Little Details: Trackside Signage

One easy way to give your garden railroad a little personality is to implement trackside signage.

Railroad history is ripe with a cornucopia of different signs for all occasions and purposes. To add greater variety, as time went on, these signs often changed, matching the evolving visual aesthetics of the time.

Recently I made two crossing signs for the Hillendale Railway based upon those used in the Catskill region in the 1895-1915 period. This period is approximate because I have no date for when they first appeared, nor when they finally went out of fashion, but they are appropriate for the period in which the Hillendale is set.

Haines Falls, NY, Library of Congress.

Today, you might recognize the traditional X-shaped crossbuck as the marker of a railroad crossing, but the traditional X-shape wasn't always universally used. Particularly in the 1800s, there were many other shapes and styles of railroad crossing signs, including the triangular kind I have modeled, which so far, I've not found a photo of outside the state of New York. (Which doesn't mean they weren't used outside of New York, but that is possible.)

A drawing courtesy of Josh Bernhard showing the evolution of crossing signs on the Union Pacific Railroad, including specific deviations that were mandated by individual states through which the railroad passed.

Diagram courtesy of John Ott; so far the only drawing I have seen for the Catskill-style crossing sign.

Often, the style of signs varied regionally, with New England developing distinctive styles, pentagonal ones popular elsewhere, and the triangular variety standard at least in the Catskills. I wonder if the triangular form was the railroads' choice, or if it was decided by the communities through which they ran. (So far, I have seen photos of them on the Ulster & Delaware Railroad; the Catskill & Tannersville Railway; and the West Shore Railroad where it passed through Catskill, NY.)

I made my model signs from basswood, painted them with craft store paint, lettered with a permanent marker, and hopefully they will survive long enough outside to protect their crossings for years to come. To prevent water or soaked dirt having direct contact with the wood, I set the posts inside spent magic marker caps. A wedge of mulch keeps them nice and snugly rooted.

A crossing sign adds a tiny bit of life to Coldbrook, NY on the author's garden railway.

Murray St, Kingston, 1944. Trolley Museum of New York collection.