The one (photo) that got away

[wanderer2575]

There's a sign replacement project in progress along 20 miles of I-696 in Michigan.  I noticed late Friday night that a new overhead gantry and BGSs had been installed on the westbound side near me and that the old BGS (mounted on a bridge just beyond the new gantry) had not yet been removed.  Great hornytoads, says I, I gotta get a picture of this!  I drove out early Saturday morning but at the necessary angle the sun's reflection completely whited out the signs.  Traffic was getting heavy (I had to stop on the shoulder for the picture) and circling for another pass would have been another dozen miles, so I decided to wait until this morning.  I figured if I went out an hour or so later than I did yesterday, the lighting would be okay and Sunday traffic would still be light.

So I went out this morning -- to find that the contractor had removed the old sign overnight.  I'm kicking myself for not having taken the extra time to get the picture on Saturday.

Any of you have one that got away?

[kurumi]

I-680 / Future 238 interchange overpass -- had been meaning to get a photo from the nearby foothills, but never got around to it, and now it's been dismantled.

SR 533 BGS sign goof on I-86 in Vernon, CT. But I had no camera back then, and would have had to convince parents to drive back up there.

[formulanone]

FL 821 shields mounted over US 27. Pre-digital days.

[hbelkins]

Every Kentucky cutout I saw while growing up.

More recently, a VA 70 cutout at the beginning of that route at Jonesville.

[Max Rockatansky]

Probably the entire dirt portion of AZ 88 or all of AZ 288.  I used drive them all the time when I had my truck but it was well before I was taking photos of road stuff and before decent digital photography.  I've been able to revisit most of the stuff I wanted to photograph but for some reason I've never redone all of 88 or 288.

[AsphaltPlanet]

For me, it was the old "Keep Apart 2 Chevrons" signs that formerly stood adjacent to the westbound lanes of Highway 401 through Durham Region near Toronto.  If I recall correctly, they were removed during the winter of 2005 or so.  I had long wanted to photograph those signs, but when I finally went out to do so (in the winter of 2005) they had just been removed.

[vdeane]

The Massachusetts Turnpike welcome sign.  I had tried to photo it, but sun glare prevented it.  The next time I was entering Massachusetts from the Turnpike, it had been replaced with a standard welcome sign.

[Mergingtraffic]

This one got away...I wanted to get a better pic but it's gone now.

[OracleUsr]

Any of the old signs on I-75 in south Georgia, esp the gore signs.

Any STOP AHEAD signs in SC that were text only.

[7/8]

This 50 km/h advisory speed limit on the NB exit from 85 to Bridgeport Rd E in Kitchener-Waterloo, ON. It appears to be a regular speed limit sign, but yellow.
https://goo.gl/maps/JSzDFgskNCp

It was replaced this summer with a standard sign like this one:
https://goo.gl/maps/4A1S8LxJSkk

I used to take this ramp all the time for years, so I have no excuse for not taking a photo

[froggie]

For a brief time several years ago, the VT 121 trailblazer shields along VT 11 weren't "circle shields" or the normal Vermont green-on-white shield, but were black-on-white in the same design as the normal Vermont shields.  I didn't get a pic at the time because I was surprised passing them and was in a hurry to get north to see my wife (I was stationed in the D.C. area at the time).  Next time I passed through, the shields had been replaced with standard circle shields.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

Multiple...
US 21 shield on Public Square, Cleveland
Construction of the Blue Route (I-476) outside of Philly.

[hbelkins]

Multiple...
US 21 shield on Public Square, Cleveland
Construction of the Blue Route (I-476) outside of Philly.

I still have one of the Ohio directional (S-East, I think) photos that you took and scanned and sent to me years ago.

[Takumi]

Never got good photos of the last few state-name shields that were on the early 80s section of I-95 south of Petersburg. A few remain on side roads in Sussex County, but the ones on 95 itself were replaced 4-5 years ago.

