Nobody has to “start” making decals, plenty of companies already do.
I can and do make my own. Most all freelancers I know do.
Several manufacturers still offer unpainted models.
And if there is something I want, I can always buy a model of a particular car body type and strip it.
What is your source for “freelance is unpopular”? What statistics do you have that it is in decline?
I don’t see a change, other than the hobby as a whole is dying.
Reality is my source.
I am comparing this to the hey-day of private roadnames in the 60s through the 80s. Then the shift was made to prototype railroad modelling as more detailed road-specific models became available.
This does not need to be debated, freelance modeling is a mere fraction.
By the way, the hobby as whole is not dying, it is just changing.
-Kevin
Hello All,
I freelance.
This was the plan from the start.
My pike is a fictional branch to a coal mine set in the coal fields of the Western Slope of Colorado during the 1970s to 1980s.
This railroad is owned by the parent company, Consolidated Materials Group.
The Nation Model Railroad Association (NMRA) registered name is:
“BS&P (Buckskin & Platte Rail Road) Coal Brick Loop - C.M.G.; Reporting Marks: BS&P R.R.”
The coal drags from the mainline and materials trains are Santa Fe.
Mine trains are leased from D&RGW.
All the motive power owned by the BS&P is repatched. The livery colors are black with safety orange stripes.
This makes changing paint schemes easy.
Even if I can’t completely strip the original paint, the black rattle-can paint pretty much masks a lot.
I have not yet printed the decals for the herald (my avatar).
The next step will be to print out and apply the decals.
For me, part of the draw of modeling is the ability “what if” in any way you wish.
Hope this helps.
My layout is pretty-much the same, with four freelanced railroads, mostly represented only by their locomotives and cabooses, with little rolling stock of their own.
Three of the roads are controlled by a fourth, the Elora Gorge & Eastern, my first freelanced road (which is itself, not modelled, although there are a lot of EG&E freight and passenger cars on the layout, along with only a couple of EG&E locomotives).
Two of my modelled freelanced roads have their own track, while the third owns one locomotive and one caboose. It was originally intended to be a switching and transfer company, but if I can correct a couple of minor problems (cab and tender interference on curves), I may just get rid of them.
My layout has eight towns, all named for real ones, but none of them as representations of their prototypes, and many industries named for real ones, but likewise pretty-much freelanced. Some are named for friends, too, but totally freelanced (but I hope that they look convincing enough to have been based on real ones).
Both of the modelled railroads interchange with the real railroads which ran in my hometown, and they include the CPR, TH&B, NYC, and CNR. Other than the first one, all are (or will be) represented by locomotives on my layout.
As for interchange cars, I have hundreds, very similar to what I saw as a child, growing up in a heavily industrialised city, with cars from literally everywhere in North America.
I’m pretty fussy about a lot of those interchange cars (not all of 'em, though), as I model them after real ones shown in photos, so I have lots of reference books to aid in getting the details right.
I do buy mostly kits (I believe that I have only two or three r-t-r cars on the layou
Freelance has always been “a mere fraction of the hobby”.
My question stands, how are you measuring a fraction of a fraction, and seeing that in decline without seeing the hobby as a whole in decline, merely “changing?”
Yes, the hobby is changing, mostly because there are less consumer participants, and the manufacturers have found their selective niches to stay profitable to their limited consumers.
If in fact, the whole of the hobby is “changing” then wouldn’t that in turn imply that the freelanced portion of the hobby is “changing” as well?
Adapting to the availability of decals, kits, paints, etc., is nothing new. It has been that way since the beginning of the hobby, and I would suspect it will remain so. We will carry on.
Your reality is your perception. Not all see it your way.
That doesn’t make any of us right or wrong, it just makes us different in our views.
I don’t perceive an issue, unless you are trying to create one, and still not an issue to us freelancers.
We are going to do what we always have.
Would I do it again?
**** yes.
Still unsure of the point of the thread.
Seinfeld show?
The point of this thread is to talk about freelancing in the model railroad hobby. We enjoy talking about it. That’s why we come to this site.
What issue are you trying to create?
Not trying to create anything I am not the OP.
Comprehension is a plus, go back and read my reply again.
For those of you who created a logo for your railroad’s name, did you design it yourself? I see that one decal company will design one for a price. Has anyone tried that?
