For those who might have done this before, Or Knows someone who has… what is the best way to remove the painted on heralds on factory painted locomotives? I have a Conrail painted Atlas SD35 loco that I bought a couple of years ago that I would like to remove the Conrail herald and the words Conrail from but retain the blue paint. I know no matter how I go about it I will have to touch up or repaint the loco once I’m done removing the loco heralds but I’m trying to find the best way to do it. I’m moving in the direction of having my own fictional line and have since started to repaint undecorated locos for my model railroad but I thought that having a few of my other locos would look like that my line bought these locos that conrail and other railroads thought were to old to up keep. Thx for any help u all can provide… Shawn
Because the Conrail logo is so big and white(which usually takes more than one pass at the printing) you are probably better off just stripping the whole thing and starting over. The other choice would be do what the railroad does - paint over the logo and add the new one.
When I get my layout I am going to run Southern modern day. I plan on patching anyhthing I want and the put the Southern logos on front and the name of the sides. I can’t wait to patch a BNSF swoosh. That paint scheme is awesome but Southern kicks butt.
I thought of just painting over the logo then decaling a new logo over the repainted old and you are correct that it would look prototypical but wont some of the old logo show through the paint? Not that it matters that much I guess but I would like to keep it as “Neat” as possible even though in the real life modern railroads are not neat with the repaints of merged equipment! Thanks for all the tips so far guys… Shawn
Don’t worry too much about being “neat” when painting-out old logos. The real roads aren’t too concerned about that either. For example, Penn Central and Conrail were well-known for doing this during their early years–PC would sometimes just apply their logo, and leave the original paint alone. Here are a couple:
Also keep in mind, that new paint can sometimes peel off, and reveal older lettering schemes. PC also had this, mainly because when they repainted some locomotives, the old, peeling paint was simply painted over, and the logos (usually decals) weren’t removed…leading to things like this: http://rr-fallenflags.org/pc/pc4322atd.jpg
Thanks for the tips… I’ll try my hand at painting over the logo first, If i wanted to strip the loco what products could i use that would be safe on the plastic but remove the original paint and logo’s.
91% alcohol is what I have been using with good results. Just let the shell soak in the alcohol for a hour or so and then take a toothbrush and wipe it off.
Easy-Off oven cleaner, as well as Castrol Super Clean (CSC)–the degreaser, not the concrete cleaner–can also be used to strip paint. Oven cleaner seems to work best if you put the shell in a plastic bag, spray, and then seal it up. You can leave parts sitting in CSC. Both can irritate skin, so use them with caution–use tongs to remove parts. One benefit of CSC, is that it can be reused multiple times…just use a funnel to pour it back into the container.
However, on Kato shells…some products will damage them. I haven’t heard of a 100% non-damaging solution, so I haven’t tried to strip the paint on one yet. Shame, since my green Southern E8 looks a bit odd on my Penn Central-themed layout