So I’ve tinkered with this idea many a times before. I’ve come up with road names and that’s about it. Now I’m getting sick of that happening and since I have nothing else to do in the hotel I’ve been coming up with ideas and writing some stuff down.
I want to keep it semi proto-typical to freelanced. All I have is the 4x8 as I’ve mentioned many times before. So really this is just for future use, I can still paint the locos and create a small part of my empire I one day hope to have. This will be in HO as well, figure I should mention that before I go on any farther.
Here is what I have so far.
Roadname: Wisconsin, Minnesota, & Northern (The WM&N) Slogan: “Bridging Prosperity” (referencing the many bridges between the two states and the connections they have industrially with each other) and “Shipping Over the River” (referencing the transport of goods between the states again) both could be sufficient if there is expansion to other states which is nice. Destinations: Lines from Eau Claire, WI to Mankato, MN via the Union Pacific. South from the Twin Cities to La Crosse, WI via the Canadian Pacific, which shares with the DM&E. There will also be other routes that connect to Milwaukee and also the Twin Ports of Duluth, MN and Superior, WI via the BNSF. Colors: Silver and (need help with others) Locomotive Power:
SD40-2 (Will be buying an undec. Athearn soon)
GP40 (Have an old Athearn that needs help, might make it my tester)
GP9 (After some time I have two P2K that could be re-painted)
C44-9W (I have two Athearn painted in BNSF Heritage 1 and BNSF Warbonnet. Neither are used now so I can add these as a later purchase when more revenue comes in)
I guess I need help with coming up with the paint scheme. I can’t decide between dark red, dark blue, or black. I love the look of the Norfolk Southern. It looks intimidating and bold. I know black is a cheap paint to use for the shortlines and lesser r
When I was coming up with a scheme for my short line, the Laurel Valley, I thought about what I liked about some of my favorite prototype paint schemes.
I always liked the Southern Railway’s hood units, with the broad stripe at the bottom. Very classy.
I also dug the Reading, particularly the pale yellow and green “Bee Line” scheme.
And of course, there would be a heavy influence from the Western Maryland, which on my planet was the parent company of the LRV. I took all of that and put in the blender, and came up with this:
It’s got WM style lettering, Reading style colors, and the SRY paint scheme. It’s probably more appropriate for an '80’s era short line, but I think it fits in with my late '60’s era just fine.
I’m going for the modern era with mine as that’s what I’ve grown up around and when I started that’s all I saw were the “modern” era units.
I really like the sleek look of the black loco and the white lettering of Norfolk Southern. But I don’t want to exactly copy that. I really like Silver as a locomotive color in some capacity and dark blue. I’m thinking I might go with the dark blue loco and white as the secondary color. White would be on the top of the locomotive, the top and front of the nose, the cab front, and the back end. The sides and walk ways would be blue as well as the handrails, or I may go white with those. The lettering for the WM&N on the side would be in white as well in a smaller print on the older locos. For the newer C44-9W I would come up with a bigger and better logo as well as slightly altered paint scheme. Probably using a speed lettering for WM&N and the three line idea if possible.
Thanks for the help. The idea is similar to the Norfolk Southern in some respects but freelanced mostly.
What are some good places to look into for making decals?
I don’t want to keep bumping this, but I’m looking for more suggestions about anything dealing with this freelanced railroad. Please offer any tips/advice/suggestions anything.
I came up with my own freelanced road to tackle all that I wanted in a layout. I went round and round with mine. After beating names after names, I though of the name of the street I live in on and bingo.
The colors can be a pain too as there are so many options. One thing I can tell you, and I thought about it myself, the black NS engines look great, but an all black model, I dont think works so well. Being so small, the whole black model looses alot of detail. So, I came up with modified version of what you see in my sign line. I ended up pikcing the white and black, becuase they seemed to me the most original colors I could find. I apinted the lower silver, becuase I thought it really popped the detail out of the engine. I also loved the way it looked and Santa Fe/BNSF had/has a good thing going. I still need to do stickers, but that is on the list… one of these days…
Here is a ebsite that I found that really helped me with my color scheme. If you are good with the "Paint program, then you will have a ball with these sites. Down load the engines and open them in the Micro Soft Paint program and design away. Remember to keep the designs to the level you can comfortably paint them.
Nothing fancy in mine. Just Falls Valley on the steam, no decorations other than a brass bell.
Desiels are not part of the line yet. All it is now is a 2-10-2 and a 4-8-4. The rest of the power are those from “Outside railroads”, some of which are bridge traffic. I may get a second 2-10-2 as the one I know of has a good price on it.
I interchange with the B&O at one end and cross the PRR at another spot and end up over the mountain. Who knows what the future holds.
With all the big stuff you think I was some kind of Class One. Who knows? Maybe one day when the addition is built.
