The STRATTON & GILLETTE exists in an imaginary world with no real (prototype) railroads. This has led me down the path of creating all kinds of custom roadnames for my equipment.
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This project has been rewarding and enjoyable. I compiled an inventory of my equipment, and to my surprise, there are 92 ficticious railroads represented in my collection of equipment!
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I have painted all of this equipment myself with only four exceptions. Most of the decals I have traded for through the years, but a few were done one letter at a time. I still have decals for about another 50 different roadnames I have not used yet.
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Some of the roadnames have two, three, or four pieces of equipment lettered for the road.
You have more roadnames than I currently have freightcars on the layout! I thought that only 3 or so were cheesy, a couple others iffy. Not bad for made up RR names. Are those all of your own naming, or is it a collection from clubs and such? Dan
Back in the 1980s and 1990s, before the internet, Rail Graphics and Donald Manlick both had paper lists of people with custom roadnames that would trade with others. The recommended contact sequence was encumbering. You were supposed to contact one another via mail and work out the terms, then send decals. I did not want to work that hard.
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I would send people a set of STRATTON & GILLETTE decals with a self stamped addressed envelope. I would say simply please either return my decals or send me a set of yours.
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This worked great. I accumulated quite an impresive collection over fifteen or so years of doing this.
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In the late 1990s both Rail Graphics and Donald Manlick switched to lists of email addresses, so I had to contact via internet first. When this process started the number of successful decal trades went way down. My method worked so much better.
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Most of the cheesy sounding names came from a collection of decals I bought that once belonged to Whit Towers. FUMBLE & GRUMBLE, and UPP STAYERS & EASTERN both came from this collection. Mr. Towers saved all the correspondence that came with these decals, and they are quite a treasure. Using these decals, that are over 50 years old, is quite a challenge, but worth it.
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I only created a few of the names, LANGFORD & SOUTHERN and ATLANTIC CENTRAL are a couple of examples.
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Creating the paint schemes for all these lines is a fun sub-hobby all of its own. For the ancient decals that Mr. Towers saved, I feel obligated to follow the decal placement instructions.
You could dig up paper only operations or almost railroads but not quite. Mine is an almost but not quite. It was a planned prototype but didnt mane it out of the paper phase. Countless numbers of those
I have always been a combination prototype and freelance modeler.
And as noted by my screen name, am responsible for the parallel developement of the name ATLANTIC CENTRAL which I selected for my freelanced line in the late 80’s.
I have a number of the NMRA private road cars offered over the years, but have never gone the lengths Kevin has.
I was into exchanging passes way back in the day (1970’s) when I was just a teen, and still have my collection which includes a few famous well published layouts of that time.
I had a different freelance line back then, and actually printed my own passes in junior high school shop class.
Most of my home-mades are for companies served by my railroad, or offering products to my customers.
The Tannery uses hides which arrive in these last-stop-before-the-glue-factory Tichy box cars:
Salt for the tanning process arrives in this Bowser hopper:
My carfloat terminal is operated by the Westport Terminal Railroad, an homage to Wolfgang Dudler’s layout of the same name. Here are a couple of idler flats from Tichy.
And the tank engine that works the docks:
The Peter Witt trolley operated by the my Moose Bay Transit Authority:
This is one of the lines I created myself and applied letter by letter.
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It is a reference to my wife. She was born in Chicago, grew up in Gary, then moved South to Florida. Her father worked in the steel mills, so it has a steel load.
What I have setup currently is called the Erris & Spears after the area my family originated in Ireland and a surname in my family. They sounded like a good combination that could actually be real towns. The E&S doesn’t have any decals or painted equipment yet, but I’m in the process of looking for someone to do both.
Still in the works for my “future” layout is the Minnesota Southeastern which will be more proto-freelance than freelanced if possible. The MNSE will interchange with the DM&E and the C&NW/UP. I’m also looking forward to getting some decals and equipment painted for this railroad.
I really enjoy reading about and watching videos of freelanced railroads. The creativity with names, backstories, and equipment design fascinate me.
I also like the way ERRIS & SPEARS sounds. I think I will “borrow” that one for a piece of my equipment.
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This is another of my favorites I traded for. I like it because for a while when I was a child we lived along a “King’s Creek” in Gainesville, Florida. Of course, sometimes on the weekends we would drive to the Gulf of Mexico.
Larry, this is a picture of my OHIO & WESTERN boxcar. You can click the image for a larger view.
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I painted it myself. The boxcar is built from a Westerfield kit for an early ATSF double sheathed car. I honestly do not remember where I got the decals from. Do these look like they might have been made for the Marion Model Railroad Club, or did someone else come up with the same roadname?
Thanks for the link. Those are absolutely different OHIO & WESTERN decals than the ones that I have. I guess another modeler came up with the same name for his railroad.
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The club cars are way too modern for my 1954 railroad, bu the paint scheme would be perfect!
Of the approximately 130 or so freight cars, and maybe 35 locomotives in any and all stages of completion, I have decaled, let’s see here… Approximately…NONE!
Well, I have read a hunnerd times, ya paint your item it’s color, then gloss it before decals, decal it, and then dullcoat.
So I’d like to ask the guy who has processed more cars than I even own (oh, I’m sure there are many here), what specific brand of paints, and especially gloss do you like? I have enough decals to do about a couple dozen cars, and would like to get them as nice as yours.
I also like the color scheme of your diesels. Very sharp looking.
I prefer Scalecoat 2 paints for most colors, but I have problems with their yellows. For yellow paint the re are a few glossy colors in the Testors Model Master line that work well for me.
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Floquil had a few VERY GOOD glossy colors before they stopped production. CSX Gray, Wisconsin Central Maroon, and Wisconsin Central Gold were all excellent. I really hoped they would transfer the entire line to glossy, but they ended production instead.
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I have used Humbrol a few time because they offer so few glossy colors.
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I always use the same brand thinner as the paints I am using. I used Brake Clean and Mineral Spritis to clean the airbrush.
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I rarely use Future or Glosscoats. I prefer to use a glossy paint.
Thanks, Kevin. I still have a few of those Floquil enamels from way back when, inclusing some glossy ones. (store 'em upside down!) I’ll be doing batches too, though not as large as yours.
The diesels I originally refered to were the red and gray ones, but your yellow ones look great. With yellow, it’s all about the shade that makes or breaks a great color scheme.
I’m going to have to expiriment a bit for my freight cars, unless someone knows of a close match for box car red in a gloss paint. (?) Dan
