus (one of my favorites), along with the heralds for BR, D&RGW, and WP.  

VINTAGE ERA AD SIGNS

I have a few reproduction signs from ads for Shell, Western Union, Railway Express, International Harvester tractors, Wonder Bread (nice little girl eating a slice of bread), Coca Cola, Red Rock Cola, Pepsi, Yellowstone Bus Tours, Streamliner Peaches (looks like the shovel-nose Pioneer Zephyr), Morton Salt (another nice little girl pouring salt in the rain), Chevy, Ford, Melitta Bread (with Lone Ranger on his horse), etc.  These are great to help the layout visiter connect the signage & scenes on the layout to the larger 1:1 scale world of the pre-Amtrak era.  Any signage on agriculture (tractors, implements, cows, horses, chickens, pigs, etc)  I also like.  

RR STREET SIGNS

A local vendor (Route 66) had custom made steel street signs (silver with Black & red lettering) with BURLINGTON ROUTE, CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR, NEBRASKA ZEPHYR, & PIONEER ZEPHYR.  I have these displayed along the ceiling joists in may basement over the eventual layout area.  

RANGER DOUG WPA NATIONAL PARK POSTERS

Reproduction WPA era National Park posters are available from Ranger Doug (search Rangers of the Lost Art for Ranger Dug's fascinating website).  Barnes & Nobel usually has a calendar each year based on selections from Ranger Doug's collection (these are very nice and a little bit smaller than the full-size posters).  BR and its owners GN & NP jointly advertised as "The National Park Line" because their trains could get you to many of the western National Parks.  So I will include the following on my eventual train room walls to visually explain "Everywhere West":  Rocky Mountain National Park, Mesa Verde National Park, Wind Cave National Monument, Badlands National Park, Devil's Tower National Monument, Yellowstone National Park (both Old Faithful & Water Fall versions), Grand Teton National Park, Glacier National Park, etc.  There are also posters for grand Canyon, Petrified Forest, Crater Lake, Yosemite, Smokey Mountains, Blue ridge Trail, Everglades, etc.  

RR Trust Plates & Builder Plates

I also have a couple of CB&Q diesel loco builder plates, a Budd Zephyr car trust plate,  and some CB&Q freight car trust plates.  

Thanks, CB&Q Bill

I'm more of a cast iron sign type of guy.

Joe,

I've seen some of your photos before.  Impressive collection.  I wonder if your neighbors and passers by have any idea you like trains??   

Not a big fan of the pinup signs, but I see their appeal for others. I'm mostly into stuff that is historically accurate. I've seen some tin signs that are halfway decent copies of real signs, though. I knew a guy who got one that had a copy of an EMD plate, and he used a Dremel to cut the square portion away so it actually looked like a real EMD plate from about 3 feet away or further.

I'm known as the "train guy" in town.

Also try Schraeder's  at www.railroadcatalog.com or www.historicrail.com