# Signs For The Knackered Valley Garden Railway



## backyardRR (Aug 14, 2012)

Several years ago I decided to add some signs to highlight “geographical” locations on my Knackered Valley garden railway. Using PT wood I fashioned a number of different shapes and sizes. After an initial fail using self-adhesive lettering, I decided to print the lettering and graphics on my printer and laminate the paper to the wood using Krylon clear spray or clear Flex Seal. This lasted no more than one season as the paper delaminated from the wood no matter how many coats of sealer I had applied.

















I then got to thinking about the ubiquitous political signs that appear before various elections and seem to stay until well after the election is over. Browsing the Internet I found one such sign company. signsonthecheap.com offered a variety of sizes and options at a reasonable price. The online ordering tool allows a selection of materials (corrugated plastic, aluminum and PVC) as well as font and color options and the ability to import graphics. Now I am sure there are many others who offer custom sign options but the price and interactive ordering tool for this site was the clincher. I decided to go with the cheapest option and use corrugated plastic along with a clear coat. I chose a 12” by 18” rectangle for the herald and 5” x 18” for the location signs. For the herald I ordered the wire stakes to support the sign. The whole thing came to $59.70 including a promotional price.
Less than 10 days later my signs had arrived.



















For the location signs I used the existing wood poles and Gorilla Glue to attach the signs to the poles.








This one requires a little explanation. Bryn Mam is Welsh for “Moms Hill”. The statues are from my late mum’s (mam in Welsh and other locales in Britain) garden. My maternal grandma (nan) was Welsh.











Where are the gnomes? They are just off to the right of the birdbath.


















Well, I guess this says it all. For the second straight year, due to the Pandemic, the containers are planted with mail order seeds.









All of the “hills” were created from the spoil excavated when digging the roadbed trenches.










Knackers Yard. This is a bit of ethnic slang (my mum was British). While knackered means tired or worn out, the knackers yard is where old horses went after they outlived their usefulness. Think glue factory. There are other uses for _knackers_ but I want to keep it clean.


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## Robert (Jan 2, 2008)

Nice. I've not seen that done before.


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## smanthabrooks93 (Jun 8, 2021)

I found one such sign company. signsonthecheap.com offered a variety of sizes and options at a reasonable price. The online ordering tool allows a selection of materials (corrugated plastic, aluminum and PVC) as well as font and color options and the ability to import graphics. Now I am sure there are many others who offer custom sign options but the price and interactive ordering tool for this site was the clincher.


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## Homo Habilis (Jul 29, 2011)

I think this is SPAM. This company does not appear to make signs appropriate for use on a scale railroad.

Reported.


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## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

The post falls into a rather grey area imho. The company referred to does allow one to create their own sign design from scratch, which may be useful to some members here, and I don't see any evidence of a direct promotion. That being the case, I think I'll leave it alone for now.


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## backyardRR (Aug 14, 2012)

It was certainly never my intent to promote this company over any other company. It looks like someone (smathabrooks93) simply took part of my story out of context and made a post that looked like they were promoting the company. It's their only post. Bizarre.


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## Dick Friedman (Aug 19, 2008)

I have made signs on my 3D printer, but nothing as large as those. Designing them in Tinkercad is quick and simple.


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