The Best of Road Signs

[architect77]

Ok. Perhaps these don't belong here, but if highway signs and shields in general are going to be supersized for aging baby-boomers to see, well then North Carolina has embraced this. Look at these whoppers in my hometown of Louisburg, NC.

[corco]

Here's a nice old custom font speed limit sign southeast of Anaconda, MT

[Billy F 1988]

There is one like this in Frenchtown, Montana. Possibly a mid-60's spec speed limit sign.

[cpzilliacus]

These gritty survivors hang on in the City of Falls Church (they have been previously snapped by Adam and Oscar). 

I don't think there are any other cutouts left in Falls Church (I checked - it is not a very big place).

[Takumi]

^^^ There used to be a cutout on VA 338 as well. I take it that's gone now?

The ancient distance sign here in Blackstone, VA was still up last week, but I missed getting a picture of it.

[cpzilliacus]

^^^ There used to be a cutout on VA 338 as well. I take it that's gone now?

That is (or was) Hillwood Avenue, I think.

I drove it, and did not see it.  But I was not on the lookout for any cutouts on Hillwood.  Next time I am over that way, I will look more carefully.

[Mapmikey]

^^^ There used to be a cutout on VA 338 as well. I take it that's gone now?

The ancient distance sign here in Blackstone, VA was still up last week, but I missed getting a picture of it.

The VA 338 cutout is shown in the June 2012 GMSV - http://maps.google.com/maps?q=falls+church,+va&hl=en&ll=38.879742,-77.173848&spn=0.000067,0.053301&sll=37.6,-95.665&sspn=53.001548,109.160156&t=h&hnear=Falls+Church,+Virginia&z=15&layer=c&cbll=38.879703,-77.173751&panoid=KyJCUrDYx9CoWVYwNcfCfg&cbp=12,149.26,,0,0

This one is also shown - http://maps.google.com/maps?q=falls+church,+va&hl=en&ll=38.881947,-77.17063&spn=0.000067,0.053301&sll=37.6,-95.665&sspn=53.001548,109.160156&t=h&hnear=Falls+Church,+Virginia&z=15&layer=c&cbll=38.881889,-77.170551&panoid=L9v37A5z0ZGzfV7_EFfSqg&cbp=12,334.44,,0,0

Others I had been aware of (including only known VA 237 cutout) do not appear anymore...

Here is an up-close pic of the distance sign in Blackstone from 2008:


Mapmikey

[cpzilliacus]

Mapmikey, I don't recall seeing that Va. 338 cutout, but you have piqued my interest, and I will look for it the next time I am over in Falls Church.

I think the Va. 7 cutout on the streetlight pole is gone.

Warning to all - the Falls Church municipal police do enforce the (low) speed limits in their small city!  Especially on Va. 7 (Broad Street) and U.S. 29 (Washington Street).  Probably because they don't have anything else to do (Falls Church is a very low crime kind of place).

That sign from Blackstone is a real VDOT (or should I say VDH) classic!  Great catch.

[1995hoo]

I know that intersection with the VA-338 cutout. I may be over that way later this week and if so I will watch for it.

cp is absolutely correct about the police. I routinely set my cruise control at just over 25 mph on East Broad Street because they're so strict. ("Just over" because it won't work at 25.)

Another Falls Church oddity can be found outside Don Beyer Volvo. I frequently use Shreve Road and the light at Shreve and Broad is very long with no turn on red, so I always use Gordon Road to bypass it. Notice the peculiar street sign with the word "Road" spelled out instead of abbreviated "Rd": http://maps.google.com/maps?q=falls+church,+va&hl=en&ll=38.893842,-77.189339&spn=0.000823,0.002064&sll=37.6,-95.665&sspn=53.001548,109.160156&t=h&hnear=Falls+Church,+Virginia&layer=c&cbll=38.893842,-77.189339&panoid=8Q7ymnsNVw3gszkZjC2gMQ&cbp=12,342.86,,0,2.4&z=20   The sign was still like that when I was there the week before last.

(Oddly, if you nip across to Fairfax County, the street sign calls it "Gordons Rd.")

Something not road-related that might interest you anyway–next time you're over there, drive down Shadow Walk in Falls Church and look for the house that's a replica of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello: http://goo.gl/maps/UvvSH

[Takumi]

In any small town in Virginia with a speed limit of 25, I generally stay a few MPH under and in second gear if driving the manual car, in which my shift point happens at about 27 MPH. I'd rather not cruise at the shift poi t because of exhaust noise,  and if I shift up into third gear I'm just asking to get pulled.

At any rate, there are two old VA 40 shields in Blackstone, so I'll post the one I took last week at some point this week. The other one is buried in the middle of this thread.

[1995hoo]

Seen at lunchtime today on Bren Mar Drive in Alexandria, Virginia (roughly where the "6293" appears in that Google Maps link). This is the only Virginia secondary route marker I've ever seen as a cutout.

[Mapmikey]

That SR 648 cutout is the only one Froggie and I have ever seen ourselves.  It has been there at least 5 years...

Mapmikey

[agentsteel53]

looks to be one of those 'intended for a green sign' cutouts.

though Virginia does have some history of borderless shields.

[1995hoo]

I think I may like the nostalgia provoked by those gas prices more than the shields!

[NE2]

looks to be one of those 'intended for a green sign' cutouts.

Yep. Hardly best.

[formulanone]

I think I may like the nostalgia provoked by those gas prices more than the shields!

I remember buying a car that required high-test, which was $1.37/gallon, and I complained . Mid-1990s, photo...presumably?

