In freelancing, most people go with a circle or a diamond for their railroad's herald. I went with a circle. It is easy, and it looks right.
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Recently while going through my CDs, I came across Carolina Dream by the Marshall Tucker Band.
I think these graphics would make a great herald for a freelanced railroad. Unfortunataly I lack the ability to change the artwork to a railroad name.
Imagine "MIDWEST STATES LINES" in this style:
How about it, what corporate logo have you seen that could be used as the basis for a great freelanced railroad herald?
By the way, this was my 1,500th post. Another meaningless milestone has been achieved.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
I always thought this would make a great railroad logo (West Virginian or Western Virginia):
I have the right to remain silent. By posting here I have given up that right and accept that anything I say can and will be used as evidence to critique me.
How about the North Dakota Railroad???
Steve
If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!
That Marshall Tucker Band logo does have a vague resemblance to the old Cotton Belt Route logo as well as to a rather old Atlantic Coast Line logo.
But what it reminds me more of is the fancy lettering for commercial products back in the era of billboard reefers.
Dave Nelson
Here's some basic rules for logo design:
1). Make sure it looks good in black & white as well as color. If it only works in color, then it's not a good logo. There won't be enough contrast to make it pop.
2). Don't use a stylized large letter logo followed by the rest of the name in smaller letters. For example, imagine the "NH" logo in my avatar with a smaller "ew" and "aven" lettered to the right of the N and H, respectively. Don't do that. Why? Because it looks like the NH logo and "ew aven", not "New Haven". If you want to have a logo and spell out the name, repeat the first letters over again, so it's "NH" and "New Haven".
3). Make it legible from a distance. It should be discernable from across the room; if you have to get close enough to read it, it's not a good logo.
4). Resist adding detail. Simplicity is best as this is something that should be easily reproduced on everything from billboards to letterhead.
If you have Microsoft Word or Powerpoint, take a look at the Word Art section. There are a number of ways to manipulate letters and words, change their shapes, coloring, and texture. You might find your logo hiding in there somewhere.
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
When I thought I was going to model a freelanced shortline through central PA, I was on the lookout for heralds/logos. My partner brought home some foreign film and the logo of the production company (Cinematique Alliance or some such thing) was something like this:
And I had the logo for the Central Allegheny that never got built!
Mark
A little off topic, but related. Before I could even read, I remember the local way freight switching cars from a front window in my house, (that's actually how I became fascinated with trains very early in life), and seeing the Ontatio & Western Railroad's "O" circling the "W" logo. I always thought it looked very much like the logo for Volkswagen.
On another note, I have opted for a text logo (Like the New Haven' "NH") just using alphabet decals: Reporting marks for my railroad are "TEC", so I just use a large "T" a smaller "E" and an even smaller "C", all under the "umbrella" of the T and large enough to see from a distance.
This was the heral for my old Cherokee Foothills Railroad. I actually stole it from the scenic biway of the same name.
Modeling the Pennsylvania Railroad in N Scale.
www.prr-nscale.blogspot.com
In the 1990s I belonged to a club and our freelance railroad was the Middlefield Central & Terminal. I came up with this New York Central inspired herald:
MC&T_28 by Edmund, on Flickr
In hindsight I probably could have used an easier to read typeface?
MC&T_28_crop by Edmund, on Flickr
Way back when my dad and I had a 1½" scale railroad. I hand traced this emblem from a Bessemer herald and he had them made into embroidered patches
B&LEpatch (2016_08_17 08_08_12 UTC) by Edmund, on Flickr
Fun Stuff!
Ed
My Elora Gorge & Eastern railroad is a freelanced line set in southwestern Ontario, a portion of the area through which the Grand River runs. The Elora Gorge was created by the river flowing through it. This area is also home to a large (over two million acres) Indian reservation.The Indian head profile is a nod to the indigenous people of the area, and many of my passenger cars are named for the tribes or prominent individuals from them.I sketched out the herald in pencil, using a reversed rubbing from a U.S. nickel as the centrepiece. The drawing was then given to my brother, who turned it into a photo positive (black on clear film), which was, in-turn, sent to C-D-S, to be turned into dry transfer lettering. I've gone through three 50 sheet sets (each did at least two cars), and am now working on a fourth set, this time as decals from Rail Graphics.My original timeframe for the layout was a vague '50s to early '80s, but I later back-dated it to the late '30s.
Rolling stock appropriate to the early version, at least boxcars and reefers, also got a slogan...
Cars from the more recent years lost the slogan....
...but when I sold-off all of that rolling stock and most of the diesels, in order to backdate the layout, I decided that a more sedate image would be required...
My story now is that the slogan was both an acknowledgement to the indigenous people and to those Canadians of all ilks, who went to fight, starting in late 1939, in WWII.
EG&E locomotives get a simplified version...
And subsidiaries Grand Valley...
