Is there a place I can get high resolution scans for overhead ads from the 1920s-1950s? Trying to track some down to print up and put in our cars. I'd love to get a Burma-Shave or two. I'm not above redrawing them if I have to (I've found a few low resolution ones I could do that with), but the closer I can get to original, the better.

Trolley, interurban, or railroad?

And where?

A lot of places have undertaken to scan and reproduce vintage ad signage to preserve the originals. Of course, this can get interesting when, in some cases, the ads in question are for the U.S. Bicentennial or addressing the 1970s energy crisis......

Railroad



Any of these would be appropriate to one or more cars at some time period:
Grand Rapids, MI
Detroit, MI
Grand Haven, MI
Milwaukee, WI
Lansing, MI
Battle Creek, MI
Hoboken, NJ
Pretty well anywhere on the Grand Trunk or Canadian National

Association of Railway Museums used to sell reproduction car card ads. I cannot find a link.

Wesley

I recently saw a photo from inside a LIRR coach showing "Chico Marx and his Band" You might find a model for that on Google images.

Others for the time period would include "Ice Capades", insurance and funeral services, Wrigley's gum, World's Fair, Coney Island, war effort, fare deals, and other things that directly affected the riders and their use of money.

Check with Bill Wall at Branford Electric Rwy. Ass'n. - Shore Line Trolley Museum. He's tracked down or had made reproductions of various trolley and rapid transit ads.
Find out the advertising agencies for the railroads. For instance, Transportation Displays, Inc. (TDI) was the agency for many New York, N.Y. and Philadelphia, Pa. area roads, including some in the Hoboken, N.J. area. They seemed to run the same generic national ads (Beefeater Gin, for example) in all of their markets, even though the local interest ads were different. Broadway show ads had a far greater distribution than just in trains going to New York City. I particularly remember them on the end bulkheads of MU trains in Hoboken, N.J. They were reductions of the same ads as featured on placards at station platforms all along the line.
By the 1960s, I don't remember many overhead ads in railroad cars, even though new commuter cars were still built with the fittings for displaying them; but end bulkhead ads were still common.
You may get lucky and find a local business which still has a sample of their paid ad.

I didn't know the GTW or CN ever went to NJ !

Also are you sure they put ads in their passenger cars?

Bob H

Association of Railway Museums and TRAIN no longer exist-they were formally merged a couple of years ago and are now the Association of Tourist Railroads and Railway Museums (ATRRM). They do still offer the reproduction car cards.

Alan,

Thanks! I knew about the merger but I could not find the link for the car cards on the new ATRRM web page. Do you have a link that can be posted here?

Wesley

I've been to railway museums all around the country, and many of them have posted ads from the same source, featuring among other things, Campbell's soup, Nucoa margarine, stove polish, Lifebuoy soap, etc.

Many model railroader use signs to help establish the era. Beoadway shows can help set the date, though younger visitors may not be familiar enough with a show to really know when it was popular. Ads for new autos can help too, especially if you can find one that includes the date "the all new 1957 Chevy Impale, now with air conditioning!" (Imaginary example, no accuracy claimed)

If car cards for local vendors are not available, Photoshop can be used to make corrections to the text. WRM's Archives group has done this to put local dealers' names on national brand cards.

I'm not aware of any link at the moment. I'd make an inquiry to the Parts Committee and suggest that a link be added for such material requests. Offhand, I'd suggest starting with contacting Rod Fishburn. If you need his contact info, PM me.

The train's made up of equipment from multiple railroads/locations/decades. Hence the broad search.

I do not know for sure that they did put ads in their cars, but it does have slots for them, and formerly they were only used for advertising local business sponsorships. So I figure if we're going to use them, we might as well add a little bit of context to them.

Anyway, thank you all for your help! I didn't realize reproductions of them were common enough to have that many resources available for them.