Capital Transit Company Bus Rollsign
Click to enlarge images.
This week we're featuring a rollsign from a 1940s Capital Transit bus (the Capital Transit Company operated a large fleet of buses in addition to the traditional electric street cars.) This particular linen rollsign was made by the Hunter Illuminated Car Sign Company, in Flushing, New York, and is dated August 27, 1947, as shown in the image above. A feature of transit vehicles for decades, traditional rollsigns are largely obsolete now, with digital electronic technology replacing the old material rollsigns in virtually all modern public transit. This particular sign features 20 exposures for destinations in and around the DC area, a few of which are shown here, and likely came out of a bus built by the White Motor Company in the late 1940s.
The NCTM Mills Dean III Collections Library holds dozens of historic rollsigns similar to this one, including multiple from street cars - stay tuned for a future edition of TrolleyTime when we feature rollsigns from the museum's collection.
For more information on this rollsign and a view of all 20 exposures on an identical one, we invite you to visit rollsigngallery.com (click HERE.)
The rollsign shown is held in a private collection. Our thanks to Joseph Chemerys / RollsignGallery.com for assistance with this brief article.