Model Railroading > New Decals available through Highball Graphics

I continue to add to the list of decals available through Highball Graphics. These are sets I have done for myself or others. They can be done in HO and N scale.
They are available for any interested by contacting Jim at Highball Graphics directly.

Georgia Road recently added a seminar style program to increase signal recognition and operating rule proficiency. Operating Rule Fluency and Signal Awareness are constant issues with any railroad. Georgia Road created a voluntary program called "Respect the Red" to promote the critical need for all operating personnel to understand and correctly use the General Code of Operating Rules and interpret wayside signaling. The way to prevent costly collisions and run through damage to the right of way is not just PTC, but crews who are proficient in rules, well rested and committed to safe and efficient operation.
Remember to always RESPECT THE RED!

Also, I am working toward producing my first Eagle Flyer unit using an Athearn SD70M-2. This scheme was originally introduced on the new EMD SD70M-2 and ESD44C4 units. Many older units are getting the paint scheme as they cycle in for repairs. This service is some of the highest priority moves on the Georgia Road, hauling land bridge containers between the West and East Coast of the US. The APL: contract logo tells hostlers at the terminals not to reassign the units. There are high pay-off for timely service and heavy fines if the trains are late. You do not hold up container ships of the seventh largest shipping line in the world. The pool includes B40-8, C44-9B, CW44-9, SD70M, SD75M, SD40-2B, GP60 and GP60B units.

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There is also a set for the prototype modelers out there. I also completed some NJT diesel hood commuter units and the Aqua Train.

These are also available through Highball but you have to ask for them!

H in AL

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Your graphic skills and designs continue to blow me away-Excellent!!!!!!!!!!!

Mike Bannon
St Catharines, ON

georgiaroad Wrote:
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> There is also a set for the prototype modelers out
> there. I also completed some NJT diesel hood
> commuter units and the Aqua Train.
>
> These are also available through Highball but you
> have to ask for them!
>
> H in AL

THANK YOU!!! I have a set of tank cars, Tichy flat, and a IHP GP40FH-2 Shell put away just for this project. These decals will make the painting/decaling 100 times easier that i don't have to do the artwork for it!

georgiaroad Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I continue to add to the list of decals available
> through Highball Graphics. These are sets I have
> done for myself or others. They can be done in HO
> and N scale.
> They are available for any interested by
> contacting Jim at Highball Graphics directly.
>
> Georgia Road recently added a seminar style
> program to increase signal recognition and
> operating rule proficiency. Operating Rule
> Fluency and Signal Awareness are constant issues
> with any railroad. Georgia Road created a
> voluntary program called "Respect the Red" to
> promote the critical need for all operating
> personnel to understand and correctly use the
> General Code of Operating Rules and interpret
> wayside signaling. The way to prevent costly
> collisions and run through damage to the right of
> way is not just PTC, but crews who are proficient
> in rules, well rested and committed to safe and
> efficient operation.
> Remember to always RESPECT THE RED!
>
> Also, I am working toward producing my first Eagle
> Flyer unit using an Athearn SD70M-2. This scheme
> was originally introduced on the new EMD SD70M-2
> and ESD44C4 units. Many older units are getting
> the paint scheme as they cycle in for repairs.
> This service is some of the highest priority moves
> on the Georgia Road, hauling land bridge
> containers between the West and East Coast of the
> US. The APL: contract logo tells hostlers at the
> terminals not to reassign the units. There are
> high pay-off for timely service and heavy fines if
> the trains are late. You do not hold up container
> ships of the seventh largest shipping line in the
> world. The pool includes B40-8, C44-9B, CW44-9,
> SD70M, SD75M, SD40-2B, GP60 and GP60B units.

What does the FEC have to do with your line?

KV1guy Wrote:
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> What does the FEC have to do with your line?

I'm pretty sure that in the "Georgia Road" universe, the FEC is a merger partner or affiliate, as is the Illinois Central.

I think his graphics look great. The only thing I'd do differently is eliminate the quotation marks around the Driven to Service slogan. Well, OK, I'm not sure I'd use the MoPac eagle, either -- probably come up with my own. But that ship has apparently sailed.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/14 08:22 by toledopatch.

