New signs made a bit like old ones

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vlad
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Re: New signs made a bit like old ones

Post by vlad »

Presumably this sign was designed to look similar to the genuine-PW sign to the left of the phone box.

The only problem is that it just looks bad!
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DavidNW9
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Re: New signs made a bit like old ones

Post by DavidNW9 »

Yes, sadly. There is one next to a real one (that one maybe?) but they're not fooling anyone. There are quite a few around deliberately referencing the old ones, but just making monsters. I have no idea why they feel the need?
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Chris5156
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Re: New signs made a bit like old ones

Post by Chris5156 »

DavidNW9 wrote:Yes, sadly. There is one next to a real one (that one maybe?) but they're not fooling anyone. There are quite a few around deliberately referencing the old ones, but just making monsters. I have no idea why they feel the need?
I quite agree - if you can't make it vaguely convincing (which in this example they clearly couldn't) then a bona fide modern sign would look so much better.
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Re: New signs made a bit like old ones

Post by Chris56000 »

Hi!
Here's another replica in North Finchley, but besides the N possibly being a bit too wide (someone will know) it really looks like a proper one from a distance. I'm glad they've tried to get the font right unlike the dodgy one a couple of miles away in Finchley Central made by the council. Although it has modern rails on the back they appear to have been added later as the rivets on the front show.

Image

By the way, does anyone know when reflective signs first arrived?

Just noticed your post of nearly 4 years ago! There are a pair of similar signs outside Kidderminster Station in front of the Severn Valley ticket office. I'm not sure if they are originals or not - the N you refer to looks as wide as in your photo, yet somehow different!


That's not a replica replacement - it's actually a much older original that has been refitted to the post it's mounted on by riveting modern fixing-rails to the rear face, with a more modern material for the "No Entry" bar stuck on the sign face in place of the original - in other words, part new and part original!

The rust stains running down from the original bolts or rivets and the fading of the red surrounding the "No Entry" bar indicate it's age!

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Re: New signs made a bit like old ones

Post by AndyB »

I don't think the No Entry bar has been put on top of the face - if you look closely, the hexagonal retroreflective pattern has no breaks.
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Re: New signs made a bit like old ones

Post by DavidNW9 »

The rivets alongside the bolts are new, and I have checked and the font appears PW, but I really don't think reflective backgrounds existed before the 70s so a bit of a mystery unless it's privately made (I think the road is) and used the old template much later than 1964. Now I know the E as well as the G which tell you the font I could work it out. Had it not been reflective it would have counted but any modern features would kill a replica instantly.
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Re: New signs made a bit like old ones

Post by AndyB »

I'm pretty sure that's not PW font. If you look at when you posted it with two definite ones in 2011 (see page 2 of this thread) the kerning of the letters is totally different. I think it's a private sign trying to be an old sign.
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Re: New signs made a bit like old ones

Post by DavidNW9 »

Nicholas wrote:This sign has the arrow designed like a PW version.
That looks like the very short lived Worboys version copied from the road arrows, I found these as well

Image

Unfortunately the Transport font destroyed the entire illusion.

The Finchley no entry text is clearly at least double the size of the original when seen together so as modern and dodgy as I thought when I found it.
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Re: New signs made a bit like old ones

Post by DavidNW9 »

I had to look from underneath to see Transport font, but clearly replaced the real thing but I don't know when. There's another on the other side of the bridge but at a sharp angle and covered by netting but no visible bolts so probably the same. If anyone is around Rotherhithe and can look there to check it can be confirmed as Streetview upper case resolution is never able to be certain and I've driven over a hundred miles checking duff ones already with at least one more on the list elsewhere. http://goo.gl/maps/EZMp4
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Re: New signs made a bit like old ones

Post by DavidNW9 »

Oy vay indeed. I must have passed this directly, but the camera hand became paralysed imagining capturing such an image for posterity. I think it probably replaced a real one (if so, then why didn't they just leave it?), and am gutted the last known one in Britain left Croydon a few years ago when the building it was on was demolished, it even had a red circle on it. I was about to link it but it appears it has been pulled from Flickr which is a shame as it's the only one there.

http://goo.gl/maps/MbQIw
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Re: New signs made a bit like old ones

Post by dave55uk »

Not sure if this is the right thread but here is a genuine old one. It has a small 30 roundel with the words 'Obey the speed limit' underneath. Very worn though (and I cannot get Google SV to get any closer to it).

http://goo.gl/maps/gtA1H
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Re: New signs made a bit like old ones

Post by DavidNW9 »

dave55uk wrote:Not sure if this is the right thread but here is a genuine old one. It has a small 30 roundel with the words 'Obey the speed limit' underneath. Very worn though (and I cannot get Google SV to get any closer to it).

http://goo.gl/maps/gtA1H
Bloody hell, I don't think that's a replica! Anyone near there to check, I can bag that if it's real- raised letters would confirm it but the 30 is pretty conclusive.
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Re: New signs made a bit like old ones

Post by dave55uk »

Oh. it's real. I drive by it nearly everyday on my bus.
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Re: New signs made a bit like old ones

Post by DavidNW9 »

Lovely, I should get it next week. I've been past the junction on the A5 many times and had no idea I'd been so close to it, great job!
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Re: New signs made a bit like old ones

Post by DavidNW9 »

Thanks a lot Dave, I'd never have found those (note plural) without your spotting them, I hadn't Streetviewed the entire road, and the trees fairly well obscure them anyway so quite probably wouldn't have noticed them.

I have posted them in PW as always, and although yours is shown here while I was searching as I'd left the map with the mark at home but remembered the spot on the one in the car, as they faced backwards I went all up the road and returned, and saw one with all its lettering perfect, while the other is white on grey as it's totally faded away. Had I had the note with me I may have missed the better one as I simply checked each lamp post from half way along and as going south at the time found the good one first, forgot the dodgy one was dodgy but kept looking going to the A5 and there it was a few yards south of number one. Thank goodness as I'd probably never have known the other even existed had I not got a bit lost.
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Re: New signs made a bit like old ones

Post by dave55uk »

Glad to be of some help David.
(but could you post a link please - I cannot seem to find them).
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Re: New signs made a bit like old ones

Post by shampooefficient »

Some of these are simply beautiful pieces of design, I might just have to have a nose round the local area...
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Re: New signs made a bit like old ones

Post by DavidNW9 »

It's on the main pre-Worboys P50
http://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/forum/vie ... &start=980

Had I not got lost in the dark and trees I'd never have found the better version, totally perfect lettering a hundred yards north of the other one but covered in trees.
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Re: New signs made a bit like old ones

Post by dave55uk »

Thanks for the link David. I was looking in the gallery - doh!
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Re: New signs made a bit like old ones

Post by Bryn666 »

This one from Breightmet in Bolton must win a prize: using PW typefaces and botched!
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