I'm looking on Amazon, but not for railroad logo sticker packs. I think I can do better than those.
What I'm investigating instead are clear vinyl inkjet-compatible sticker paper, and to a lesser extent. white vinyl or something equivalent with a glossy or semi-glossy finish. I figure I can pull down suitable logos using Google images, then vector-trace the artwork. yielding an image that can be re-sized without sacrificing quality. Knowing the size of the blank panel on the autoracks, I can then print the various logos on sticker paper/vinyl at the right size to fit the blank panels.
As for logos, I eyeballed some videos to see which logos are suitable for the yellow and brown (burgandy) paint schemes, either as a logo on clear or solid color that fits the single-panel blank. As an afterthought, I also started to add car numbers that I spotted the following logos on, links to examples of suitable logos.
Yellow car:
- Ferromex (black on clear) -- [example]
- Norfolk Southern (black "thoroughbred NS" on clear, 'NORFOLK SOUTHERN' spelled out under initials) -- [example]
- Norfolk Southern (black striped NS with 'NORFOLK SOUTHERN spelled out on two lines beneath initials) -- [example]
- CSX "boxcar" (black on clear) -- [example]
- CSX (black underlined on solid yellow) -- [example]
- CN (black initials on solid yellow with 'WWW.CN.CA' subscript) -- [example - missing subscript]
- CN (black 'noodle' CN on solid yellow) -- [example]
- CSX (black outline yellow letters w/underline on clear)** -- [ttgx 922161]
- TTX (red lettering on clear) -- [example]
- CN (red initials on clear with black WWW.CN.CA subscript)
- CN (red initials on clear with black 'WWW.CN.CA' centered beneath) -- [ttgx 702421]
- CN (black initials on clear with 'WWW.CN.CA' centered beneath)
- CN (red 'noodle' initials only on clear) -- [ttgx 986723, 975653]
- Canadian Pacific (white modern CP initials on solid red)
- Canadian Pacific (white modern 'CANADIAN PACIFIC on two lines, on solid red) -- [example]
Brown (burgandy) car:
- Conrail (white on solid brown)
- Norfolk Southern (black striped NS with 'NORFOLK SOUTHERN spelled out on two lines beneath "NS") -- [ttgx 993614]
Some schemes place their logos in places other than the Menards' car positions their blank. KCS places their logos on two panels on either side of the center, and BNSF has their logo on the right side, opposite where most other railroads placed theirs. Southern Pacific has theirs on two panels near the center, and some Conrail cars have a secondary panel on the left end with the "Conrail Quality" logo.
Decals can still be made for the "perforated" panels where the above logos would sit, but they'd likely have to be water-slide ones as simple adhesive "sticker paper" wouldn't conform to the panel contours, or would need a styrene plate to be glued over them for a flat surface. For the same reason I left out railroad logos that cover two panels, notably Union Pacific, some KCS and modern CP.
* done by printing the background color on white sticker paper/vinyl
** may need extra measures to get the yellow to show up clearly over a clear surface
---PCJ
