Hello. Does anyone know when Sans-Serif fonts began to be used on railway locomotives? What are some commercially available Sans-Serif fonts that would look prototypical for a proto-freelanced Appalachian railway? Also, what new logos were introduced that used Sans-Serif fonts?
For the most part, railroad lettering with ‘sans-serif’ fonts started being seen in the mid 50’s. PRR and GN come to mind. The actual logo/heralds many time did not have the actual font changed. All of this was driven by two factors:
- Cost savings(less hours for painting)
- It looked more ‘modern’
As lettering changed from hand painted to machine cut(many times on 3M Scotchlite or Diamond Grade material), it was easier to pull the lettering out if there were no ‘serif’ detail to fight with.
Jim
What years would you say are “mid 50s”? Do you know any examples of specific sans-serif fonts that are available for modeling? With logos, some railways didn’t even have them on engines at first like the early N&W engines and some of the Southern’s 1960s diesels. Would a logo with two letters sharing a leg ( in this case the right leg of the “V” shares a leg with the left side of the “A”) be prototypical for the late 50s or early 60s?
The B&O used sans serif type face on its cars in the 1870’s to about 1910
The UP, NYC, LV, PRR, NH and others all used san serif type back in the 1930’s and 1940’s.
Caveat: virtually all of those involved some sort of streamlined passenger service or new Art Deco styling.
I believe the NYC switched over on its steam locomotives in the late 30s from the Roman style.