I was a long time fan of the MOPAC back in its last days. The APL eagle logo got me to thinking about coming up with my own, and I found a cool version on a MOPAC webpage, and the author of it actually sent me the base artwork. That was about ten years ago. When UP came out with the heritage unit, I figured I would find some way to adapt it in whole or part for the crack intermodal service for APL that I had by now branded the Eagle Flyer Service. This is my own shot at the ATSF SuperFleet scheme, which I always liked also. I am no innovative in my concepts, but typically take things I see, like or that make sense and work them around in new ways.

NSTopHat may actually recognize the Respect the Red slogan. It showed up on a red colored NS hat custom embroidered with the Alabama Division and NS logo with some simple signal drawings. I wonder if it came out of a rules class out of Atlanta. The hat was given to a poster on the Birmingham Railfan Facebook page and he had no details as to what it meant. I redrew the idea with double signals and the Never Say Die font that Georgia Road logos use and with a few graphical highlights came up with a purely hypothetical train service continuing education seminar that would be aimed at all sides of operational proficiency, even down to crew rest cycles and scheduling trains as it targeted both road service and operational management personnel. I remember the Operation RedBlock of the early 1990s. Respect the RED is the same idea. I am part of an ad-hoc freelance Facebook page and the idea seemed to take off. Several wanted to add the logo to a locomotive or two, so I did the decals in such a way that the logos could be used in several various ways. This program would be an FRA or AAR sponsored initiative. Some may remember the DuPont "Stop for Safety" program of the 1990s that was so well respected, it became an industry seminar and culture change initiative for anyone wanting to do it. This is something like that. For my use, it will be a random logo on a locomotive or two. I will likely put it on one of the SD25M helpers on the layout, another Georgia Road initiative to make old tired SD24s into modern rebuilds.

FEC is a part of the Georgia Road system in my concept. I read about Port St. Joe Industries wanting to sell FEC when it re-unionized in the late 1990s. NS was thought then to be a suitor, but the recession in Florida at the time and a lot of maneuvering seemed to kill the idea until Fortress got a hold of it--I believe it was Fortress--the old Railtex management... Someone feel free to correct me there. I worked on a T&S gang over the ATL-JAX SOU and GSF lines during the time. FEC was trying to run intermodal hops into Macon to reach ATL. NS was running APL and mixed containers into MIAMI and Ft Lauderdale. No one pays much attention to the seamless transition anymore, but in my days walking behind a TRI-10 it was a novel idea. I figured you take the old CofGA (my work district which NS was steadily gutting and abandoning),the KCS Artesia Secondary (that they leased to WATCO). add the IC and some trackage out "somewhere in Texas" and you get a lean little class one. The DME came in handy to get to the Powder River Coal Basin. Do you know how much comes down South from just north of Birmingham, AL all the way to points in GA and FL. Enough to pay the bills and then some!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/14 11:41 by georgiaroad.

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I like the alternative timeline for the Georgia Road acquiring FEC; it's logical.

Fortress acquired RailAmerica (not Railtex) and FEC independent of each other. There was a brief moment when it looked like FEC might be placed under the RailAmerica umbrella -- made manifest by four FEC locomotives delivered in RailAmerica colors -- but that was quickly squelched and the RA heralds were taken off those locos' noses.

One thing to note about your map: Some of what you show as DM&E was, in the real world, IC&E until CP bought both operations. This includes your crucial link between Dubuque, IA and Winona, MN that links the IC with DM&E lines -- as well as your system's access to the Twin Cities and the branch to Mason City and beyond. Most, if not all, of DM&E was ex-C&NW while IC&E was ex-MILW by way of Soo Line and I&M Rail Link. How you might credibly connect the IC and DM&E properties in your railroad's history depends on when you want to claim acquisition of DM&E occurred. It looks like you've already got IC&E's Sabula-Kansas City route covered as your "Eastern Gateway" component, so should I presume that in your scenario, the IMRL/IC&E never really happened and the ex-MILW between Sabula, IA and (perhaps) Elgin, IL was abandoned?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/14 17:00 by toledopatch.