Since your regional line is in Wisconson area, try copying from fallen flags in your area. Milwaukee Road, Northern Pacific, Great Northern, and Soo Line, they all had good paint schemes. Maybe, something borrowed from each. I really liked the Millwaukee Roads black/orange scheme. Also, being in a 4 x 8 layout, you might go for some GP-38’s or 38-2’s. they’ll look nicer on small radius track. mike h.
I too have nothing fancy Simple green and white Serving the Southwest :
I really like the Iowa Interstate scheme , I would re-do mine in this scheme if I have the time, I like the color contrasts and they seem to really keep them clean.
Hi Hawk, i smiled when i read your post because a lot of my best planning for my freelance shortline/regional also came when sitting in a hotel room at night on a business trip.
I’m coming to a finale on my freeklance line, and am in the benchwork/track laying phase. Just changed the final name of the shortline (before going to lettering!) last night after much contemplation. My shortline, Southern Alleghany & Cumberland (note southern spelling of “Alleghany”), is in turn owned by a larger regional, Virginia Western Rail. I have two roads so I could have several different design schemes and motive power and cars, and have a unique business history between them. Remember, there is no reason why you can’t have two freelance railroads with a relationship, and each can have an industrial focus. For example, Tony Koester did this with his Allegheny Midland, for which he had a shortline, the Ridgely &(something or other, I forget, but u get the point).
My railroad interchange partner is Norfolk Southern primarily, with a bit with CSX showing up from time to time. I think you’re right to think out those connections, not just railroads but also industrial connections. Determines, obviously, types of cars and such. My roads are coal, lumber and aggregate service. Coming up with a business and historical rationale for your line is an important step, and also helps discipline your approach.
One thing that aided me in color scheme was to look at a lot of fallen flags (or near-fallen flags), and pick up on some great schemes they had. I chose the general colorations of the Delaware & Hudson, and Wisconsin Central colors for a different scheme variation. It makes it especially straightforward when buying colors, and making them highly complementary, since there are so many shades to choose from.
For me coming up with the idea for my regional line was simple. I was inspired by the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern…a modern line that goes a good distance but can use all types of power. And you can represent what you want in a smaller area, at least its been working for me all this time. A regional can represent larger traffic amounts like the big roads but can be contained better as they aren’t a huge multi-thousand mile system. And you can use fairly ambiguous names for them, usually throwing the word “Central” in helps. Good luck with it.
Locating your shortline somewhere “specific” in the US?
“Specific” may mean nudging a bit of real estate aside to fit your line in.
Once you get located you start to get some idea of what scenery/industry/community etc your line will be fitting into - this can be worked backwards.
Location also relates to predominating and minor traffics. Again this can be worked backwards.
Traffic can determine both locos and stock or you can look for a “local” traffic to fit with the stock you want to run.
You need to locate you shortline somewhere in time… the locos you list give some indication…
Shortlines don’t always stick with one livery… so you can play games. re-launches call for press events and new paint. New paint may be elaborate… this scheme may get simplified later to save cost.
Time of year may influence what traffic/stck is running as well as foliage…
"Locomotive Power:
SD40-2 (Will be buying an undec. Athearn soon)
GP40 (Have an old Athearn that needs help, might make it my tester)
GP9 (After some time I have two P2K that could be re-painted)
C44-9W (I have two Athearn painted in BNSF Heritage 1 and BNSF Warbonnet. Neither are used now so I can add these as a later purchase when more revenue comes in)
I guess I need help with coming up with the paint scheme".
That’s a bit of a weird loco list for a shortline… 1st 3 are good but 2 modern, large high power locos? Big question is what traffic s going to pay for them? … and possibly for the track upgrade to let them run at all?
I’ve designed a few paint schemes for my different lines through the years, and some just for fun.
Before I started painting, I downloaded drawings of the engines I was going to work on from sites like Trainiax and Railroad Paintshop, then used Photoshop (however a free program like MS Paint could work just as well here) to design the paint of the engine using simple pencil and paint bucket tools. This got me to the paint scheme.
Here’s four of my designs to try and give you some ideas:
This one is for a government owned port in Canada. This paint scheme would probably be more appropriate for a 1950’s-era layout where safety striping and reflectors had not yet become standard.
This one is for a sawmill, and is more modern with highly-visable yellow ends. Notice since the RS3 here is used more in switching, there is the yellow on both ends.
This one is more modern, with a stylized logo and more corporate stounding name. I was imagining this one as a Class-3 short line with a simmilar image to Progressive Rail.
This one is designed for a Class-2 or Class-3 headquartered in the Boston area. There are several things to notice here, first off the colors: some railroads choose the fight colors of a university on the route, in this case Boston University. However the traditional white has been changed to a medium gray as a a thought about road grime and engine image (white looks worse than gray when dirty)
Next notice the naming: the New Englang States was a historic passenger train on the NYC that ran from Boston to Chicago. Also the full name of the railroad New England States Network’s A
[#ditto] That was my first thought as well. I would think that 4 GP units would be more effective for a short line than two whales. This is especially true since the whales are from a different vendor (GE). That increases maintenance costs.
