| Rollsigns from London, England |
| London Transport has always had a strict guideline for its look, including the destination blinds in their buses. The McKenna Brothers company has been in business since 1978, and has been the main supplier of Tyvek (paper) destination blinds for years, using the Johnston typeface font as the standard. Originally the signs were black with white lettering, but later prints use a florescent green colour for the characters, called DayGlo. With Routemanter buses having so many different blinds, this coding was created to identify which sign went in which location on the buses. |
| For more information on the McKenna Brothers and the history of the Johnston typeface: |
| The McKenna Brothers company website. |
| Johnston Typeface Wikipedia page. |
| This rollsign was removed from London Transport AEC Regent #RT4191 after it was retired from a second life in the USA. It is made of a paper like surface with manually silk screened lettering, attached to a fabric mesh like backing called "tanjib". It was manufactured in-house by London Transport. Its sign tag is shown in the first photo below. The "R" means it is from Riverside Garage in west London. The "8 9 71" represents its print date, 8th September 1971. It has 9 exposures. The bus it was removed from and how it was discovered in the bus is also shown. It was discovered in a scrap yard in central Iowa (USA) and was photographed on January 22, 2020. (Historical and factual information assistance from Marc McDonald & Arthur Balfour. Thank you!) |
| The markings printed on the end of the rollsign. |
| London Transport AEC Regent #RT4191, shown as it was discovered in a scrap yard in central Iowa on January 22, 2020. |
| These two photos show the condition of the blind inside the bus. Unfortunately the glass window was broken and it suffered some damage from exposure to the elements over the years. |
| This Tyvek (paper) front route number sign (MM position) is from London Transport, and covers routes from Hackney Depot in the northeast central area of London. The sign may have been removed from bus #323. It has no printed date or manufacturer. It has 34 exposures. Its sign tag is shown here. |
| The logos on this sign are listed below. |
← First Transit.
← First Transit.
← DLR Bus
← London Underground
← British Railways
H 2000 MM