Introduction and need help with a 1960s-1970s era South Carolina Highway Shield.

[RobynWatts]

Hi,

I've accidently stumbled upon this site while looking for information on earlier South Carolina Highway Shields and decided to sign up. My name is Robyn and I've lived in both North and South Carolina all of my life. I've always been a traffic sign/signal fan and can remember on trips when I was little just looking out the window and noticing all of the traffic signs and traffic lights on the roads and would go home and would proceed to make crude models of them out of construction paper. These signs would usually wind up as part of a "interstate" that I would create out of the dirt using short pieces of 2X4 sections of lumber for "overpasses".

Anyway, that my embarrassing story for now. I'll talk about my earlier history some other time....

The reason for this post is that I am trying to find information on a South Carolina Shield that was introduced sometime in the 60s and used into the 70s. This shield was very similar to the South Carolina US Shields, but they were square as it used the word "S.Carolina" underlined on the very top of the sign with the route number underneath. I've talked to someone years ago at the SCDOT (sorry, I cannot remember his name), but he said that these signs were an experiment and used sporadically in parts of the state. One of the reasons why they never went with this design was that drivers were confusing these signs with the named US Shields that were still in use at the time at first glance, so the idea was dropped. However, there were still "S. Carolina" signs in use until they were replaced with the aluminum/3M reflective material 'S.C." shields during the 80s.

My question is: Does anyone have a photo, or photos of these signs? The reason I ask is I'm trying to help out someone with a project that will allow model railroaders to print their own signs, including state and territorial shields from various eras. I'm trying to help out with South Carolina info, but would love to find a photo of this particulate version of the SC Shield.

Here is the shield in question:

http://www.timeandseasons.com/detail.cfm?pID=ED33CE9F-A9FB-4588-AC9210326DDEEB9E&cID=1240&urw=South%20Carolina%2C%20Early%2070s%20alternate

And here is the site:

http://www.timeandseasons.com/home.cfm

Thank you,
Robyn

[agentsteel53]

Does anyone have a photo, or photos of these signs?

I've never seen a field photo, but here is the one I have seen in a collection.



that is a 28x24 shield designed to be used at an intersection.  were these signs made in the smaller 16x16 format as well?

[Alps]

Reminds me of the Colorado shields, where they went to a black-on-white "COLO." square briefly in the 60s before the current design. Welcome to the forum, take your time and post something over on the Welcome! board when you get a chance.

[RobynWatts]

AgentShield,

YES, That's the one!!! From my fuzzy memory as a 6 year old road sign geek, they did have a 3-digit version as well as the 16x16 version.

Thank you!!! That was a great big help. Now, if I can find a 3-digit version just to conform that "S. Carolina" was used as well (which I believe it was, since I don't think "South Carolina" would had fit with that type of font size used at the time), then I'm all set.

Again, thanks.

Robyn

PS: May I borrow your picture so that I can forward it to the owner of the scale model sign site as a reference for this particular SC Shield prototype? Thank you in advance.

[Mapmikey]

I lived in SC from 1975-91 and also remember these style signs in the field into the late 1980s when I was in college.  I have seen this style for at least the following routes in person: 24, 28, 47, 48, 61, 64, 162, 171, 215, 453, 642, 703.  I don't recall there being different sized signs for 2-digit vs 3-digit numbers for the ground level signs.  The upstate still had a number of the tiny square SC shields that came after the state outline shield went away.


http://digital.tcl.sc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/jwp/id/2862

Zoom in on the 4 shields to the right and you will see a S. CAROLINA 215 shield.

Another 215 shield can be seen here if you zoom way in (to the left of Philips 66 sign)

http://digital.tcl.sc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/jwp/id/2875

Other old SC signage (mostly cutouts) can be accessed https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/misc.transport.road/vYEqF0Ga6Ms.  One of these pics has a fuzzy (have to zoom WAY in) SC state outline shield for 215.

Mapmikey

[agentsteel53]

I would be quite surprised if the SC shield had both a 16" and a wide variant.  the 1970 MUTCD introduced wide shields, and got rid of the 16" size.  states that had used wide, small shields were few and far between.  Mass and NY come to mind offhand. 

Mapmikey, when you say "tiny square SC shield", do you mean something smaller than the 15x16 or whatever is seen here?



it seems that the first generation of SC shield can be differentiated from the later style (after the S. CAROLINA) by the fact that the SC is much larger on the earlier ones.

as for the confusion between state and US routes - does South Carolina have any route number duplications?  if not, I wouldn't see what the problem would be.

and yes, go ahead and use the photo of the 56 with arrow.  the sign belongs to a guy named Jeff Francis, and he's all right with it.

[agentsteel53]

Reminds me of the Colorado shields, where they went to a black-on-white "COLO." square briefly in the 60s before the current design. Welcome to the forum, take your time and post something over on the Welcome! board when you get a chance.

this one has a crossbar, which makes it slightly different in my opinion.  to me it reminds me of the white Minnesota shields more than anything else.

[Mapmikey]

Mapmikey, when you say "tiny square SC shield", do you mean something smaller than the 15x16 or whatever is seen here?



it seems that the first generation of SC shield can be differentiated from the later style (after the S. CAROLINA) by the fact that the SC is much larger on the earlier ones.

as for the confusion between state and US routes - does South Carolina have any route number duplications?  if not, I wouldn't see what the problem would be.

That is what I meant by smaller - the one in the SC 28 picture.  Here is a picture of that same style with a 215 - the shield is the same size, slightly larger than the US shields

http://digital.tcl.sc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/jwp/id/3785

SC did not duplicate numbers after 1927.

Mapmikey

[brownpelican]

I would be quite surprised if the SC shield had both a 16" and a wide variant.  the 1970 MUTCD introduced wide shields, and got rid of the 16" size.  states that had used wide, small shields were few and far between.  Mass and NY come to mind offhand. 

Mapmikey, when you say "tiny square SC shield", do you mean something smaller than the 15x16 or whatever is seen here?



it seems that the first generation of SC shield can be differentiated from the later style (after the S. CAROLINA) by the fact that the SC is much larger on the earlier ones.

as for the confusion between state and US routes - does South Carolina have any route number duplications?  if not, I wouldn't see what the problem would be.

and yes, go ahead and use the photo of the 56 with arrow.  the sign belongs to a guy named Jeff Francis, and he's all right with it.

Was this taken in McCormick by any chance?