While looking for inspiration of any future model railroad I create, I have a great interest in freelanced railroads set from the 1980s to present. One thing that always appeals to me is the logos and custom decals used on many of these freelanced railroads.
I understand decals can be printed from a home computer, however, I am not a graphic design guru who can come up with some of the logs I see on freelanced railroads. It is likely that I’d be able to do a very basic design, some letters next to each other, similar to modern CSX or BNSF. I really like the looks of states that are used as an outline or letters that are linked to each other or interlocking.
My question, where does one go to get a design/create a logo and print the decals?
20 years ago these guys were a whole lot cheaper but they can do the artwork for you too. http://www.railgraphicsdecals.com/home.html If you open their pdf there is some information that might be useful if you want to DIY.
Milenials have computer skill that we don’t have, you might ask around your family and friend. I know to make your own you need the paper and a spray to keep the ink from washing off. I’ll let those who have done it fill you in.
While I feel pretty tech sauve as a young teacher, my area of expertise lies in making spreadsheets, Docs, and presentations, not creating cool graphics. The link you provided is a step forward for me. While I don’t envision painting a whole fleet of locomotives or rolling stock, I’d like to be able to patch and/or paint one or two locomotives and a few boxcars or hoppers sometime.
I highly recommend Rail Graphics. I had custom decals made by them to honour a late friend, biL Marsland, who was a Member here and on another Forum which I frequent. My brother did the artwork and Rail Graphics did the rest and I was very pleased with the results. I got sets in both white and black, and the ones I used (all white) were very opaque. The sets that I didn’t use were sold to other modellers, at cost, and there are now Lehigh Susquehanna & Western cars on layouts in various parts of the world. I think that biL would be pleased.
I’ll soon be ordering more lettering for my own road, although most of it will be based on the three orders of dry transfer custom lettering (now almost all used-up) which I got from C-D-S. In this case, too, my brother will be doing the artwork and layout.
Tichy is now offering decal printing how much design work they do i don’t know you might contact them and ask, as for homemade ones unless you have access to a printer that has white ink they are without white unless you use a sheet of white and block out the white with color.
Grab a kid to make your graphics, I have a great grand daughter (8) that is a wiz on her computer making all kinds of artwork.
I make my own decals using a combination of DesignCAD and Photoshop. This was one of the toughest graphic decals I’ve attempted, looks simple but it was a bugger.
Actual decal size is .38" x .30".
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
A fellow model railroader put me onto the Alps MD1000 printers. He made me quite a few decals before I decided to look for a printer on eBay. I’ve been printing my own white, silver and gold decals for about 4 years on my Alps. The Alps will do full color print but I still use my HP Inkjet for regular decals. The Alps ink ribbon prices are escalating as the supply dwindles. The Alps ribbons don’t get very good mileage, they just don’t last very long.
Edit:
For those of you that might be looking at getting an Alps MD printer they don’t travel very well. If they’re not packed properly they won’t survive a shipping experience. It took tree printers before I received one that worked. Besides super good packing the shipper must remove the ink ribbons from the printer or they will come lose and screw up the carriage.
A fellow model railroader put me onto the Alps MD1000 printers. He made me quite a few decals before I decided to look for a printer on eBay. I’ve been printing my own white, silver and gold decals for about 4 years on my Alps. The Alps will do full color print but I still use my HP Inkjet for regular decals. The Alps ink ribbon prices are escalating as the supply dwindles. The Alps ribbons don’t get very good mileage, they just don’t last very long.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
I do the graphic work myself, but printing I have used Bedlam Creations and have not been disappointed both the times I have used them. $40 shipped for a 6" x 8" sheet which I am able to cram quite a bit on.
I was actually using some of the custom decals today finishing one of the New Hope and Ivyland Baldwins I have been working on.
I like the look of the lettering for the locomotive. It’s something simple like this for a locomotive that I would want. I’d only use a logo of some sort for the hoppers or boxcars. Thank you all for the helpful links and ideas!
Tomorrow I will fire up my scanner and post the sheet of rail graphic decals I had made. After 20 years they are still usable unlike Waltehrs decals at the time which have faded into unreadable.
My only regret is I didn’t think to add a later period font. I went with black decals and white decals. Maybe I should have added gold lettering too. My point is think broadly when you order.
The freelanced railroad I envision is a shortline/local of sorts that operates between a few towns. Thinking total freelanced, it started long ago (turn of century), and has survived through local support. The era is 1990s-present. Colors will be very basic with whatever I do paint or patch, so the decals would likely be white or black depending on paint color.
Really liking what I’ve seen from Rail Graphics on everyone’s railroads. Inspiring and motivating. Now, if I could only finish my masters degree sooner so I could get to my hobby more frequently.
My scanner magnified this so it doesn’t actually look that good. With the naked eye the imperfections are not seen. I had it printed in both black and white lettering. In retrospect I wish I got creative with color or more modern fonts.