Thanks for the suggestion!
Have a nice rest of the day.
While I have modeled the NYC,PRR and C&O I have far more years freelancing my own railroad(s).
My Slate Creek Rail has nothing more then SCR under the number on the cab. Of course my Summerset Ry SW1500 came lettered for that road. My Huron River was made with Champ decal’s private name decals. My Columbus & Hocking Valley features custom made decals.
As a side note my second SSRy SW1500 will be in the new scheme, Black body,yellow frame, yellow safety stripes on the pilots and yellow lettering with SSRy under the number on the cab— when I get around to painting it…
I designed the STRATTON AND GILLETTE herald that is my avatar, and used on many of my freight cars.
For the first thirty years of the SGRR existence, there was no herald, just the roadname and the “Fast Freight Service” slogan.
The older forty foot boxcars have a different lettering scheme, and just have “Fast Freight” for a slogan in a larger size.
The “Comet Freight” decals were made about 10 years ago. Ron at Rail Graphics worked from my sketches to create a lettering scheme that was perfect for a 40 foot boxcar.
The herald artwork was designed by me, but the artwork was prepared by Ron at Rail Graphics. The Kadee PS-1 models received the multicolor herald as in my avatar.
Of course, there were a couple Kadee PS-1s that I painted before I had the herald made. These had a big S&G on the left.
Some freight cars, like this automobile boxcar have a modified version of the paint and lettering scheme.
Then there are other variations, like this insulated boxcar with a safety slogan, and a ribald vesion of the herald.
Ron really went all-out with helpful suggestions so that I could have all the variety I needed.
[quote user=“BRAKIE”]
My Huron Ri
I just do the old “One letter at a time” routine… yea… it kinda suck’s the fun out of it .But I get EXACTLY what I want.
You can find all kind’s of stuff at a swap meet. And, I have been known to just buy a pre-painted kit, and just re-paint it.
Now there’s a GOOD point ! With the way manufacture’s keep “dropping” their product’s it’s getting harder to get the exact match of paint. ( I got use to Floquill Tuscon Red, now it’s hard to get anything just like it without mixing paint myself.)
So I settled on Black with Red and White stripes for my Demon’s Hollow locomotive’s ( easy to reproduce ) and French Blue with Silver stripes for my Wylers Gulch locomotives ( I find I can mix French Blue quite easily.)
I got that in Spade’s !!!
I do the “One Letter At A Time” method to get what I want from time to time. I have always admired your work, I love the style of your modeling, your work is loaded with character and personality.
I use one letter at a time on most of my outside braced equipment.
-Kevin
Please present some factual evidence that there are fewer “consumer participants”.
Maybe true as a percentage of the population, but nobody knows for sure.
Nearly the entire model train industry is small privately held companies, production numbers and sales numbers are pretty closely guarded information.
But two things are for sure.
First, with each passing decade there are more prototypes for people to be interested in and for manufacturers to make models of. Even with growth that is proportional to the population, the market for any on
Yea, anything with outside braceing, or rib’s ( like gondola’s ) you kinda have to go one or two letter’s at a time.
Ah , … you mean “weathered” and " abused". LOL
Believe it or not, I can build a “shiny” new car/locomotive… from time to time …
But Rusty/Crusty is just waaaayyyyy more fun.
You should PM me and see about arranging a “hostage” swap.
So, regarding Kevin’s opening post, freelancing did seem more popular years ago. But I think the reasons varied as much as the individuals.
For some it was likely a way to overcome the lack specific models, but for others I think it was just like today, a creative outlet rather than being completely restricted by history.
Personally, I am a protolance guy. I want very much for you to believe the ATLANTIC CENTRAL, and its connections to the B&O, C&O and WESTERN MARYLAND.
But I fully appreciate what Kevin does as well. In fact I am very proud to have some STRATON AND GILLETTE equipment on the ATLANTIC CENTRAL as well as equipment from a number of other well known freelanced layouts past and present.
I’ve been at this hobby since 1968, several times I considered a prototype only approach, and I have to say, the closest I could ever get was freelanced locations with trains that said B&O.
I think more people go the prototype route today because they can. The wider selection of reasonably accurate well detailed RTR models makes that more possible.
But I model the WESTERN MARYLAND, I still don’t see any WESTERN MARYLAND passenger cars on the RTR market, or a reasonably correct Pacific to pull them from a non brass manufacturer.
