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was just curious if anyone has made a fictional railroad stock certificate using there fictional railroad's name?
Im tossing around the idea to make one in photoshop based on an idea in my head. Some might think its a lil crazy but i think it would be cool lets say for members of a large HO club or something.
When I was a teenage model railroader last century (!), many model railroaders made passes for their railroads, just like the real railroads did. Many exchanged passes with other modelers, myself included. Some pass exchangers also exchanged stock certificates, or sent them along with their passes. I still have all of my passes (over 1000 from all over the world) and the few certificates I received over the years.
A few years ago I made one for my Fundy Northern, using a real certificate that I scanned and removed some of the text and replaced it with mine. Took a long time to I do recall. But I only printed the one copy for myself. Not sure even where it is now, buried on one of my backup CDs somewhere.
I too, have a few passes & somewhere I have a stock certificate from a MR Club in Miami from the early 60's, but, finding it would be like looking for a track connector in a 5# bag of track ballast.
A stock certificate is a usually ornate piece of paper or vellum that showed the company name, the number of shares that were purchased in the company, by whom, and on what date. Railroads and mining companies were noted for the very ornate and beautifully engraved stock certificates they issued. There was usually an inverse relationship between the value of the company and the beauty of their stock certificate. Stock certificates are mostly a thing of the past since most stock is held by brokers and they are just entries in a computer database. If you ask for a stock certificate now, you are likely to get a plain old computer print out.
I do remember pass exchanges. They used to be listed in the back of MR and MRC and I probably got several hundred as a teenager. I also got a few stock certificates in model railroads. Given how easy it would be to make passes and stock certificates on a computer today, it would be a nice tradition to see start up again.
Very cool guys. Im glad i wasn't a nut for thinking about this. Now I just need to figure out what font that alot of these railroad companies used back then to try and create a mock certificate up.
Most stock certificates were printed by the American Banknote Company. If you go to e-bay and search for stock certificates, you'll see that there were a wide variety of fonts used for the company names. In general, most of the fonts were some form of Gothic Shadowed with some embellishment but not as much as the second two fonts you used. The company wanted to make sure their name looked elegant but readable. The first one is the closest but look for a font called Engraver MT. That font, combined with shadowing in Word, is a very typical stock certificate font.
Most stock certificates were printed by the American Banknote Company. If you go to e-bay and search for stock certificates, you'll see that there were a wide variety of fonts used for the company names. In general, most of the fonts were some form of Gothic Shadowed with some embellishment but not as much as the second two fonts you used. The company wanted to make sure their name looked elegant but readable. The first one is the closest but look for a font called Engraver MT. That font, combined with shadowing in Word, is a very typical stock certificate font.
How do you do shadowing in word? Im playign around with it and cannot find it. It's been years since i've used word other then just making up some boring lists.
EDIT: Figured it out. But didn't really do much. Im going to print out one of the stock certificates I like and bring it to a decal shop. There's a few places around here by me that are pretty good at figuring out the fonts. Plus i want to see if they can make some decal stencils for the NYSW stuff im working on. Instead of trying to find decals, make a decal sheet, trace it out on some thin styrene or something and use it as a template.
Sounds like a good idea to me. Shadowing in Word works best if you have good photo printer than can print white ink. You can accomplish something similar by using a thin dashed line for the shadow but it won't looks as good.
Here is a railroad stock certificate. Actual size is 8-1/2 x 12-1/4 and it's printed on some sort of fancy paper - similar texture as a dollar bill but thicker and more stiff.
I think you could make one these easily in Word using similar fonts and borders.
Stock certificates are mostly a thing of the past since most stock is held by brokers and they are just entries in a computer database. If you ask for a stock certificate now, you are likely to get a plain old computer print out. 
