Trains.com

Subscriber & Member Login

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

Name For Fictional Railroad

10745 views
69 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    January 2017
  • From: Southern Florida Gulf Coast
  • 18,255 posts
Posted by SeeYou190 on Monday, December 14, 2020 9:06 AM

TheP725
okay, what should the fleet be?

Do you mean your collection of freight cars?

-Kevin

Living the dream.

  • Member since
    January 2017
  • From: Southern Florida Gulf Coast
  • 18,255 posts
Posted by SeeYou190 on Monday, December 14, 2020 9:10 AM

TheP725
I Decided To Go With Central Georgia And Eastern! Now, I Need Help In Figuring Out The Railroad's Livery! My Favorite Color Is Blue, So The Primary Color Shoild Be Blue! What Should The Other Color Be? 

If your field color (the colour you paint the body) is blue, your only choices for lettering are white or yellow. Any other colour choice will not "pop" as strong.

If you want a colour for lettering (red, black, or green), you will need to put a white or yellow background behind it.

-Kevin

Living the dream.

  • Member since
    January 2017
  • From: Southern Florida Gulf Coast
  • 18,255 posts
Posted by SeeYou190 on Monday, December 14, 2020 9:31 AM

richhotrain

The Georgia State Flag is tri-colored, red, white, and blue. So, how about two more colors, red and white, to go along with your chosen color, blue?

Here is an image of the Georgia State Flag.

Rich

Georgia-Flag.jpg

 

The colours, red, white, and blue are fine, but I would strongly advise against using the graphics or image of the Georgia State Flag for anything, because it is just the First National Flag of the Confederate States of America with a Georgia seal added.

I don't even have any confederate flags in my American Civil War military miniatures.

First National Flag of the Confederate States:

-Kevin

Living the dream.

  • Member since
    November 2020
  • From: Madison County, GA
  • 4 posts
Posted by TheP725 on Monday, December 21, 2020 9:46 AM

by fleet, i meant locomotives.. i'm thinking of a mixture of steam locomotives and diesel locomotives

  • Member since
    April 2009
  • From: Staten Island NY
  • 1,734 posts
Posted by joe323 on Monday, January 18, 2021 7:39 PM

I was going to name a railroad the G & D with the slogan the best GD railroad ever!

Joe Staten Island West 

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Monday, January 18, 2021 7:55 PM

joe323
I was going to name a railroad the G & D with the slogan the best GD railroad ever!

It would have to be really, really, really good to wear that title.  But I'd love to see you try, and I suspect so would John Allen...

  • Member since
    April 2009
  • From: Staten Island NY
  • 1,734 posts
Posted by joe323 on Monday, January 18, 2021 10:29 PM

Overmod

Thats one of the many reasons I never did that project lol

 
joe323
I was going to name a railroad the G & D with the slogan the best GD railroad ever!

 

It would have to be really, really, really good to wear that title.  But I'd love to see you try, and I suspect so would John Allen...

 

 

Overmod

 

 
joe323
I was going to name a railroad the G & D with the slogan the best GD railroad ever!

 

It would have to be really, really, really good to wear that title.  But I'd love to see you try, and I suspect so would John Allen...

 

 

Joe Staten Island West 

  • Member since
    September 2002
  • 7,486 posts
Posted by ndbprr on Tuesday, January 19, 2021 6:46 AM

I have a class 1 called the Allegheny that follows PRR practice  and a short line the Cumberland Valley that uses central of Vermont decals including the script CV. For Georgia I would consider using Deliverance with a canoe under the name

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Tuesday, January 19, 2021 9:47 AM

ndbprr
For Georgia I would consider using Deliverance with a canoe under the name

... Or perhaps a banjo? Devil

Slogan "We paddle faster" or "We know how to call the tune" or perhaps even a hog with "Sooo-eeee-t service!"

  • Member since
    January 2004
  • From: Canada, eh?
  • 13,375 posts
Posted by doctorwayne on Tuesday, January 19, 2021 11:13 AM

It might not apply to everyone who creates their own freelanced railroad, but another consideration to keep in mind is the lettering required to decorate your locomotives and cars.

Many years ago, when I decided to create a freelanced railroad to interchange with both the CNR and the TH&B (both being real railroads in my hometown, but represented only by staging tracks on my layout) I created the Elora Gorge & Eastern.  The Elora Gorge is a scenic area on the Grand River, which eventually empties into Lake Erie in southern Ontario.  I added the "Eastern" to make it a little more "railroady".

Looking through my all-time roster of EG&E locomotives, there were 47 diesels, most with the roadname spelled out using Champ alphabet sets.  A couple of examples...

...and in-colour...

The lettering on this one was done using dry transfers as a masking device:  paint the whole loco yellow, add the lettering and masking for the striping, then paint the green and black areas.  When dry, use bits of masking tape to lift-off the dry transfers, revealing the yellow lettering, and remove the masking tape to show the striping...

On this one, the black outline striping was done with decals for a CNR loco, while the lettering is from a C-D-S dry transfer alphabet set in black...



Now 47 diesels aren't an unusal amount, and it was not too onerous to hand-letter them as shown. 

However, I also wanted some passenger cars, and eventually ended-up with 75 of them (many sold-off some time ago).  The were eight stainless steel Athearn cars, plus a couple of RDCs, all lettered using black C-D-S dry transfer alphabet sets.   I have no photos of any of them.

The rest were in EG&E green, like this one...

All were lettered using C-D-S dry transfer alphabet sets, both for the letterboards and for the car names and/or numbers.  Many of those were sold, too.

I'm pretty sure that my EG&E helped to keep both Champ and C-D-S in business.

Of course, I also had some EG&E freight cars, too, about 257 of them.  All but the latest dozen-or-so were done with custom designed C-D-S dry transfer sets. some in conjunction with Letraset dry transfer alphabet sets.
While the roadname is not spelled out on my freight cars, saving some time and effort, if you're freelancing your railroad, your home-road cars will need suitable dimensional data, which is usually available from commercial decal- or dry transfer-suppliers.

Here's one of the early boxcars done with custom-made C-D-S dry transfers.  The large lettering and numbers, along with the two-part herald, are from my own artwork, refined by my brother on his computer.  The dimensional data was done using C-D-S dry transfer data sets...

...for some cars, I used a smaller and simpler version of the herald...

Some older cars didn't get the slogan...

...and since I was, at one time, also running more modern cars, the lettering had to be modified to fit on such cars...

Cars with less room for lettering got only the basics, with heralds to-suit...

When I finally decided on the time frame for my layout to be the late '30s, most of the too-modern stuff was sold, and I re-did quite a few of the remaining homeroad cars to better-suit the era.  (I do have some cars that are a little too modern for my chosen era, but that's one of the advantages of freelancing).

While all of this lettering with a made-up name was rather time consuming (not to mention a bit expensive), I was extremely surprised at how quickly the items which I sold were bought-up, many at prices that I had feared to be excessive (Most were sold at a hobbyshop, now long-gone.  I gave the proprietor my required price and left it up to him for his mark-up, which in some cases was double what I felt they were worth.)  The result was that I had enough to re-equip my layout's rolling stock and locos with more era-appropriate stuff...which also required new lettering. Bang Head 

I also have three other freelanced railroads on my layout, but only one of them has freight cars.

Sometimes, freelancing your layout can lead you down a slippery slope.

Wayne

 

Subscriber & Member Login

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

Users Online

There are no community member online

Search the Community

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Model Railroader Newsletter See all
Sign up for our FREE e-newsletter and get model railroad news in your inbox!