Not sure if this is the right place for this. But I have just gotten a private crossing sign that came from the Reading Railroad. Does anyone know what the correct coloring is for the sign. I have seen pictures of black lettering with a white background or white lettering with a black background. Here is a link to the sign that I own.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2316987/CAM00021.jpg

The ones I have seen in service in Reading territory, both before and after the Reading ceased to exist as a railroad, were white background, black border and lettering.

All the ones I saw while running trains over Reading tracks were black background with white lettering.

From 1972 to 1976, I worked in the Reading Company's Chief Engineer's Office. Among my duties was managing the plan vault, which included drawings going back well into the 19th Century, including the original ink-on-linen standard plans. The draughtsman's artistry on some of these ancient drawings was beyond remarkable and I made myself prints of many of them. One of those was standard plan No. 62 - STANDARD IRON ROADWAY SIGNS FOR THE NOTIFICATION OF EMPLOYEES, dated August 1905. It very clearly says: "All signs to have face of letters and border painted white on black ground. Post and back of signs to be painted black." which would be the opposite of what ADM-IV reports seeing. I attribute that to the fact that, despite what the text says, the linen drawing was inked showing black letters on a clear background. However, when blueprinted, the result would have been white letters and border on a dark blue background - just like a negative - hence matching the text. But once authentic blueprinting ceased, and ammonia blueline prints look over, the printed drawings would all look the same as the linen - with black letters on a white background. So, any sign painter who only looked at the drawing, and didn't bother to read the text, would be mislead into thinking that the sign was supposed to be white and the letters black.

I'll share a pdf of this drawing the next time I get near a scanner.

/s/ Larry
Lawrence G. Lovejoy, P.E.

PDF as promised.

/s/ Larry
Lawrence G. Lovejoy, P.E.
(Reading Co. Employee 91436)