...and Erie Northshore (the official name is Grand River & Northern Lake Erie, but I didn't want to go with PRR-style coast-to-coast tenders just to accommodate the name)...
...got fairly simple lettering.
Passenger car paint and lettering are CNR-inspired, using SMP CN Green #11, as on coach/solarium Tuscarora . All lettering on passenger cars was done with dry transfer alphabet sets from C-D-S...
Grand Valley passenger equipment is similar, except for the roadname and car names...
Wayne
After I retired I decided to add a garden railway to my backyard. The name of the railway and the herald with the swayback donkey (mule?) is a nod to my many years of stressful hours and brutal on-call at work. Since I am of British heritage (mum born and raised in London) the British slang word "knackered" was well known to me. It basically means worn out or tired after hard work. It has it's origins in the "knackers yard" where horses and mules were taken when they could no longer provide labor.
Wayne, you missed a sure bet in not keeping to the '70s prototype, where you could have gone to eye-blinding supergraphics (including the inspired-by-Ford's-whip-inflation-now slogan WOW!) and your own even more instantly recognizable version of a broken dish. You might get neighbor complaints but your shippers would sure be impressed with your modernity!
You ought to make up at least one car in this scheme just to show how it was done in that age of blooming railroad renaissance possibilities...
gmpullmanWay back when my dad and I had a 1½" scale railroad. I hand traced this emblem from a Bessemer herald and he had them made into embroidered patches
That embroidered patch looks very good. The arched effect on the lettering was not so unique that it looks like a Bessemer logo, just a good logo.
I saw this logo on the side of a lumber mill in Eastern Georgia.
This has features that would look good on a railroad herald. It is pretty traditional in a "railroady" sort of way, but the saw blade in the herald is a nice feature.
How's this?
Replace the fish with what ever suits your railroad and then put the initials up top, B.A.S.S could be the Bakersfield-Albuquerque Shipping System, have a Cactus in the place of the fish.
My logo and paint scheme
Neal
I found another one... and I REALLY like this one. This design would make a great herald design for a custom roadnamed model railroad.
I have always been partial to good imagery. I really like animals in a logo if appropriate. The CP logo has the beaver, maple leaf, and shield, I really like it.
I think I would try to incorporate a moose if designing my own logo. A big bull moose is a powerful looking animal, so is a grizzly.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Now that's a logo!
I suppose you will want a royalty for letting me use New Zealand's friendliest Bear as a logo. How about my people talk to your people and we'll be in touch.
I just hope he doesn't scare off some of our less adventurous customers. Well, I guess they can take the Rocky Mountaineer, their logo is wussier.
The Rocky Mountaineer doesn't let you see the Rockies from the cow catcher, "WE DO".
The Rocky Mountaineer doesn't let you shovel coal for beers,"WE DO".
The Rocky Mountaineer doesn't let you drive the train so the engine crew can go to the caboose to watch the Stanley Cup Playoffs, "WE DO".
You can ride on the top of our trains as we no longer have Tell-Tales on our railroad.
Put more adventure into your Rocky Mountain Scenic train ride. Don't grin and bear it on The Rocky Mountaineer, ride with pride on the
if you can "BEAR" the excitement.
I just went to a site called "logo mix .com" and designed an attractive logo for a possible model RR company. Designing the logo is free. Getting it to copy and paste, understandably, won't happen, unless you buy the file. But, it's a good way to look at possibilities.
BATMANI suppose you will want a royalty for letting me use...
For older railroads, I like the look of interwoven capitals, like the old EMD logo.
I dunno why...
--Steven Otte, Model Railroader senior associate editorsotte@kalmbach.com
I've always been a fan of big script heralds, like the older New Haven one. The one in the first post I'd love to base mine on - except I have no idea how. Here's one I came up with, for a freelance line set in the Olympic peninsula of Washington state in 1912:
Not entirely happy with it though.
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
Steven OtteFor older railroads, I like the look of interwoven capitals, like the old EMD logo.
I also love the look on interlocking and interwoven letters. They are a lot harder to do with alphabet decals than I originally thoguht they would be. I gave this a couple of good tries, but no real success. I think these would require custom artwork to look right.
I have also always loved the EATON logo, but there is no way I could make this look right for 1954.
I saw this one today. It was painted on the side of an antique store in Lakeland, Florida.
I am pleased with the way the large letters and short names work with the circular herald. I think I will copy this design for my planned ERRIS & SPEARS boxcar.
The ribbon across the circle is what really sells this one for me. That will be a challenge to duplicate, but I think I need to give it a try. I will put a one word slogan in the ribbon.
Well, I dunno it'n it is great or not, but here is a shot of my RR's herald on an ACF hopper. The 3 mountains represent the "Three Sisters" here in Oregon which is a scenic high light of my railraod, the Wishram, Oregon and Western.
I have always wanted to come up with a logo for the Archaeopteryx Quarry Railway, the Route of the Flying Dinosaur, but could never quite manage it.
Kevin