MaineDOT Sign Shop Tour

[Ian]

Hey all,

This past Tuesday, I got the oppertunity to go up to Augusta, Maine and get a tour of the MaineDOT sign shop. Here are the photos from my tour:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Iansignal/MaineDOTSignShopTour7610

Enjoy!
-Ian

[corco]

That's awesome! I hadn't seen that new school bus stop ahead sign. That looks like a lot of fun though

[BigMattFromTexas]

Dude, I wanna take a trip to Maine now. Damn, y'all East Coasters are lucky, here it's a four hour drive just to get to Dallas, and y'all can drive four hours and be two states away. Anyways nice pics, you're real lucky, and nice signs you got. I'm real jealous. That'd be so ill to do. All we got here is an old scrap yard that has some signs in it, but I was lucky to get my US 277 sign. But you're lucky.
BigMatt

[Scott5114]

That's pretty neat. How'd you arrange that?

[Ian]

That's pretty neat. How'd you arrange that?

We like to stay at a resort south of Bath (called Sebasco), and the owner is very good friends with my dad. He found out about my interest in road signs last year and said he could get me a tour of the state sign shop, since he has contacts with a few workers there. So over this past year, he arranged a tour and on tuesday, I took that tour.

[OracleUsr]

Holy cow, I was just up in Maine last week (week of the 2nd).  Those are great pics.

[Roadsign199qc]

Wow! Lucky! And I have been to the MTQ five times! (Québec Ministry of Transportation)

[Dr Frankenstein]

Oh, so you're the the one who made that album, PennDOTFan. That's cool!

Roadsign199qc: Nice!

[Ian]

Wow! Lucky! And I have been to the MTQ five times! (Québec Ministry of Transportation)

THAT I am jealous over! Score any signs? Do you plan to go back??

Oh, so you're the the one who made that album, PennDOTFan. That's cool!

The one and only! You can see my horrible photos of Quebec from my Montreal trip back in the summer of '08. I really need to get a site going 

[Dr Frankenstein]

Oh, I'll have a look.

And I wasn't even sure whether MTQ had their own sign shop.

[Roadsign199qc]

But it's a place to install road signs.

[Ian]

But it's a place to install road signs.

Did you end up getting anything?

[Quillz]

Do sign shops such as that one sell signs to the general public?

[Dr Frankenstein]

Not always. I know Ontario doesn't. I don't know about the others.

You don't really want that random people use that to hijack existing signage...

[US71]

Not always. I know Ontario doesn't. I don't know about the others.

You don't really want that random people use that to hijack existing signage...

If it were up to me, I'd have some mini signs available as souveniers

[Quillz]

Not always. I know Ontario doesn't. I don't know about the others.

You don't really want that random people use that to hijack existing signage...

I know that to counter chronic sign theft, some jurisdictions will actually make replica shields and signs and sell them to the public. In fact, a long time ago, I came across some website that apparently sold MUTCD-compliant shields and signs directly to various state DOT, as well as the general public. Thus, I figured maybe sign shops might sell replicas or something.