Railroad Fonts?

[Eboy87]

Hi all. I'm trying to teach myself reskinning, but I have a question about the fonts used. I'm trying to reskin some coaches into MoPac colors, but I have no idea what font was used on their equipment. I seem to remember a site dedicated to railroad fonts, though I think you had to pay for them, but I can't remember the site, and google is being unhelpful.

Does anyone happen to know: a) what font MoPac would have used on their Eagle trains and heavyweight cars, and/or b) where I might find a place to download said font?

Thanks guys

 

[Blutorse4792]

http://www.railsimstuff.com/

Here's a good start for fonts, though I don't know if any of those are what you're looking for. Admittedly, I don't know much about the Missouri Pacific.

Got a picture of exactly what you're looking for?

 

[Eboy87]

Here's an example of the heavyweight lettering. Unfortunately, pictures are hard to come by.

And here's a picture of a Colorado Eagle dome car.

I glanced through that site but didn't find what I was looking for. Thank you though, I'll keep it bookmarked.

 

[frogpipe]

Also, do a google search for "Railroad font" and check out the results. There will be both freeware and payware fonts - check licenses to be sure you can use them in artwork you release.

 

[whitepass]

Railroad Roman is the one I use the most, it's free on the web.

 

[StorkNest]

That font looks like the same one used for most railroads on their coaches from that era. While I have not done that specific lettering, I did find at times I could use a font close to it and I might have to resize the lettering with tools. In this case, some type of Roman font then squash the lettering vertically.

 

[JCitron]

As a former typesetter, I have a knack for identifying fonts. If you post a head-on view, I can probably get you the name, and if not a very close match. A good example is the Canadian National Railroad. They use Eurostyle for their logo and lettering. The old Southern Pacific used Futura or Frutiger (I can't remember offhand without looking at them), and outside of the custom logo its self, the Southern Railway uses what appears to be News Gothic or similar.

A nice free-font website is www.dafont.com. There are lots of fonts here, however you may not find what you're looking for, and the ones you want you'll need to purchase.

The alternative, if you don't want to pay for the fonts, which can be expensive, especially if you're only doing a one-off project, go to a website like www.fonts.com and type in the text you want in the Try It box. The text will be displayed in the font you want. Copy the pictured font (right-click on the screen, and choose copy), and paste that into your artwork. You might have to adjust the kerning (spacing) between the lettering to match the logo more closely.

John

 

[ulmer94]

RR Roman is probably the one you want for Eagle lettering, though.

 

[Eboy87]

Thanks everyone. Ulmer, I just found a site that said MoPac used Roman lettering and block numbers up until the Jinks scheme. I found a Roman font that looks spot on for numbers and letters. It's close enough for me. Thanks for the help everyone, I really appreciate it. Now to work on some passenger equipment...

 

[ulmer94]

Looking forward to it! Any MoPac and/or T&P stuff we can get!!

Whitepass' baggage cars and Pullmans, and diecastgalore's ACF coaches make great canvases, by the way. Just FYI in case you haven't discovered them yet.

 

[davesnow]

Union Pacific uses "cityof" if you're ever interested. It can be found by Googling. It's fairly common out there.

I've notived several reskinners who reskin stuff for UP use the wrong font.

Just FYI,

Dave

 

[StorkNest]

As a former typesetter, I have a knack for identifying fonts.

Well, if you have the time, it could be an interesting and helpful project to make up a file or webpage where you list Railroads and the best Freeware and Payware fonts for them. That is a lot like the sites listing railroad colors and such. Up to you though.

 

[JCitron]

Well, if you have the time, it could be an interesting and helpful project to make up a file or webpage where you list Railroads and the best Freeware and Payware fonts for them. That is a lot like the sites listing railroad colors and such. Up to you though.

Let me think about it, and see what I can do. I'm not sure of any timeframe though. This is quite a project that will take quite some planning and thinking about before it's implemented.

I did have an offer from my brother to help us which I will confirm with him if he's still interested. I'll see what he has to say.

John

 

[pdkoester]

What font(s) for Sacramento Northern 712, and Western Pacific 725? These are GP7 and GP9 units.


Well, thanks to a tool called "Find my font free", I did get what I need, and for free.

The word "Sacramento Northern" is the VoltaT_Bold.ttf (truetype font) and the number looks like Stymie_Becker_Black.ttf (truetype font) in case anyone wanted to know.

:wave:

Paul