Helpful Hint - I followed Lee Bishop's Advice to Get Signs Right

Photo 1 "After" Copyright 2020 Nicholas Kalis
While both my hanging sign and the second story sign are visible
here - take note of how I reduced the size of the second story sign
following Bishop's advice and to good effect.

Photo 2 "Before" Copyright 2020 Nicholas Kalis
My Waipahu sign was too large.

Helpful Hint

In his May 2020 Railroad Model Craftsman letter to the editor, Lee Bishop of Rochester, Washington writes many signs we place on our modeled buildings suffer from two errors - one, they are oversize; businesses strove to save money on expensive hand-lettered signs so they were kept at a minimum size. Second, model railroaders tend to use modern typefaces not in use during the time period modeled on their home-made signs.

Bishop's insights into modeling signs on one’s layout are dead on correct; I would add billboards and other sign locations on model railroads are often poorly thought out. I would point out that model railroads signs (besides street signs) largely fall into three types. First, the modest sign a business places on its building to identify itself tends to be of the smallest size. Next, come billboards a business will place on its own building for "free advertising". Lastly, are billboards and roof top signs a business will pay a third party to maintain at a high traffic location. Model railroaders will often make mistakes with all three. Often, modelers will place a billboard at a location no paying advertiser would ever accept. The worst of these modeled billboard face at street level a narrow street that judging by its size few people would travel. Again, how many cars or pedestrians will see a billboard located on a dead-end street? Roof-top billboards get around this to an extent, but a roof-top billboard blocked by an industrial building across the street - as is often the case on some layouts - does little good. 

Another differentiator is whether the building occupant is a tenant or an owner-occupant; certainly that difference may influence or account for the type and size of sign posted on a building. This factor is likely beyond the interest of most of my readers so I will leave this discussion at that despite the fact that my business is commercial real estate.

Making matters worse, many signs seen on model railroads seem designed to be viewed by the "giants" (visitors to the layout) walking in front of the modeled town.  Very unrealistically, such signs - glaringly legible to visitors - squarely face the layout aisle.

Prototype billboards and signs must be seen by the public – so a billboard or sign facing a warehouse with few employees will do little good. Advertisers are unlikely to spend advertising dollars on ineffective signs. So, think about the size of your sidewalks; if you wish to suggest a street busy with pedestrians – the “eyeballs” as they say today – to view your signs, build your sidewalks wider (of course, follow prototype).

Building signage is a complicated topic; a large sign on a building facing a busy street may just be a result of the occupant owning the building and so being unconcerned with rental costs - he is not paying "rent" for his sign. It may be that a landlord will allow a tenant to paint his building side gratis just to make the deal to obtain a long-term lease. It is hard to guess at this. The era a sign was posted may play a large role in its appearance. Before the days of suburban sprawl, industrial buildings tended to be multi-story and urban; it was not uncommon to see a different sign on each floor level - a possible tipoff that the building contains multiple occupants.  As businesses moved to rural locales so to benefit from the interstate highway system, again signs were affected.

And do not forget that many businesses just did not need much of a sign at all on their place of business; the business may not be aimed at the general public and so visibility is less important.

Initially, I did violate Bishop's rule quite a bit on my O-scale Waipahu Liquor Store. Within days of reading his letter to the editor, I replaced this sign with a smaller one (Photo 1). I tried to keep the typeface quite a bit smaller than my first few drafts - I also used 35% dark white on this typeface so it would appear a bit weathered. One photograph I found documents that such a business existed in Waipahu (could still be in business today?). It had one of those wonderful hanging metal signs with, I guess, some neon - not quite sure. This hanging sign was blue so I am guessing a likely facade sign would also be blue to march.

Revised March 17, 2022

Revised February 1, 2023

Revised January 5, 2024