Signs! Signs! Everywhere a Sign! - Western Freight Roads

Well it's time to cross the Mississippi and get this series finished up.  Today I will be exploring the signs of the Western freight roads.  Today this would be UP, BNSF, KCS, CP (former SOO) and CN (former IC).

We'll begin with the BNSF and you can't spell BNSF without ATSF.  Spoiler, western railroads had a big thing for white signs and black lettering so most of this post is going to be discussing all the ways one can do a white sign with black lettering and in my opinion the ATSF did the best job with white signs on black letters by adding a black border to the signs and a somewhat distinctive font. In this photo below we can see an example on the BNSF Raton Sub showing a single interlocking with a free standing ATSF style sign (probably from late in the ATSF era in the 1990s, and then more plain black on white BNSF signage mounted on the relay hut.

Elsewhere on the Raton sub we see a non-black border sign with the same ATSF font.

And finally we have a BNSF standard font.

On the BN side of the house we see a similar style of free standing black on white sign using a two post support.  On certain single track territories, interlocking signs would sometimes be replaced by a station sign similar to the one seen below. 



Note the variety of fonts.

Contemporary interlocking signage can  be mounted on either the relay hut or the traditional twin freestanding posts.

BNSF also has a policy of mounting a milepost sign (accurate to the hundredth of a mile) on either side of every bridge, most of which have a pinstripe black border.

Union Pacific on the other hand has one of the most consistent sign policies of any large railroad.  Every interlocking has a black on white signal with a unique interlocking ID and the interlocking's common name.  Here we see a spring switch controlled point in ABS-TWC territory that has been issued with one of the standard signs, although in a somewhat earlier font.

 Here we see the still manned LAKE ST and CY towers on the former CNW commuter network, both fitted with standard UP signs with the current font.  The CP just means it is a control point and the alphanumeric code is a milepost and subdivision designation.

Note that "CY" has been given some fancy quotes.

Again here is the same type of sign on a newly constructed interlocking hut.  As you can see, even on un-resignaled sections, predecessor road signs were stripped off and replaced.

For a quick visual break, here we have a Southern Pacific station sign that would provide the elevation and the mileposts to various control cities.

 Kansas City Southern also uses white on black, but they have a thing for large, two line signs with a very large font and "Control Point" spelled out, even if prefix CP appears on the next line.

Unlike UP, there has not been a wholesale replacement of older sinage so one's mileage may vary.

Finally we come to CN which had probably the most readable black on white sign scheme, using very large letters with a high impact font.

Canadian Pacific uses a similar style on its former Soo/Milwaukee Road route to the Twin Cities although the signs are smaller, the font is narrower and also distinctly different.

Well that's everything for the major freight railroads operating east of Chicago.  Although unlike CSX most of these roads do employ real signs vs stenciling, the black on white scheme is rather monotonous and you will start really craving a bit of Conrail blue or Southern green.