Licence plates in HO

[steve1]

I have at last located a source of US licence (or should I say license) plates for HO road vehicles.

 

Look here --> http://www.howardshobby.com/HoLicensePlates.html

 

I ordered some and they have now arrived. Mine are for Michigan and New York State and I'm very impressed. They will be added to the relevant vehicles very soon.

 

Incidentally, a query for those on the ground. What percentage of "out of state" vehicles would there have been on the roads in the 1950s and 1960s in both Michigan and New York State?

 

Ball park figures quite acceptable!

 

steve

 

PS Not posted pics as my camera isn't up to the magnification required. Sorry.

[baldeagle]

I notice that they can also supply UK plates 1904 to present.

Perhaps, at last, I can get the plate from the first 4 wheeled vehicle that I had, that's if I can also get a 1960 HO Austin A30 van - in grey!

[AndrewC]

Or if you are a cheapskate like me, you can use this site to make your own: http://www.acme.com/licensemaker/ I just save each one then merge them into a single image, resize and print. I just wish I had the ability to print onto Scotchlite paper. Most Canadian plates since the 70s are reflective.

 

Steve, it's all going to depend on exactly where in the state you are modelling and if you are talking about cars or trucks (lorrys) . For cars in the sticks you would see far fewer out of state plates than you would if your layout was near a main road or tourist attraction. Even so you are not likely to see more than 1% of out of state plates. Trucks on the other hand are another matter. Even in the 60s it was common to see plates from all over the US and Canada on trucks. Frequently the trailers will have multiple registrations so you can have 4 or 5 different plates on a single trailer, with none of them matching the cab.

[baldeagle]

I like that site Andrew, I've just made a plate which contains my amateur radio callsign!

 

Unfortunately, it contains a letter "I", so I can't get the real one over here.

 

John

[Sir Ray]

If you're modeling the NY Thruway, or the growingInterstate system of the (late) 1950s/1960s, then you will of necessity see a lot more out of state plates (including a few provinces). As you may guess, the plates would be from relatively close in states, such that for the NYC area New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut - way upstate NY, you'd see Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Ontario CA, and Quebec CA. Now, to take off on Andrews statement, in the 1960s (Happy Motoring!) you'd be unlikely to see a lot out of state plates parked on residental streets (except maybe at the very borders like Port Jervis, NY). This would change in the late 1970s, as New Yorkers (and NJ and Conn) drivers registered their vehicles out of state (usually Pennsylvania or Ohio) to avoid high insurance payments (this is rather illegal, so you'd need to find a relative resident in those states to get your registration there) - from ancedotal evidance, this still goes on, with Brooklyn residents in particular complaining that a third or more of all 'Brooklyn resident' vehicles have out-of-state plates.

[AndrewC]

This would change in the late 1970s, as New Yorkers (and NJ and Conn) drivers registered their vehicles out of state (usually Pennsylvania or Ohio) to avoid high insurance payments (this is rather illegal, so you'd need to find a relative resident in those states to get your registration there) - from ancedotal evidance, this still goes on, with Brooklyn residents in particular complaining that a third or more of all 'Brooklyn resident' vehicles have out-of-state plates.

This was/is a big issue in Washington State as well. When I was working in Seattle in the late 90's about half the cars in the company lot had Oregon plates. None of them lived in Oregon though. In that case it was down to sales tax.

 

Another thing to remember is in some states and provinces back in the 50s and 60s is that the plates were changed every 3 or 4 years, some even annually. Some had the year stamped on them as well as changing colour. http://www.blankplates.com/ is another good site if you want to be pedantic about what colour and style of plate for a given year or set of years. NY for example was yellow with black text in 51, black with white text in 1964. Blue with yellow by 1966, and back to the yellow with black by 1973.

[Prof Klyzlr]

Dear RMWebbers,

 

You want _proto_ plates for US states?

