Friday, May 13, 2011

Numbers and words and the world of historic design.

You get different feelings from different size, colors, and fonts, don't you think?  All of these are photos from the Colorado Railroad Museum and depict typography used by the historic American railroads.

number 40

number C-22

no. 5

no. 4

W 493

boxcar rebuilt in 1925


tender #346

#13680

Keep Off

#4455

The Challenger

#683

#191

Denver & Rio Grande caboose, #49

#191.

I love how they took the time to handpaint these so carefully, and the thorough design and thoughts that went into all decisions before they got painted on.  Power, delicacy, boldness, luxury, efficiency, mechanics, elegance, exactness, and mechanics is all there in these numbers and letters, to varying degrees.  Check out the stencil marks on some of them; can't you imagine the hand that held up the stencil to get it all correct?

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