Query about old BR station signs

I would just like to know if anyone knows the width of the standard British Railways enameled stations signs and/or totems used during the 50's and

60's.
Reply to
Eric R Zadro
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Depends whether it's at ELY or LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWRNDROBWLLLLANTISILIOGOGOGOCH.

Reply to
MartinS

"MartinS"

Havant a clue.

-- Cheers Roger T.

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of the Great Eastern Railway

Reply to
Roger T.

Would anyone care to give an ignorant foreigner a suggestion regarding how that name is pronounced (the second one - I'll guess at ELY ;-) I guess there's some sort of code, like "LL" equalling "F" or something.

Regards, Greg.P.

Reply to
Gregory Procter

"Ely" is Eely, not Ee-lye or Elly.

Take a look at:

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Or go to this one and follow some of the links:

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BTW I got one letter wrong in my original spelling.

Reply to
MartinS

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Good thing you're not a rivet counter, it's Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch I want to know how to pronounce ;-)

Reply to
Gregory Procter

Confirmed. I live about 8 miles from the Cambridgeshire one (there's another in South Wales, pronounced the same way).

-- Brian "posting from Sutton, winner of The English And Welsh Village Of The Year Award, 2002"

Reply to
Brian Watson

In article , Gregory Procter writes

"LL" is an "L", but sounded over and to one side of the tongue. Someone once did a PhD on which side of the mouth and the majority, including me, use the right side. "F" is a "V" sound. "W" and "Y" are vowels - otherwise there would be a run of 14 consonants

Reply to
John Bishop

Actually it doesn't (apart possibly for Llanfair P.G. which sign was a tourist attraction in its own right).

Have a look at

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and click on "Totem book" for a large number of examples (several pages are displayed). All appear to be the same size. e.g Llanfairfechan is the same length as Conway.

To answer the original question, my "Rugeley Town" specimen is 923 mm long and 257 mm high and I am sure that this will be pretty general.

Dave W.

Reply to
David Westerman

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h

Try :

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Isn't it!

Reply to
GbH

No it isnt! "Fair" (soft mutation of "Mair", meaning Mary) is not pronounced like the English word "fair".

Reply to
John Sullivan

"Eric R Zadro" wrote

A standard station totem is approximately 36.5" x 10" - just measured one.

Other enamel signs varied in size.

John.

Reply to
John Turner

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Thanks for that - I've always wondered about it!

David (not welsh).

Reply to
David F.

So the one John measured is virtually the same as mine at 923mm long X 257mm high, thus confirming a standard size for totems.

Dave W.

Reply to
David Westerman

They varied the size of the font to accomodate longer place names.

(Probably about 6 po>

Reply to
GLANVILLE CARLETON

What I meant by 'width', was the height And the 'sign' I meant was those big ones which were placed upon platforms to announce the name of the station. Thankyou to John and Dave for providing me with the totem height. can anyone enlighten me as to the other measurement?

Reply to
Eric R Zadro

"Eric R Zadro" <

Ah. "Running In" signs.

-- Cheers Roger T.

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of the Great Eastern Railway

Reply to
Roger T.

In message , John Bishop writes

Not 14, since LL counts as a single letter, as does CH.

(Other languages also use 2 glyphs to represent single letters, for example Spanish)

Reply to
John Sullivan

"Eric R Zadro" wrote

The big signs, known as running in boards, varied in size enormously depending upon location. Some were as long as 30', others little more than two or three feet.

John.

Reply to
John Turner

There were also the ones on the approaches to big stations, bearing the name and an arrow underheath with the legend "xxx Yards". Stafford No. 5 signal box still has such a sign, in LMR maroon, whilst Euston has one in the later corporate BR style reading "

Reply to
David E. Belcher

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