Railfonts.com
Web store providing railroad fonts and color charts.
From www.railfonts.com:
- Your source for over 50 railroad lettering, railroad romans, alphabets, silhouettes, dingbats, trains, planes and automobiles...and even some surprises. All font sets are available in Windows (TT and ATM) or Mac versions.
Custom Railroad Fonts
From The Anthracite Railroads Historical Society - ARHS Facebook page, September 18, 2026
Railroad lettering is a subject many don't understand. Modern available type font families are a relatively new thing. Many, if not most, railroads before 1960 had engineering departments and draftsmen. These people would create letters and designs which their railroad would use when painting its equipment. Today, when equipment is being restored, often the lettering is what is not done correctly. Witness the many Lehigh Valley cabooses repainted to sort of look like a Lehigh Valley paint job but which have the wrong style or spacing for the lettering. The LV stencil font letters and many other custom railroad fonts are available from www.railfonts.com.
Even lettering some might think is the same can vary a bit. For example, the "railroad Roman" lettering on passenger cars of different railroads can vary slightly, since they originated as hand-drawn styles. We know this because the ARHS has complete sets of drawings for four different size and/or style of lettering. This is an example of the 4-1/2 inch "S" drawn full size as used on LV passenger equipment. Note that the LV never used the letter "S" but the draftsmen drew up a complete alphabet. These are nice legal size drawings with one letter to a sheet on a transparent media which could be reproduced on a diazo or blue print machine.
