A friend sent me this picture and wants me to try and get the signs in it readable or the info on the bus readable..but I have never done anything like this before..any info on this?

TokenArt

Going to take my first stab at a reply here...

I can see some of the information on a few of the signs but a lot of it is quite unreadable. If you know what the signs actually say you could probably get away with some careful painting/colouring of the signs. Also maybe some selective burning and sharpening of the signs that are quasi readable.

Maybe talk to your friend to see if he/she knows what some of the signs are supposed to say. I suppose you could have some fun, too, and make stuff up. ;)

Well he was trying to figure out where this might be from based on the text from the signs or from the text on the bus...thats why he wanted to know try and clear it up.

TokenArt

Re-scanning the picture will also help, this one (the one you posted) suffers from pretty heavy jpeg-artifacts :(

I have an 11 meg bmp but the limits on the upload here is pretty strict...and I don't have a place to host this bmp..

TokenArt

here is the 11 meg bmp

http://public.fotki.com/TokenArt/worldwar/worldwari-2.html

TokenArt

neither image is an 11 meg .bmp.

Craig

It resized the pic it seems...

http://home.comcast.net/~mmatthe8667/worldwari-2.BMP

That should fix it

TokenArt

thank you. much better.

the big sign on the top left says 'Cab Co.' the one below that and to the right says 'Yellow T'
........' 25c" (25 cents)
the one to the right of that says 'Yellow Cab Co'
.............................................' ........Taxi'. and there is more print below that that i cant make out.
also cant make out the text on the bus. it would seem to be something like:
KAIIME or
KAIJME or
KSIIWE or
well, i dont know. none of the bus can i make out to really say for sure.

that's about all i can get.

Craig

Thanks thats more than I have been able to get...but still eludes me as to where this could have been taken.

TokenArt

well, about all i can recommend at this point is to try to identify by the objects in the picture, as well as the yellow cab info. yellow cab is probably a north american only type company, at least at the time period of the picture. the bus isnt a bus at all. it's a streetcar, electric. those were almost completely gone by the 50's. i do recall seeing some in detroit in the 50's, but that was the last time. if you can get more detail on the clothing, that might help.

off hand, about the only guess i'd be willing to make would be the united states (and even that may be wrong), but i'm not a specialist, and that's kind of what you need at this point.

Craig

Words on the bus resemble X1 (?) 1915-- though, they might be something entirely different. :)

here is some other pics he had

TokenArt

You may want to check out this cable car web site (http://www.cable-car-guy.com/html/ccmain.html). It has a lot of info on cable cars that may help you date your photo.

I think the name at the front of the trolly would be a section of town or streets or corners or a neighborhood and not a specific city. Like buses today list where they are going.

great thread BTW...

letter, letter, symbol, letter, letter, letter
or six letters?