N&W font, was Re:NW-Modeling-List Digest, Vol 271, Issue 5

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Please remember to change the subject line when replying to a digest post. This helps everyone to keep track of subjects.

Scott:

As a long time graphic designer, I cringe when I see this question. No offense, from the Cambridge dictionary:

Font (noun) is a set of printed letters, numbers, and other symbols of the same style:

That basically implies an entire alphabet, numbers and symbols. In today’s world that generally is considered a computer font, i.e. something you can simply type on a keyboard and it appears on screen.

The “N&W” is, I assume, what you are speaking of on these cars. That by definition is not a font, as it only consists of two letters and a symbol. And to my knowledge, there is no computer font that actually matches it.

Andrew Dow in his coal car book, postulated that it derived from the eye chart lettering, but I never really agreed with him, as he possesed nothing to verify that. The Snellen eye chart lettering is also not a “font” as it only consists of ten letters, and no symbols or numbers. Including the important “&” symbol. Most importantly, it did not contain an “N” or “W” among the 10 letters.

N&W designers had no access to computers or fonts, when the “N&W” was designed, it was strictly drawn by the draftsmen, there was no other letters to work with, the original Snellen eye charts date back almost 160 years, and have largely been supplanted by a more modern san-serif font.

The same applies to the letters and numbers used in the data on the cars, original steam era styles were based on drawings from the Master Car Builders association, but even that is not exact. 

Opinions vary on what modern type face (i.e. computer font) closely matches the “N&W” letters. You can find references to some as per attached. Several common fonts are shown, as well as the Snellen chart.

But, the end answer is how picky are you about matching something?

Best
Ken Miller
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> End of NW-Modeling-List Digest, Vol 271, Issue 5
> 
> What is the name of the font the N&W used on these hoppers?
> 
> Scott Jackson