The Pear's advertising sign is clearly visible but what do the words say above the Pears name and what colour is the sign? A few letters can be discerned in the book photo but not enough to identify the words. A quick search on the web revealed this image of a near identical sign. It gives us the colour and shows the slogan "Matchless for the complexion". Comparing to the letters we can read in the book it is a match.
Mr. Bushnell (Station Master) is obscuring a second sign that can be seen in the book. The first letter is S and the second and third could be UN. Unfortunately I have not identified this sign. It could be Sunlight Soap but it does not match the style of sunlight adverts and I doubt two competitor products would appear on the same fence.
I'd like to put a sign there so, a look at Bentworth & Lasham in the book shows a Lipton's Tea sign. This time some words of the slogan can be read, being 'sales in the world'. Another search on the web completed the slogan for me as "Largest sales in the world" and the colour scheme is white on green.
These searches also revealed the signs date back to about 1910, which correlates with the L&SWR period photos in the book and the layout we are building.
Both model signs were created in MS Word but the font size could not be set small enough for 'n' gauge. Fortunately, my printer can scale. A transparent plastic film was stuck to the signs to represent the shiny enamel finish.
After all that research the slogans on the models can only be read with the aid of a magnifying glass!
David
* The Basingstoke & Alton Light Railway" Martin Dean et al.
