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MWCX Reporting Marks Font

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  • Member since
    February 2008
  • From: Potomac Yard
  • 2,767 posts
MWCX Reporting Marks Font
Posted by NittanyLion on Saturday, December 31, 2016 7:30 PM

I'd like to make decals for some patched covered hoppers lettered for MWCX, but I'm stumped on them. 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/50090140@N08/5768153270/in/photostream

I've combed through the fonts I have and asked a couple fellow designers. No one can put a finger on it, but everyone agrees it looks familiar. Any ideas? 

  • Member since
    July 2007
  • From: Massachusetts
  • 202 posts
Posted by Bundy74 on Sunday, January 1, 2017 8:36 AM

Sort of looks like Futura Bold but italicized.  

Modeling whatever I can make out of that stash of kits that takes up half my apartment's spare bedroom.

  • Member since
    February 2008
  • From: Potomac Yard
  • 2,767 posts
Posted by NittanyLion on Sunday, January 1, 2017 2:16 PM

I'd thought Futura Bold too, but the C is different.

The numbers are tricky because so few people can identify a font by its numbers.  One of my friends got back to me that the letters and numbers are different fonts (maybe).  That 6 is from Eras Demi, but Eras Demi's W and C don't match what's in that picture.

Rather complicated for a leasing company's reporting marks, instead of using railroad or highway gothic.

  • Member since
    January 2007
  • From: Mobile Alabama
  • 694 posts
Posted by carknocker1 on Sunday, January 1, 2017 4:56 PM
Most of the leasing companies use Futura bold or Helvetica but both are slightly different fonts created by Fast Signs who do a large amount of the reporting mark stencils . Sometimes however if the car is shopped and requires new stencils there could be other fonts depending what the shop has available.
  • Member since
    February 2008
  • From: Potomac Yard
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Posted by NittanyLion on Tuesday, January 3, 2017 9:18 PM

In the event that anyone ever comes looking for it, a friend of mine figured it out last night.  It's called Crillee.  I showed her another picture and she caught that there were odd little serifs that she hadn't noticed the first time.

  • Member since
    January 2015
  • From: Southern California
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Posted by Lone Wolf and Santa Fe on Tuesday, January 3, 2017 10:47 PM

You can see it close up here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/50090140@N08/5768153570/in/photostream/

My question is: Is this a fake? Looks like it to me. How can they make the 4 without a stencil? There should be a section where you can't paint so that the stencil covers the hole in the middle of the 4.

Modeling a fictional version of California set in the 1990s Lone Wolf and Santa Fe Railroad
  • Member since
    February 2008
  • From: Potomac Yard
  • 2,767 posts
Posted by NittanyLion on Wednesday, January 4, 2017 2:10 PM

A lot of real railcars are lettered the same way we do it: decals. 

Big, weather resistant, self adhesive decals, but decals all the same. 

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