You have those C44-9W, it’s a hugely profitable and high volume shortline, bordering on or in fact a regional. That ain’t no itty bitty line.
Sometimes however, you have what you have as an existing fleet. You might want to make those two C44s a regional which the shortline interchanges with, or which has trackage rights. Better yet, what are their current livery…are the undecorated or an existing class one? If so, don’t paint 'em!
Ya, I agree with others. If anything, get AC44CW bodies for them and paint them up in CEFX scheme, and lease them. Or if they are painted, just say they are on long term lease or w/e.
What I did in looking for a paintscheme pattern was look to what the real roads looked to - demonstrators!! Many railroads over the years have picked paintschemes based on demonstrators they used, maybe changing the colors and overall design a little but generally using the demonstrator paintscheme. Mine is based on a 1948 Baldwin scheme.
For colors - I’d think twice about silver except as a trim color. I admit the railroad I grew up next to, the Minneapolis Northfield and Southern, used dark blue with silver roofs - but I didn’t know that til I saw a model of one, since the silver was covered with grime!! Some railroads based their colors on a local college. Minnesota-based Soo Line and DM&IR use University of Minnesota maroon and gold - although I guess Soo Line got their maroon from Wisconsin Central - which painted their steel passenger cars maroon to match the unpainted varnished redwood passenger cars they already had. Anyway, incorporating the colors of a local college (or of your alma mater from H.S. or college) wouldn’t be bad idea. I tried to make a point of staying away from colors used by neighboring railroads - none used blue in the time I model, so I went with a light blue / dark blue scheme with a gold separating stripe.
The RR name is OK (of course I’d put Minnesota ahead of Wisconsin[:-^]) but I would re-think about the “Northern” part. North of MN and WI is Ontario - are you running into Canada?? Railroad names usually (but not always) went in one direction, say from east to west (Chicago Milwaukee St.Paul and Pacific, Dakota Minnesota and Eastern) so Wisconsin Minnesota and Western might work, or Wisc Minn and Southern ??
In any case, unless you’re good at home design and printout of decals on a PC, do try go get a ‘pro’ to do your decal sets. It really isn’t that expensive, and saves a lot of time and effort. I used Don Manlick, I worked out the cost was maybe a few cents more per decal set t
Cool! I model the White River Southern, which restored service on the Concord, NH to White River Jct. line. It’s set in 1997. (right before ditch lighs were manditory!)[:D]
I would reccomend against a Dash 9, because they are so huge. Instead, paint them for a leasing company (prototype, or freelanced), or Class 1. I have a Conrail C40-8W, which is supposedly leased from Conrail or is a run-through.
The SD40-2 will be undecorated when I buy it, probably and Athearn as they are relatively cheap. The two GP9’s are Rock Island in the “Route of the Rock” scheme. The other is the CB&Q in the red and white scheme. The C44-9W are BNSF Heritage 1 and Warbonnet. They would be added as later purchases after time and for bigger consists. I would also look into getting some GP40’s and GP38’s. I have a lot of Union Pacific and BNSF otherwise. One EMD leaser and one Norfolk Southern GP60 I believe, can’t remember what I have.
I really like the Milwaukee Road paint scheme as well as the newer SOO Line scheme of an all red engine and the white lettering. My apartment down at school sits right next to the CP mainline running from the Twin Cities to the south. I see everything from CP to SOO to BNSF to DM&E to old Milwaukee Road engines.
I’m going to look through some of the pictures on various sites at the old railroads for paint ideas.
So far the lines that I have chosen run past a lot of grain elevators, some cement businesses, as well as some scrap yards so I can use most of my rolling stock. I have a ton of hoppers and my gondola collection is building.
As mentioned the bigger engines could be used as future purchases from BNSF down the road. Or I may create another railroad and come up with another leasing service. Possibly could re-letter and re-numbering.
What are some of the larger locomotives that I can purchase that are made by the same maker as the GP/SD’s. Sorry it’s a stupid question, but I’m still learning the ropes. Something big enough to run on the 4x8.
I’m sticking with the Wisconsin, Minnesota, & Northern as my railroad name. I would use some school colors but I’m not really a fan of the maroon and gold from the U of M. I want to avoid red or any variation if possible. I like green and blue. I saw a regional that was black, green, and white and like the way it was set up. Maybe green, blue, and white would be a cool scheme.
EMD locomotives you could use? Well, a lot! For a shortline I would reccomend a GP9/7, or you could look into GE’s older units, U-boats and such.Wikapedia has a list; scroll down to the bottem of the page. Here’s EMD’s:
The orange and black Milwaukee scheme is a variation of a standard EMD scheme. The simplest EMD GP scheme would be a loco all one color except for a stripe about 3/4ths of the way up the loco, going all the way around. Some railroads used that as a division between two different colors, like blue on top and red on the lower part, with a white stripe between. MILW didn’t use the stripe, but the color separation is in the same place.