[1995hoo]

looks to be one of those 'intended for a green sign' cutouts.

Yep. Hardly best.

I kind of like it simply because it's so unique (utterly unique, based on Mapmikey's comment). That's why I put it under "best of"–nothing else like it anywhere. I'm also a little surprised it's still there just because there's been so much roadwork in that area for the past 14 years (and some of it is ongoing even now) that I'd have kind of expected someone at VDOT to have noticed it and ordered it replaced. So I kind of view it as sort of a plucky survivor, if that makes any sense.

I think I may like the nostalgia provoked by those gas prices more than the shields!

I remember buying a car that required high-test, which was $1.37/gallon, and I complained . Mid-1990s, photo...presumably?

I suppose it's a different topic, but I'd guess early 1990s simply because I remember paying 73¢ a gallon in July 1998 when I drove down to Roanoke for the bar exam. I recall gas typically being 99¢ a gallon in the late 1980s/early 1980s when I was in high school and then being between $1.00 and $1.50 a gallon when I was off at college and law school. But I don't ever recall thinking the premium gas (back then, 92 octane) seemed all that expensive when I first got a car that used it (a 1982 Honda Accord, which didn't specify premium but my father and I always used it because that car never quite felt right when we tried to use 87 octane). Anyway, I always thought it was weird how gas got so darn cheap again for a brief time in the late 1990s.

Of course, that photo is presumably from Hillsville, Virginia, and I have no idea whether gas there tends to be more or less expensive than elsewhere because I very seldom pass that way. I do remember thinking it was striking how the gas in Roanoke was substantially cheaper than it was even in Charlottesville. (I'd expect it to be cheaper than in Northern Virginia, but not so much compared to Charlottesville or Harrisonburg or Staunton.)

[74/171FAN]

looks to be one of those 'intended for a green sign' cutouts.

Yep. Hardly best.

I kind of like it simply because it's so unique (utterly unique, based on Mapmikey's comment). That's why I put it under "best of"–nothing else like it anywhere. I'm also a little surprised it's still there just because there's been so much roadwork in that area for the past 14 years (and some of it is ongoing even now) that I'd have kind of expected someone at VDOT to have noticed it and ordered it replaced. So I kind of view it as sort of a plucky survivor, if that makes any sense.

I think I may like the nostalgia provoked by those gas prices more than the shields!

I remember buying a car that required high-test, which was $1.37/gallon, and I complained . Mid-1990s, photo...presumably?

I suppose it's a different topic, but I'd guess early 1990s simply because I remember paying 73¢ a gallon in July 1998 when I drove down to Roanoke for the bar exam. I recall gas typically being 99¢ a gallon in the late 1980s/early 1980s when I was in high school and then being between $1.00 and $1.50 a gallon when I was off at college and law school. But I don't ever recall thinking the premium gas (back then, 92 octane) seemed all that expensive when I first got a car that used it (a 1982 Honda Accord, which didn't specify premium but my father and I always used it because that car never quite felt right when we tried to use 87 octane). Anyway, I always thought it was weird how gas got so darn cheap again for a brief time in the late 1990s.

Of course, that photo is presumably from Hillsville, Virginia, and I have no idea whether gas there tends to be more or less expensive than elsewhere because I very seldom pass that way. I do remember thinking it was striking how the gas in Roanoke was substantially cheaper than it was even in Charlottesville. (I'd expect it to be cheaper than in Northern Virginia, but not so much compared to Charlottesville or Harrisonburg or Staunton.)

Here is another photo of borderless shields from that same intersection in Hillsville except heading westbound.  This photo was taken in May 2012.

[topay]

If you look closely at the sign bracing on this one, it appears that there was once a second assembly to go along with US 29 South.  Could this assembly be old enough to have included a US 211 West assembly back in the day?

[agentsteel53]

more than likely, since US-211 disappeared from there around 1984.  the gantry itself is designed for 16" shields, which have been around since 1926.  those particular shields look to be about 60s or 70s manufacture, but the gantry could be much older.

[1995hoo]

Could there have been a VA-237 marker there at some point as well? Said route has long been multiplexed with US-29 through that area, though it's certainly not well-posted at all nowadays. I remember well when US-29/US-211 markers always appeared next to each other, but I just don't recall about VA-237 signage. When I was a kid, usually if we were in that area of Falls Church it was to go to the movies at the State Theatre and so I was more interested in whatever we'd be seeing there than in the road numbers.

[jeffandnicole]

Was this mast possibly installed upside down?

[1995hoo]

The one out of the picture to the left is the same, as are all the ones at the next intersection ahead (the one denoted by the yellow "signal ahead" sign in the image above) and at a number of other intersections around there. Surely they wouldn't have screwed up quite that many of them if they had been intended to go the other way.

[formulanone]

Was this mast possibly installed upside down?

Saab Combiwagon, cutouts, and upside-down mast arm, together at last.

[cpzilliacus]

If you look closely at the sign bracing on this one, it appears that there was once a second assembly to go along with US 29 South.  Could this assembly be old enough to have included a US 211 West assembly back in the day?

Yes, that is quite possible. And probably correct.

Though I remember a massive "sine salad"-worthy assembly mounted on the ground on the near side of the intersection (on classic VDH whitewashed timbers, even though this intersection was not then and is not now maintained by VDH and its successor VDOT) at this location in the 1960's or early 1970's, which had U.S. 29,  U.S. 211, two Va. 7 shields (and probably Va. 237 and I-495 shields as well), all cutouts.