Newbie looking for a font but finding out so much more...

[Fran]

Hi, Yes, I'm a new member and came across the site looking to find the font that was used on the old PT telephone box and kinda got sucked in with all the information. 
I'm trying to create a Telephone Box wine bottle holder with my laser machine and I need a font to finish the drawing. Don't ask how I'm 'coerced' into making these things!!!
A google rabbit hole has led me here and I've spent more than a few hours going through posts and other links, it's been quite the journey and I've just started. 
Dare I say I'm not a railway modeller ... but there's plenty here for me learn from.

I did find an old post relating to the old P&T telephone box plans but the link was broken.
Here's hoping someone might have the name of the font, online sites like 'What the font' have proven to be inaccurate. TIA

Cheers
Fran

[BosKonay]

P_&_T_Telephone_Box-Forum.pdf

[Signal Post]

Welcome to the forum Fran.

When you open that link, although it doesn't state the font used it does say "Glenderg Models", I would guess that this is the same @Glenderg who posts on this forum, he may know the font. Hopefully now he may now spot this question....

Hope this helps you in your quest.

Edited Tuesday at 14:18 by Signal Post

[Mol_PMB]

I can't help with the name of the font but I can link the question to Irish Railways, both broad and narrow, with this old photo of mine. Note the A and B button box - no dialling, you had to ask the exchange operator to manually connect you.

 

[Broithe]

5 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

I can't help with the name of the font but I can link the question to Irish Railways, both broad and narrow, with this old photo of mine. Note the A and B button box - no dialling, you had to ask the exchange operator to manually connect you.

 

I remember making a call from Ballybrophy in the mid-70s. It didn't even have buttons, just a handle to wind, to ring a bell for attention from the exchange in Rathdowney post office. There then followed a discussion about the potential cost of a call to England - this eventually boiled down to 'How much have you got on you?" and an instruction to leave the cash in the cardboard box under the phone.

[Fran]

Thanks to @BosKonay for the file, it contains the font and telephone box layouts. I'll be trying to keep the proportions as true as possible. It's good to see the 'P & T' brand too.
Thanks @Signal Post for the welcome and link, I think I have all I need in the file BosKonay has linked too.
Unusual to see the telephone boxes in blue @Mol_PMB, it's good to see how a picture can ignite some good and bad memories  with some of us ending up broke @Broithe. I too spent to much time 'feeding' the phone to prolong conversations. Youngsters aren't aware of how slow, costly and difficult communications were back in the day 

[minister_for_hardship]

They had the blue/white scheme in the Telecom Eireann era. A very small number survived into Eircom days.

[Broithe]

1 hour ago, Fran said:

Thanks to @BosKonay for the file, it contains the font and telephone box layouts. I'll be trying to keep the proportions as true as possible. It's good to see the 'P & T' brand too.
Thanks @Signal Post for the welcome and link, I think I have all I need in the file BosKonay has linked too.
Unusual to see the telephone boxes in blue @Mol_PMB, it's good to see how a picture can ignite some good and bad memories  with some of us ending up broke @Broithe. I too spent to much time 'feeding' the phone to prolong conversations. Youngsters aren't aware of how slow, costly and difficult communications were back in the day 

Even living, mostly, on the Big Island, I was fifteen before I ever spoke on a telephone - there was just nobody with a phone to speak to - I had used radios and walkie-talkies long before there was anybody to phone. We all knew how to make a phone call by the age of 8 or 9, but there was just nobody to ring, if you didn't need the cops or an ambulance.

There are some interesting hangovers today, from the old systems. In the old system in Ireland, it was common for the post office to be 1, the guards 2 and the bank(s) 3 (& 4), where the important places had the single-figure phone numbers, before the modern system arrived - particularly with the guards, if they are still in the old building, then the current phone number will often still end in 2, often 102. The AIB in Rathdowney was 3 and is now 46103. The guards were 46102, until they sold the old barracks and moved to more sedate accommodation.

Also, the different keypad layouts of calculators and phones - because 0 on a phone was actually 10, inherited from the days of loop-disconnect dialling - you couldn't dial zero, or the system wouldn't know if you had, or how many times you had dialled it, because you hadn't. This all became superfluous when tone-dialling arrived, but it was too late by then and the keypad layouts were 'in place' forever.

On the Big Island, I still have an old rotary phone, mostly for the bell sound, but the dial still functions and I use it occasionally - making a mistake at the end of an eleven figure dial-out is almost heart-breaking, after putting all that effort in.

Also, the new codes in the republic are in a rather more useful arrangement than the UK phone code system. In Ireland, you can take a fair guess at where a phone number is from, 05 is the southeast, 05x will be a biggish place, 05xx will be smaller centres. In the UK, the system is (largely) alphabetical, 019xx will probably begin with W, but it could be Weymouth - or Wick - not much use to anybody. In the old days "reverse codes" were almost impossible to obtain - I had a booklet (obtained through Exchange & Mart) in my desk at work and would get a request for "Where is this code?" most days.

It does seem to me that the widespread use of landlines and, even worse, mobile phones, has just made it far more "acceptable" to be disorganised and unreliable. We had to know what we were going to do - and then actually do it - at the appointed time and place!

[108]

Hi

As a sign maker we finally found a typeface online a few years ago which was a good approximation of Irish Script.

If you search online for Celtic Gaelige (note incorrect spelling) it should pop up.

From memory it was free to download and has proved useful on a few projects.

There was a similar but much more ornate typeface called Celtic Knot which could be useful for more artistic applications.

108

[Westcorkrailway]

I can’t remember what I used for this. But shows something good is out there

[Fran]

9 hours ago, 108 said:

Hi

As a sign maker we finally found a typeface online a few years ago which was a good approximation of Irish Script.

If you search online for Celtic Gaelige (note incorrect spelling) it should pop up.

From memory it was free to download and has proved useful on a few projects.

There was a similar but much more ornate typeface called Celtic Knot which could be useful for more artistic applications.

108

Thanks for the heads up @108 and fellow sign maker, I found the font you mention on Dafont (it was free to download). It wasn't exactly the same but it it's still handy one to have. I ended up tracing the font as there was only 6 letters, it could have been worse.

[jhb171achill]

On 19/2/2025 at 1:47 PM, Westcorkrailway said:

I can’t remember what I used for this. But shows something good is out there

That one looks pretty good! There actually were occasionally minor variations in the real thing, though perhaps oddly a greater variation in the styles of the Roman characters....

[108]

5 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

That one looks pretty good! There actually were occasionally minor variations in the real thing, though perhaps oddly a greater variation in the styles of the Roman characters....

Most of the variation of text on older signage is down to different preferences/traditions of the old style signwriters. It’s marvellous to watch a skilled signmaker at work.