RhB station signs in HO

[Talbotjohn]

Hi

I need to create one or more station signs for my new RhB HOm layout "Rosental" (there should be two dots above the o) set in the early 1980's. Does anybody know what font  the RhB used then  please? Has anyone out there done this already for their layout? 

[MrTea]

On 01/05/2019 at 13:44, Talbotjohn said:

Hi

I need to create one or more station signs for my new RhB HOm layout "Rosental" (there should be two dots above the o) set in the early 1980's. Does anybody know what font  the RhB used then  please? Has anyone out there done this already for their layout? 

 

I’ve been struggling to answer the same question for my N scale layout. 

 

I’ve trawled the web and I can’t seem to find the answer. 

 

However, I think I might just have stumbled upon the answer:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futura_(typeface)

 

From doing a bit of research into popular sans serif font families I think the main typeface used by the RhB for loco numbers and lettering looks like a bold, condensed version of Futura?

 

Whether that’s also used for station signage I’m not sure. But it would be odd if it was something completely different?

[JimFin]

This was a thread on another forum and the conclusion there was that Futura Narrow Font was the closest to the "old" style and used in extra bold on stock. 

[bbishop]

Guys,

 

UMLAUTS

 

alt0196 = Ä

alt0214 = Ö

alt0220 =Ü

alt0223 = ß

alt0228 =  ä

alt0246 = ö

alt0252 = ü

 

and that's using the keypad to the right.

 

There are others ways, such as changing your keypad to German, but then it is QWERTZ .....

 

Bill

[Salmotrutta]

I always assumed it would be "Helvetica" as it would be unpatriotic for the Swiss to use anything else!

 

Glad to be proven wrong....

[JimFin]

Agree with Lantavian but - these are the current design which has been updated since 1980.

[simonmcp]

I studied Typography (lettering styles) at college and worked in Print for 25 years so have a bit of professional experience. The confusing thing is typefaces/fonts have different names for essentially the same face/font, basically to try and get around the copyright laws. So ' Swiss' on some computers is nearly identical to 'Helvetica' but also there is 'Helvetica Neu' which is subtly different. I have over 3,000 Typefaces on my computer (and countless different weights ((Semi-Bold, Bold etc)) and that is a fraction of the typefaces out there). My historical typefaces book is in a box that I haven't unpacked yet or I would look it up for you. There are websites that allow you to type in a word and look at it or choose a style of individual letters and it will suggest the possible matches such as this one  https://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/

 

Simon

[Talbotjohn]

Thanks to all of you who took the trouble to reply to my thread. I have just come back to my RhB modelling after some time away and have been catching up with this RM Web area.

Whilst looking at the various fonts available in Word I came across something called "Bahnscript" in a normal and compressed form. This is what I used, rightly or wrongly, for my RhB station name boards - white letters on (faded) blue background. I printed them out on paper and stuck to the building with Pritstik.

Just be careful not to have damp hands when handling the printed paper or the blue colour may run - guess how I know this!

[Gordonwis]

8 hours ago, Talbotjohn said:

 

Whilst looking at the various fonts available in Word I came across something called "Bahnscript" in a normal and compressed form. This is what I used, rightly or wrongly, for my RhB station name boards

 

The font is Bahnschrift (literally Railway writing or railway font). It is my understanding that this really does have its origins as  the 'official' German railways font hence its name, which has become an internationally recognised font, but not 100% certain.