Billboards seem to be popular among 3-railers. I like to make my own from old magazine ads from the 40s and 50s. What are your favorite? I copied an ad for Underwriter Typewriters and made a billboard for that. Burma Shave was popular back then as well. Here are some nuggets about Burma Shave billboard slogans for some of you old farts. I have many more but don’t want to take up too much bandwidth here. Incredibly, the first Burma Shave slogan has to do with trains:
Trains don’t wander
All over the map
'Cause nobody sits
In the engineer’s lap
Burma Shave
She kissed the hairbrush
By mistake
She thought it was
Her husband Jake
Use Burma Shave
A MAN, A MISS
A CAR, A CURVE
HE KISSED THE MISS,
AND MISSED THE CURVE.
Berma Shave
BEFORE I TRIED IT
THE KISSES I MISSED
BUT AFTERWARDS - BOY!
THE MISSES I KISSED.
Berma Shave
HARDLY A DRIVER
IS NOW ALIVE
AT 75…
Berma Shave
DON’T STICK YOUR ELBOW
OUT SO FAR
IT MIGHT GO HOME
IN ANOTHER CAR.
Berma Shave
DROVE TOO LONG
“AT EASE,” SHE SAID,
“MANEUVERS BEGIN
WHEN YOU GET
THOSE WHISKERS
OFF YOUR CHIN.”
'TWOULD BE MORE FUN
TO GO BY AIR
IF WE COULD PUT
THESE SIGNS
UP THERE…
Berma Shave
OK, so sorry, can’t resist posting a few more gems that would look wonderful on a toy train billboard with the Burma Shave picture. Just pick up any old magazine from that time period and burn a copy! I searched the Web but couldn’t find photos of those billboards, unfortunately.
CAUTIOUS RIDER
TO HER RECKLESS DEAR
LET’S HAVE LESS BULL
AND MORE STEER
Burma Shave
SPEED WAS HIGH
WEATHER WAS NOT
TIRES WERE THIN
X MARKS THE SPOT
Burma Shave
THE MIDNIGHT RIDE
OF PAUL FOR BEER
LED TO A WARMER
HEMISPHERE
Burma Shave
AROUND THE CURVE
LICKETY-SPLIT
IT’S A BEAUTIFUL CAR
WASN’T IT?
Burma Shave
NO MATTER THE PRICE
NO MATTER HOW NEW
THE BEST SAFETY DEVICE
IN THE CAR IS YOU
Burma Shave
A GUY WHO DRIVES
A CAR WIDE OPEN
IS NOT THINKIN’
HE’S JUST HOPIN’
Burma Shave
AT INTERSECTIONS
LOOK EACH WAY
A HARP SOUNDS NICE
BUT ITS HARD TO PLAY
Burma Shave
BOTH HANDS ON THE WHEEL
EYES ON THE ROAD
THAT’S THE SKILLFUL
DRIVER’S CODE
Burma Shave
THE ONE WHO DRIVES
WHEN HE’S BEEN DRINKING
DEPENDS ON YOU
TO DO
Dad always liked this one:
FELLOW SPEEDERS
LET’S REHEARSE
ALL TOGHETHER
“GOOD MORNING NURSE”
Burma Shave
Dave, how do you make your billboards?
I actually have a set of Burma Shave signs that came off the layout at the mall. I think a bunch were in MR one time, all done up in the major scales, and all you had to do was cut and paste them to small sign boards. There may be some pre done ones available too.
Moving on from Burma Shave, there were a lot of cool billboards offered by Lionel over the years. This is actually something of a sub collectable, as some of the original cardboard signs are very hard to find, especially in the un cut grouping of four.
One of my favorites was “He’ll Only Chase a Nash”.
Doug,
Allow me to clarify. I don’t construct the whole billboard structure; tho it would be easy to do w/wood. I’m currently using the 3 billboards from a Lionel Construction Starter set I got. I remove the Lionel billboard and make my own billboard by taking old magazine issues (my last one was Sea Power magazine, dating to 1915. I look for a suitable advertisement and then scan it into a scanner; touch it up with photoshop, then glue it onto cardboard backing and stick it into the billboard frame.
That way, you can customize your favorite billboard slogan. Alternately, you can look up billboard photos from the web and download & use photoshop to fix em up.
Hope that helps.
Dave
Don’t forget the ads on barns.