 

http://www.15q.net/usindex.html

 

http://www.worldlicenseplates.com/world/NA_USAX.html

 

http://www.plateshack.com/

(covers both Passenger and Freight/truck plates, Very Useful!)

 

Simply

- hit the state you need

- locate a suitable plate for the vehicle in question

(photoshop makes kitbashing plates very easy!)

- print at appropriate scale size

- and apply to model

 

All of the plates for the vehicles on "Brooklyn : 3AM" were done this way...

 

Hope this helps...

 

Happy Modelling,

Aim to Improve,

Prof Klyzlr

[highpeak]

Caveat: following applies to CT, post 1980. Other states and periods probably differ.

 

One minor point to note is that there have been times in some states where front plates were eliminated as an economy measure, only to be subsequently reinstated. Since the plates belong to the owner and don't stay with the vehicle, they are fairly easy to remove and subject to theft. You quite often see the plates on the rear parcels shelf, not legal but understandable if you live in CT.

Add in vanity plates, special plates for older cars (I don't really like the plate on my 1979 MGB saying "Early American" but that's what you get for an older car), fund-raising plates etc etc and these days it's pretty complicated.

A point made above that needs to be stressed for British modellers is that trailers do not carry the same plate as tractor units. This also applies to boat/camper/utility trailers towed behind cars or pickup trucks. Pickup trucks often are taxed differently and carry plates marked Combination rather than normal passenger plates.

Another wrinkle is the temporary plate, a cardboard plate issued for new registrations (especially transfers from out of state) at various periods (not as common now in CT as the department of motor vehicles has tried to become more efficient). They used to be especially common on older dump trucks that didn't see a lot of use but might get pressed into service during a construction boom and would get a temporary registration allowing them to be used for a few weeks.

 

[Ian Holmes]

The regulations concerning licence plates are extremely confusing. I've just got back from California where cars have licence plates front and rear, but I rented an Arizona registered car which only had a plate on the rear. Here in Minnesota plates front and rear are the law. Unless you have a collector car like my 1976 MGB then you only need to have one on the rear...

 

Ian

[AndrewC]

Ian. I've lived and worked in several states and provinces. Every one has it's own idiosyncratic rules. Alberta for example only issues a rear plate unless you order a vanity set whereby you get 2 plates but only 1 has to put one on the car.

[TonyA]

Following on from what baldeagle says and going a bit OT, it is interesting to see that the British plates cover 1904-present when seven possible formats have been used in that period.

 

Tony

[Ozexpatriate]

Yes, strict accuracy for US license plates is a minefield that beggars the imagination. The good news for transition era modellers is that there was much less variation 50 years ago.

 

Everything varies tremendously, in every state.

 

Off the top of my head, I remember basic California plates (not counting the extra cost "specials") that looked like the following sequence since about the 1960s:

 

Alternating black on yellow / yellow on black - with year printed.

Yellow on black AAA000

Yellow on medium blue 000AAA - early 1980s

Blue on White (red "CALIFORNIA" on yellow sunset) 0AAA000 - mid 1980s

Blue on White (plain red "CALIFORNIA") - mid-to-late 1980s

Blue on While (script red "California")

 

Stickers for the registration month have been blue on white since the white plates were introduced, but the sticker for the registration year changes for each year.

 

This list is not intended to be exhaustive or definitive. The numbering sequences varies between each of these plate varieties as well - the sequences of numbers and letters are approximate - I don't know when they actually changed. Plates can stay on a car for a very long time. A 'classic' that is still running might have a plate that is decades old.

 

As always, photographs are the best guide.

 

In Oregon, my current state of residence, there is a basic design that has been around for a while - a douglas fir in front of a mountain ridgeline. Even with this the details of the numbering sequence is tricky, and there are different coloured stickers for the year and month in which the registration is due.

[AndrewC]

This could become a hobby unto itself. Numbering sequences and patterns can also vary according to the type of plate. Some states/provinces have XXX-000 for regular vehicles but have X-000XX for commercial vehicles. One province uses D-000XX for denoting rental vehicles.