# Making A Herald



## jake3404 (Dec 3, 2010)

How or what did you guys use to make a custom Herald for your freelanced railroads?


----------



## W3NZL (Jan 2, 2008)

Being LS, its not only free-lance rail lines, its almost everything else too... One doesn't walk in to Ur LHS and buy 
a set of Micro-scale decals for whatever he wants to do, precious little of that in LS... I do quite a bit of that kind 
of thing, and years ago I anticipated my future needs, went to a decal maker with my designs and had many
sheets of heralds, logos, slogans, etc made up in different sizes, colors, etc... It was a big one-time expense that 
has proven to be a good investment over the years... I also make use of a lot of ready-made lettering in vinyl and 
dry transfers too... There R some guys that haunt these forums that make custom decals, vinyl, & dry transfers 
as well, they all do good work, look them up...
Paul R...


----------



## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Our graphic members will soon notice your thread. They do nice work and will get you fixed right up.


----------



## jake3404 (Dec 3, 2010)

I sort of made one. Although I would probably have a professional touch it up. I was more looking to add it to my signature line for now. I'm not ready to start getting decals.

Here it is










Now I need to figure out how to reduce and put it in my signature line...


----------



## JackM (Jul 29, 2008)

I had an old clip-art CD that probably cost me a buck or two at a flea market. The apple tree was about what I had in mind since I don't take the railroad toooo seriously (although Cheektowaga is believed to actually be native American for "land of the crabapple"). I used a Photoshop-type program that I downloaded free years ago to adjust the colors and crop the corners so I'd have a round design. 

I found the font on a free website that claimed to have 100,000 different fonts. Took me three evenings of looking through them all and finally settled on "Bamf Italic". Stan Cedarleaf does my decals; he magically bent the RR name into the drumhead form around the tree. 

JackM


----------



## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Torby on 02 Apr 2011 08:01 AM 
Our graphic members will soon notice your thread. They do nice work and will get you fixed right up. 
I noticed, Jake....







I can help... click on the link below for some sample stuff and email me if you'd like [email protected]


----------



## jake3404 (Dec 3, 2010)

Thanks Stan. I will probably do that soon


----------



## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

You can make signs and logos out of sticker paper and an inject printer. Even better, an injet printer and vinyl sticker paper. But you can't print white. You can also make your own vinyl lettering and designs using a cricut machine


----------



## joe rusz (Jan 3, 2008)

JackM, my Cheektowaga herald would have had a kielbasa in the middle  

On the other hand, my 80-year-old cousin lives there and could certainly qualify as a crabapple.


----------



## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Our Mr. Brades was so taken with my "Asylum Valley N&D" that he made a coat of arms for it that has become my railway's logo. As a boy in English schools, heraldry was a required subject. In American schools, we never studied anything so useful


----------



## jgallaway81 (Jan 5, 2009)

For me, it actually happened by accident. I really liked the bladerunner font, and thats where it started, for the "Freedom Central".

The keystone was actually a merger of two things I really like... the PRR and the American Freedom Train. The line through the star just happened to line up with the lineout through the words... poof, tender lettering all done!

Also makes a great banner for items at my FCR RailShop at cafepress: http://www.cafepress.com/fcr_railshop 
@import url(http://www.mylargescale.com/Provide...ad.ashx?type=style&file=SyntaxHighlighter.css);@import url(/providers/htmleditorproviders/cehtmleditorprovider/dnngeneral.css);


----------



## Big65Dude (Jan 2, 2008)

Jake,

First - you're starting out on the right track, calling it a "herald" (rather than a "logo") which is how railroads referred to their emblems.

Second - you're in the best place you can be to get the kind of input you need. You'll find a wealth of information on this subject, and any number of others, from the people who frequent this site.










Now, to offer some input myself. My railroad is the Dulles & Reston Garden Weeds RR [/i]- the "other" D&RGW. As part of its (imaginary) history, the locals came up with a cute nickname for the railroad (which often happened with short lines and such): it's "The Dandy Line" - [/i]get it? Dandelion - garden weeds?

To create the herald, I searched the 'net to find drawings of dandelions and found one that was simple enough to reproduce in miniature and still be recognizable. I used a drawing app on my iMac to come up with a typical herald layout (that might bear a purely coincidental [/i]resemblance to the one used by that other D&RGW RR) that incorporates the dandelion drawing.

I produced a color version (first) and then one in black and another in white for signs, rolling stock markings, etc. Now that I have these, all I need to do is scale them (make bigger or smaller) for a given model and send them to Stan Cedarleaf (see posting above) in .jpg format and he sends me back absolutely beautiful decals. (I highly recommend his services.) 










Here's what it looks like in white on a caboose.

Some final advice on your herald: keep it simple, keep it typical (of your era), and, above all, have some fun with it. 

I hope this gives you some ideas that you can use. Good luck with your project.


----------



## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

This is what the real Allegheny Valley used; 









A bit staid, but I haven't found/thought of anything I like yet. 

Many older shortlines never used a "herald" per se on their rolling stock at all. 
NCNG http://www.pacificng.com/imglib/main.php?g2_itemId=6342&g2_imageViewsIndex=1 
C&C http://www.pacificng.com/imglib/main.php?g2_itemId=3785&g2_imageViewsIndex=1 

Mine have plain lettering. There's a lot to be said for simplicity


----------

