GWR Running in Boards

[steve howe]

I'd like to make some 'older' style nameboards for Watermouth. Does anyone know if this style of lettering is available as an etch? Scalelink only do the Gill Sans style and the plastic versions are awful!

Pewsey_station_in_2013_-_down_side_GWR_station_sign.jpg

Steve

[David Knight]

Steve,

You might find this useful :
https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/6335159 ... allery-4-6

I think it is fairly close to the style of the sign and should be available in white

HTH

Cheers,

David

[martin goodall]

The style of Running-in board lettering Steve Howe would like to reproduce is known as "Egyptian Bold Condensed". The GWR version differed from the printer's version of this font in that the curved letters (C, D, G, O, Q, etc.) had straight vertical sides. Apart from that, this font was virtually the same as the printer's font.

As I am sure Steve knows, that earlier style of board was produced by integral casting of the entire running-in board, whereas the later sans serif style of board had separate cast iron letters screwed to a planked timber board.

The serif-style boards came in two sizes. On main lines, the lettering was 14" high, whereas on secondary lines and branch lines the lettering on the running-in board was 12" high. I measured up a number of these boards in the 1970s, but I have never got around to drawing out the complete alphabet.

I did, however, draw out the lettering for three running boards - for BODMIN (for the NLG layout), ASTON ROWANT (for a P4 layout that was being built at that time by the Western MRS at Acton) and BURFORD (for my own ‘Burford Branch’ layout). Mike Peascod prepared artwork from my drawings for etchings of these boards. The last of these has still not yet been installed on my layout, 45 years after the etchings were done (!)

I have written an article on GWR running-in boards, with a couple of my drawings as well as a selection of the photos I took of these boards, for the Great Western Study Group’s journal, “The Pannier” which should be appearing shortly.

[Tim V]

A long time ago, I wanted blue enamel signs for Clutton, a visit to the then Winchcombe railway museum saw me photographing their name boards. Put them together in the right order in a photo editing program made the plates. These were then printed as photos.

Sometimes the old ways were easier!

Out of interest, I believe the attached is a replica sign.

[steve howe]

Thanks for those useful pointers chaps, I did know the GWR used Egyptian Bold Condensed in various guises but didn't know if it could still be had. I downloaded the font from here:

https://fontsov.com/download-fonts/egyptianefboldcondensed53820.html

and it looks pretty close except the letter spacing needs tweaking. Luckily one of our Club members regularly has stuff etched so I will have a go at generating some artwork.

Cheers

Steve

ps. I didn't know Sandford and Banwell was a real place... just thought it was a great layout!

[martin goodall]

The fonts available online don't seem to reproduce exactly the proportions of this font as used by the GWR.

I attach a PDF file of my drawing of the Running-in board at LITTLE KIMBLE (on the Aylesbury Branch).

L Kimble dwg.pdf

I measured this up on site. The board is now preserved at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre at Quainton Road.

[John Palmer]

There seem to be a number of different Egyptian fonts available, so possibly one that is neither bold nor condensed might come closer to the GWR version. That might reduce the amount of editing that would need to be done for the preparation of suitable artwork. I downloaded this font for the purpose of examining it at close range in my CAD program, and was pleased to note that it's 'well formed' in the sense that the elements making up an individual character appear to be correctly joined. I've done some character editing before in CAD using some rotten fonts where the elements don't meet properly, as a result of which pick point hatching for the preparation of etching artwork invariably fails. At that point you are left with a choice between path hatching or eradication of all the gaps in the characters, both of which can be a pain. Not a problem with this font, however, as pick point hatching seems to work every time.