Railroad.net Logo Development

Hello

We are working on developing a new logo for Railroad.net. As part of the design, we want to know what you think of when you think of railroad.net, BESIDES the obvious "trains" lol.

What we mean by this is, for example, when I think about railroad.net, I spent most of my time on the Amtrak, commuter and rail by regions forum.

So share some things with us and we will use that feedback to develop some logo drafts which you'll have a chance to vote on.

Quick 10-min rough sketch. The idea is to have the end of a freight train slightly obscuring a Milwaukee Road Skytop with "RAILROAD.NET" on it. No mascots, just train cars. I probably would go longer to show off the Skytop. The sketch is just a rough idea and I would be definitely changing it.

It would be tempting to get Tom Coletti (Wings and Strings) to render a final version of what we do decide. They did the cover for my first book.

+1 for Art Deco style logo bursting with color. Something that would stand out as a favicon.

railroad net.

How about a net lifting a loco onto tracks?

Greg,

Personally, I spend nearly all my time in the MBTA forum. My main interests are the rapid transit system and history of local lines and former lines.

Do you have a sense of what you're trying to convey with the logo? Sounds like you're thinking letters shaped like trains would be a little too on the nose for what you're looking for.

Ted

When I was faced with this for trainsim.com, I ditched the masthead logo entirely, and went with a rotating site theme that changes 3x daily and honors fallen flags as well as legacy colors for some of the active railroads... the masthead uses the closest font to that theme's railroad.

Folks can select the livery they like but most have stayed with the default rotating themes.

Not suggesting you steal my idea, but just showing it doesn't have to be a logo to give the site a facelift or rebranding.

Sent from my SM-S911U using Tapatalk

eolesen wrote: ↑Mon Nov 25, 2024 12:10 am When I was faced with this for trainsim.com, I ditched the masthead logo entirely, and went with a rotating site theme that changes 3x daily and honors fallen flags as well as legacy colors for some of the active railroads... the masthead uses the closest font to that theme's railroad.

Folks can select the livery they like but most have stayed with the default rotating themes.

Not suggesting you steal my idea, but just showing it doesn't have to be a logo to give the site a facelift or rebranding.

I like that idea in conjunction with my earlier idea -- have a passenger rail car on a track behind a freight car, with "RAILROAD.NET" on said car. Rotate through various liveries and cars, with a few slots for freight, classic caboose, and some fallen flag cars... as well as engines.

Do we have a size limitation on the logo?

A "cow catcher" could be sufficiently iconic.

Searching google "railroad website logos" returns this wealth of ideas:

https://www.istockphoto.com/illustrations/railroad-logo

Quite interesting that companies have stock images for this purpose. What a wonderful place the internet is.

Personally, I spend my time in the Amtrak, New England and CSX/Pan-Am forums, with the occasional dip into Brightline because I think the whole project is cool even though I haven't ridden on it (I did see the Orlando station at MCO warlier this month, though)...

Do you still have the old steam engine logo with the red and white letters that used to adorn the homepage where editorial content lived?

Hello all, Just thought to submit my rough drafts. I have consulted on some logos for television and
radio stations in the past as well as some corporate stuff.

Been thinking about this for a couple weeks and just drew what made sense and then turn it in and
see what everyone thinks.

Of course the final logo should be somewhate stylized, handsome and not generic.

Again, just my rough ideas.

Thank you, GRSdave.

and...

Dave - Using the yellow R/R Crossing sign looks too much like the Virtual Railfan logo:
https://virtualrailfan.com
Railroad.Net does not need any possible legal or copyright problems in this instance...

I like the idea of a traditional white crossbuck with black lettering with this text on each portion:
RAILROAD.NET (front) and RAIL FORUMS (rear on each side)
The words "DOT NET" just appears awkward to me...

Another thought mentioned previously is to have a silhouette of a well-known locomotive with
the single appropriate color on a rotating basis with "RAILROAD.NET" in white horizontally:
Examples: PRR GG1 in Tuscan Red; Rock Island E unit-in Red; UP Big Boy in Black...
Keeping Railroad.Net's original two F unit logo can be used again in this rotation...
We should be able to find a logo of some type that we can all at least agree with...MACTRAXX

A thought - in the general public's mind, the front outline of an F-Unit is fairly synonymous with the idea of "train/railroad" - that's what's used on highway signs pointing to train stations. What about combining that with a speech bubble to symbolize discussion forums? Something along the lines of this https://www.usa-traffic-signs.com/v/vsp ... -7_s-2.gif combined with this: https://c8.alamy.com/comp/H2PF4N/train- ... H2PF4N.jpg