I guess you still have to be a paint and lettering modeler to model the WM. About the same as being a freelancer…
Would I do it all over? Based on product availability concerns, I’m not sure I would even get into this hobby if I had to start over, let alone freelance.
But I already have a lifetime supply of stuff to build, stuff already built, etc.
Sure, I will buy more as my new layout gets underway, but unlike some, I have no interest in “upgrading” 50 years worth of collecting and building with new expensive models built by someone else.
To be clear, I do buy my share of RTR, but I also still build and run kits that are as old as I am, or older.
Happ
I did the one-letter-at-a-time for all 93 of my home-road passenger and head-end cars, mostly using dry transfers…
…and likewise, using either decals or dry transfers for most of my 78 locomotives, both diesels and steam…
…a few, however, got more simplified versions…
Wayne
I mean for me the first question with Freelancing is, why do it now? Maybe in an era when undecorated kits were more common it made more sense. I don’t really know if paint or decals is as big of an issue as OP suggested though; somebody with moderate digital skills and a proper printer can make all the decals they need at home these days.
First I should clarify that for this post, I refer to freelancing mostly in the “create an original and fabricated railroad” and not the other variant of “generic location but with prototype trains.”
But now… with so many ready to run high detail prototype products on shelves, I just don’t see the appeal of freelancing myself. The few times freelancing has intrigued me, it usually gets shot down when after a bit of research I find a real railroad in the location I wanted the freelanced railroad to go that I was previously unaware of.
However… with that said; I have a few friends who are very much into freelancing. What they get out of it is worth mentioning, since I think it perhaps explains best to somebody like me what the appeal of it is. They certainly seem to enjoy the challange of desiging graphics, plotting routes where there were none in real life, finding potential online customers, building locomotive rosters. I have one friend who has used Google to map out a hundred mile system of railroad lines for his freelanced route. I can’t deny, there is a satisfaction they are getting with that kind of freedom and chance to blend historical research and creative liberty.
Really the closest I ever came to freelancing was when I first discovered OO9 gauge. I sketched a railway that had a pseudo-Ffestiniog influence on a piece of paper and thought how neat it would be to import from Britain some Bachmann OO9 pieces someday for the railroad, besides since Bachmann lacked a lot of the Ffestiniog prototypes it made sense to freelance based on the limited market availability. The thought w
Travis, to follow forward some of your points, you mentioned that you have multiple “choices” of locale and Rairoad that interest you.
My response to “why freelance” is simple.
In my 50 years at this I never had any desire to build one layout of one prototype, then tear it down and build a different layout of a different prototype, etc.
In fact, only once in all these 50 years have I dismantled a layout just to change it, and even then I did not change the roads modeled, or theme, just the layout design.
So freelancing let’s me mix stuff, within reason, that might not work as well following a prototype.
Sheldon
Hi all
Well Model Railroading is a very broad church with a pew for everyone Toy Trains is a very seperate denomination as demonstrated by the seperate forum.
freelancing and protolancing are in my book two names for the same thing as the railroads don’t exsist except as a prototype in a basment or attic somewhere.
The same rules apply to propper model railroads and freelance ones end of story.
You only need point 1 and point 3 on your list any other car kit can be suitably spray painted to your livery and extra detail as apropriate added.
point 4 is irelevant unless building the Hobbiton & Isengaurd Central
Everything you need to build a freelance model railroad is avalable one way or another so no problem.
You can wallet permiting also get some very nice 3D prints something not avalable back in the day.
Anything not easy to get can squarely be laid at the feet of model railroaders for demanding ever better more detailed product ready to run in their favorite railroad colours also the I want it now mentality of many not wanting to assemble kits or scratch build or even just paint and decal models.
Manufacturers are in it for profit not our benefit so will only make what sells and this changes over time, so it was and so it shall always be.
I too have the veretable mountain of train supplies but there are as there will always be things that would be nice to have.
I don’t know would I build freelance again, I think mine is more mish mash central than freelance but yes I will continue with what I like and having fun.
It is all easily sumed up thus “if you are not having fun then you have the wrong hobby”
When it comes to model trains every one is going to do it their way and rule one always applies.
And if no one makes it a work around will be found somewhere somehow.
regards John