[shadyjay]

Wow... too many to count.  Various old signage in CT, from road trips with the family back in the late 1980s.  I-91 was under construction from Hartford to Enfield back then.  Not to mention original signage on CT 9 before it was replaced in the late 1980s. 

My first "road trip onto roads I've never travelled" was back in 1993.  Why I didn't have a camera back then and photograph what I saw, I don't know.  This was the last year before the original Connecticut Turnpike signage was replaced between East Haven and Guilford.  That trip was 95SB->91NB->84EB->384EB->384WB->84WB->91SB.

And then there was an original Connecticut Turnpike trailblazer in Old Saybrook that I wanted not to just get a picture of, but to.... .... well, nevermind.  Someone beat me to it, cause in its last years only the rounded arrow remained.  This was in the late 90s/early 'naughts, I believe.

[signsteelr]

It was so long ago, back when I wouldn't have even thought of taking photos of signs (and I'm sure my parents wouldn't have stopped the car to let 7-year-old me out to take it anyway) -- but I wish to God I had a picture of that "YOU! STOP NOW" and a huge cutout of a policeman (at least the way I remember it) that was on the ramp entering Breezewood approaching the famous stoplight on I-70...

As a kid, that sign looked as a big as a skyscraper... it definitely seemed bigger than a normal BGS or something similar...

Still so vivid in my mind some thirty-five years later, I would pay to see proof that it really existed... I google it every few months, but so far... no dice.

[Max Rockatansky]

One I just thought of was an error US 195 shield off of I-8 on AZ 195 near Yuma.  I knew it was an error sign right when I looked it but I never bothered to take a picture.  That was a good five years ago and I have no idea if that shield is still there or if I'll ever be back to Yuma ever again.

[Thing 342]

Have still yet to get good photos of the button-copy signs on the C/D roads for the GA-141 freeway. With GDOT's ongoing sign replacement projects, who knows how long they'll stick around.

[Mdcastle]

The "Detour I-35W" sign with I-35W in a US shield that a contractor put up that was fixed within days before I could come back with my camera.

[US 89]

The button copy signage on I-80 west at the 80/215 junction east of SLC. Been seeing them for  my whole life, and only recognized their button-copy significance a few years ago. By the time I was going to get pictures, they had been taken down and replaced. Now there is only one button copy sign left in UT that I'm aware of–and I do have a picture of that one.

[1995hoo]

It was so long ago, back when I wouldn't have even thought of taking photos of signs (and I'm sure my parents wouldn't have stopped the car to let 7-year-old me out to take it anyway) -- but I wish to God I had a picture of that "YOU! STOP NOW" and a huge cutout of a policeman (at least the way I remember it) that was on the ramp entering Breezewood approaching the famous stoplight on I-70...

....

There's an exhibit of Turnpike-related photos at the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg that might (I emphasize "might") have that sign or a photo of it. I won't have any opportunity anytime soon to go up there to see. The reason I wonder whether they might have a sign is that a Google search turned up a link to a publication that apparently contains a reference to "YOU! Slow Down!" in an article reviewing the exhibit, but the article preview that shows up is about as worthless as they get. I'm not inclined to pay $19 for a download just to find out what the reference might say.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/pennhistory.84.1.0103


EDITED TO ADD: Look what I found! Of course it's not the same as seeing it out on the Turnpike, but what can you do.....

[D-Dey65]

Just one?

[Mike_OH]

Up until a year or two ago, there was a rectangular sign (not separate shields) in Cincinnati's Avondale neighborhood saying "To US 25/US 42 Reading Rd" even though US 25 has not been used in Ohio for many years.  The sign was removed during reconstruction of a nearby intersection.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I don't know if this counts since I did get a photo of it, but at one point MnDOT put an I-35 shield on mainline I-35E that I lost in a computer crash.

[Interstate 69 Fan]

This one got away...I wanted to get a better pic but it's gone now.

Where was this taken at?