Backlit direction signs

[Chris5156]

Spotted this beauty while passing through Dunstable over the weekend. Seems rather extravagant for a small local direction sign!

A survivor from an era long since passed! There are a few in Westminster which I might dig out later.

[Nicholas]

Pity it's technically a botch, being a flag sign before a junction.

[rorise1]

It seems that nobody has tasted the joke so I deleted the post

[Bryn666]

Good spot Chris.

Sadly the backlit direction sign in central Halifax is being removed soon.

[DavidBrown]

Could I ask that the post by rorise1 is deleted completely, given that it has absolubely nothing to do with the thread and, whilst they've been on the internet for god knows how many years, are hardly suitable for a family site, even after Bryn's edit.

[SC2]

Why don't they make backlit direction signs anymore? Uneconomical?

Do direction signs even have to be illuminated?

[Bryn666]

Originally the advice was direction signs were to be illuminated on lit roads. This requirement was dropped in 1994 hence why we never make backlit direction signs anymore.

London was chock-full of them originally.

[Chris5156]

A couple more, as promised.

Approaching Oxford Circus northbound on Regent Street there used to be this nice one, but it was removed about a year ago in the much-vaunted Oxford Circus works (which, in reality, resurfaced the crossroads, took away some fences and added some more red/green man lights).

Just around the corner from my work, this one still survives. Like most of the other backlit direction signs I've seen, it appears to be original Worboys style, with the very thick blue border, which would probably make it forty years old or more.

I'm convinced there's a fairly big one southbound on Buckingham Palace Road, but I can't for the life of me find it on Streetview. I'm pretty sure it's still there so I don't know why it wouldn't be visible.

[Bryn666]

One from Preston:

Ringway

An overhead one in Huddersfield:

Castlegate

Another overhead one on the M1:

Trowell Services

[Stesee]

In my 24 years ive never seen them.

[RichardA626]

Some of the Urban Motorways had them when built in the 1960s-70s.

There was even the Transport Narrow font created for them, but never used.

[Lockwood]

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.86414 ... 312!8i6656

[wrinkly]

I'd love to see a picture of the (presumably unique) original advance direction signage for the A6 junction on the Mancunian Way, a pair of backlit roundabout signs mounted on an overhead gantry, one for the straight ahead movement and one for the right turn.

[Steven]

Some of the Urban Motorways had them when built in the 1960s-70s.

There was even the Transport Narrow font created for them, but never used.

The A40(M) Westway had backlit "NO" signs.

Example on PM

[Lockwood]

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.13188 ... 312!8i6656

Now gone.

There were others along that route, and even backlit No Chopsticks at the Southern End

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.08500 ... 312!8i6656

[Chris5156]

There was even the Transport Narrow font created for them, but never used.

It was called Transport Light. I'm not certain any final version was ever produced - it was certainly the intention but for some reason it was never done.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.13188 ... 312!8i6656

Now gone.

Another one at the same roundabout, much bigger.

[RichardA626]

There was even the Transport Narrow font created for them, but never used.

It was called Transport Light. I'm not certain any final version was ever produced - it was certainly the intention but for some reason it was never done.

Right I knew it was on the right lines, Transport came about around the same time as many urban motorways.

[Berk]

I'd love to see a picture of the (presumably unique) original advance direction signage for the A6 junction on the Mancunian Way, a pair of backlit roundabout signs mounted on an overhead gantry, one for the straight ahead movement and one for the right turn.

Would they be Pre-Worboys, perchance??

I don’t know if you remember an ITV series called Widows from the early 80s, but it’s based around a van hijacking that takes place in the Strand Underpass. In those days, it had backlit, PW signs, and they even made it on screen.

[wrinkly]

I'd love to see a picture of the (presumably unique) original advance direction signage for the A6 junction on the Mancunian Way, a pair of backlit roundabout signs mounted on an overhead gantry, one for the straight ahead movement and one for the right turn.

Would they be Pre-Worboys, perchance??

No. The Mancunian Way opened in March 1967. Worboys direction signs had been in existence for a few years. Maybe these signs had special authorisation.

They were green primary route signs because the Mancunian Way was an AP road for a while after first opening. It became a motorway within a year or two and got blue signs at its entrances (the then equivalent of chopsticks signs) but the green internally illuminated direction signs remained for many years.

[Bryn666]

I've tried to find images of the backlit gantry signs on the Mancunian Way but surprisingly few exist.

Until the TfL replacement projects in the late 1990s, virtually any ADS on a non-trunk London primary route was backlit and of a very boxy construction. Even the gantries on the A40(M) were all backlit initially.

Today you probably have to go to Belgium to see backlit direction signs as standard, and even they are abolishing them in favour of conventional modern retroreflective material.