New York City Subway H Rockaway Shuttle Roll Sign R32 MTA NYC TA For Sale

This a mid-1980s New York City subway rollsign produced for the R32 series of MTA subway cars. The sign is in excellent condition, with some expected rare on the edge of the sign as well as some possible traces of steel dust, oil stains, and other common imperfections of era signs. Let the photos be your best indication of its quality. This routing is for the briefly-used \'H\' shuttle service in the Rockaways, most recently used after Hurricane Sandy. Each sign roll had versions printed for the exterior and the interior, and this exterior sign measures about 25\" x 8\". Light shines through it, so presentation near a lightbox or window is recommended. The train car bearing this sign was retired about ten years ago.

The sign is made of a durable mylar material. It is easily mounted (without heat) or framed. The material is initially translucent, sprayed once in white paint, and then sprayed again in black paint to form reverse-cut white letters on the black sign. The font used on this particular sign dates it to the early 1980s: it uses Akzidenz-Grotesk BQ Medium, the Helvetica-precursor introduced to the subway in the late 1960s by legendary designers Massimo Vignelli and Bob Noorda which was removed from new subway signs by the late 1980s. Many remaining R32 (and R38) signs are in Helvetica, part of a later order of rolls. This is one of the harder rolls to come across, which I am selling in sections only because I received it as an incomplete (cut) roll.

The sign will be mailed in a hard tube. Other signs are available for other routes, in larger and smaller sizes.