Custom printing runs for your railroad

Please see these fine people for custom decorated Accurail rolling stock

Custom Decorated Runs from Accurail

Accurail can custom decorate any car in its line for groups or individuals. Our minimum run size is 48 Cars.

For a pricing quote, there is some important information we will need to know.

Car style: Example: Accurail's 3500-Series 40' Steel Boxcar or Accurail's 2200 Series 2-Bay ACF Hopper
Paint Color(s)
Printing color(s)
Total quantity of cars desired
How many road numbers (if more than one) The minimum quantity per road number is 48.
General description of the project and any other details. Please provide as much detail and/or graphics/drawings/photos as possible.

Graphics can be prototype or freelanced, almost anything that you desire (subject to the abilities or limitations of our printing process of course).
Our art dpartment is experienced in the replication of railroad lettering and can work from any reasonable photo, sketch, or sample. Accurail's extensive archive of prototype lettering and graphics is also available.

Here is a pricing example of a fairly simple paint scheme.
Car Style; 40' or 50' Wood or Steel Boxcar
Paint: Boxcar Red

1 Road Number
Qty 1 Color 2 Colors 3 Colors
48 $21.98 $23.08 $24.18
60 $21.76 $22.86 $23.96
72 $21.54 $22.64 $23.74
84 $21.32 $22.42 $23.52
100 $20.88 $21.98 $23.08
125 $20.33 $21.43 $22.53
150 $19.78 $20.88 $21.98

2 Road Numbers
Qty 1 Color 2 Colors 3 Colors
100 $21.72 $22.86 $24.00
125 $21.14 $22.29 $23.43
150 $20.57 $21.72 $22.86

The prices shown are estimates, not a firm quote, due to the fact that generally (but not always) one color means one printing hit. Depending on the size and location of the graphics, or the printing order necessary for certain colors to be registered to other color(s), it's possible that one or more colors might need to be split up into separate printing hits. For example, if printing is required on the far lower sill, it may need to be done as a printing hit on its own. Or if there is decorating at the extreme upper and lower car sides, it may also need to be split up to print properly. That would potentially require additional printing setups & cost, so all formal quotes need to be made once the overall graphics and their location on the cars are decided upon.

Logo, reporting marks, dimensional data, etc will be according to your notes and images or art you might supply to us. Artwork proofs would be to your approval before any decorating begins.

We can not guarantee precise paint or printing color matches. Mixing custom colors depends greatly on the base paint color we start with. If our base color leans a little colder or warmer, it may or may not be possible to get an exact match. We will try our best to match any samples, but please consider it to be an Industrial Match, or in simpler terms 'the closest we are able to get'.

Formal quotes include all artwork, painting, printing, packing, film negatives, printing plates, and printer setups. The only things not included are:

1) Shipping via Insured UPS Ground. There is no handling charge, only the exact cost for shipping from UPS.

2) Custom labels for the kit boxes (optional). We have white kit box labels available, sized 1 x 2-5/8" and can print just about any text or graphics on them that you'd like. Color or B&W same cost, printed and applied to the kit boxes 10 cents per label
The label cost would be added to the balance due at the end of the project, but please let us know when sending the deposit for the project whether or not you will want labels made so we can send label proofs along with the artwork proofs.

3) Decals: If you would like renumber decals for changing the road numbers on the cars, enough to renumber all kits are included at no charge.
These are typically only needed for cars representing a certain prototype, or where customers will be purchasing multiple cars and will want them to have different road numbers.
Decal sets are customizeable according to your needs. We can make a large block of numbers if all cars are intended to be renumbered and used for yourself or for a club.
Or a larger quantity of smaller decal sets can be made if the cars will be sold to customers who may want to purchase multiple cars and change the numbers on them.

Once a formal quote is given and a quantity is decided upon, a 50% deposit is needed to get the project started.
At that point we can start on the artwork for the car. We would send you proofs until you're happy with the artwork, which would then let us begin decorating the cars.
When the cars are done, we'll send you a photo of one of them, plus the balance invoice with the final quantity and exact shipping cost
Once the balance is received, we will promptly ship the cars and send you the tracking number for the package.

Production time can be anywhere from 60 up to 150 days, though we try to put a priority on custom runs as much as possible.
Much depends on which body shells we have in our inventory at the time of ordering, or whether certain styles will need to be molded.
If you have a deadline for needing the cars in-hand, please let us know in advance so we can meet the deadline (or determine whether it might not be possible in the available amount of time).

This is all fairly general information, but if you should decide that you might like to go ahead with a project, please send an email to accurail@accurail.comg.
We will be happy to get you a solid quote based on the information you supply to us.

Please note that 89' Flat Cars, Auto Racks, and 45' TOFC Trailers are no longer in Accurail's stock line and are not available for cusom runs.