I am building my own model railroad in our basement in HO and I am going to make my own railroad. It is going to be the railroad for the little firewood company that my dad and his cousin have been runing for 10 years. They are getting bigger and buying trucks and trailers, but on my layout they are going to be huge and have their own railroad to move firewood, wood chips, and lumber. I am trying to learn how to paint but I havn’t got even close yet. Here is the sceme I for the locos I am planing to use.
If you click on the picture it looks clearer
Do you think it looks good and kinda prototypical? Thanks give me your comments.
Not to bad for a first attempt. I just have a few things to comment on. First, the railroad’s name should be enlarged a little more, or even replaced with a large logo. And the numbers on the side of the cab, I suggest that if you plan on using one and two digit numbers (ie: 1-99) don’t put any zeros and centre the number bellow the windows. Finally, I would add a second, accent colour to paint things like the fuel tanks, perhaps a logo on the nose or a stripe down the side. This will give your locomotives a little more visual intrest and won’t look too bright (although the UP and the BNSF did paint many of their loco’s bright yellow and orange. Even the Canadian National painted many of it’s loco’s olive green in the 40’s and 50’s.) Ultimately it’s your railroad and just as I listed, many other railways have used similar colours as you have. I just suggest an accent colour to give a small amount of variety and you will have the best-dressed logging railroad in the nation! [:)]
Very nice, and not at all inappropriate for a privately owned industrial short line (which probably wouldn’t go in for a fancy logo.)
For the modern era, I’d suggest alternate red and white striping along the edges of the walkways. (The prototype would use Scotchlite(c) to reflect oncoming headlights at night.) The basic scheme looks dark, and would tend to disappear after sunset, so you want something to keep the visually challenged motor vehicle pilots from t-boning your loco.
(Says he, whose steam locos are flat black with brass number plates and grungy machinery and wheels!)
Virnex makes a number of different colors and types of stripes that work well and are easy to use, you might consider adding some safety chevrons on the front and back and maybe a stripe along the side of the frame (i.e. along the side of the walkways) in white or yellow or orange. Using decals you really only have to spray the locomotive one overall color.
Otherwise it looks good, most industrial owners in recent times tend for fairly simple paintschemes. I like the green myself but for safety reasons some owners would tend to paint the engine yellow or orange or something similarly bright to make it standout…but many companies just paint their equipment in the “company colors” whatever that may be.
Also bear in mind that, if you are modelling current practices, locomotives are required to have yellow or white reflective material on their side sills and ditch lights (or, more properly, three headlights arranged in a triangle pattern, but that equates to headlight and ditch lights). You might also consider a light color (white) on the cab roof to reflect heat.
Nice job! May I make a suggestion though? All-green locomotives sometimes ‘disappear’ when photographed next to lots of trees. Would a darker color, such as PRR “Brunswick Green” (Dark Green Locomotive Enamel to the PRR fans) work?
I second the motion to lose the zeros and center the numbers under the window of cab.
Some of the most interesting desiels are those with end stripes in a Zebra Pattern but I think that they are most difficult to install. Maybe I am a coward, but today’s models look really well done.
The safety stripe/zebra pattern should be available as a decal, I think Virnex makes them, maybe Microscale too??
Remember too that if this engine is only used ‘on the property’ by an industry, the rules/regulations that apply to an actual railroad might not apply.
I think it looks fine, but I’d change a few things. Add scare stripes in white on both pilots, and nose and long hood, if you could, plus a white stripe down the whole sill from steps to steps. Lastly use single digits or the date the unit was purchased by the road(month/year) as road number, and use capital letters for whole name.
It may not just be used on property but will not go very far from the company. I love the idea for useing PRR green (big pensy fan too). I will make some changes and post the final copy of the drawing of it.
Keep in mind PRR Brunswick green is much darker than your illustration. Brunswick green is about as close to black as you can get and still be green !!
I’d be tempted to add a white stripe just below the rear grillwork going all the way around the cab, and moving the name down a little. But that might be a little old for what you’re doing, EMD designers did that a lot in the fifties when they were helping railroads create their paintschemes.
Looks good, but I especially with that dark green I would add some striping or an alternate color, maybe a white or yellow or orange stripe cutting across horizontally.
BTW is this going to be like a logging railroad, going up into the hills to bring down raw materials, or ?? If not, it probably wouldn’t have a private name like that, the RR would be incorporated as a railroad. It would probably still use the ‘company colors’ so there would be some similarity there.
For example, Ford had such huge factories that it had a pretty goodsized fleet of “Ford” labelled switchers, but for mainline trains (to haul parts etc. to the factory, and cars out) it incorporated the DT&I RR. (Detroit Toledo & Ironton).
all the “advice” eveyone is giveing you is taking away from what should be YOUR OWN personal creation… freelanceing leaves things up to YOUR imagianton… what ever you want it to be… do what you want and makes YOU happy… not what eveyone else wants you do to with it… just my thoughts
It will be sorta a logging railroad (they will bring logs froms the companys logging camps, to there lumber mills, and the lumber will be interchanged into the larger railroads, and the wood chips will be moved from the lumber mills to one of the companys paper mills and then take the paper and interchange it with larger railroads) but I have a couple questions on this note. How were wood chips transported in the 50’s and 60’s, and do the logging camps have to be in the mountains? Thanks
By 1950, most logging operations would be in mountains/hills because farmers have a pesky habit of moving onto the flat land and clearing away all the trees from it. But nothing says that your granddad could not have been inspired by the Civilian Conservation Corps (or another 1930’s era government program) to plant a forest on flat land, planning to harvest the lumber in about 25 years - just in time for your layout.
