Those little bitty car numbers on the end of a freight car, at the top of the ends - do y’all decal those when you renumber a car, and where do you get the super small decals? I’m in HO, and am looking at an car renumbering project on some cars so I have greater numbers of types. Specifically, I’m looking at renumbering some Walthers Ortners aggregate cars, Trinity cement cars and some coal hoppers…
Any pointers appreciated…thanks!
You mean the end? The side numbers are the ones everyone looks at, while the end numbers are on the end, where the couplers are. I would just leave them off, most people wouldn’t notice.
I shouldn’t talk though, as I have a set of Impack units with (side) reporting marks on one end only (it’s an articulated intermodel car) and no numbers anywhere… It’s a good thing the person who painted them did it for free![:-^] I don’t mind though… I don’t know how to apply decals anyway,so mine would probably run around completely unlettered for a while until I got around to finishing them off…[swg]
Forget decals. This is a job for dry transfer numbers and letters because you can line them and space them and burnish them done individually.
If you do want to use decals, you need to print tem yourself so you can create the excat number you want to go on that car.
I model in N-Scale and I also have averal cars with the same number on them that I need to change to different numbers. I am still looking for a dry transfer number set of the proper aize and color to do the job.
Irv
OOPS! you’re right, had a brain drain - it is of course the end of the car, not the side. [D)]
Thanks for the correct - and I’ve changed the thread title.
Yeah, that makes sense dry transfers - but where does one get them that small for those end car numbers? Or should I just not worry about it - but all my other cars have end numbers and it seems to be a RR prototype requirement!
I knew what you meant when you said numbers on the end at the top, surprised so many didn’t.
Anyway, I change the itty bitty numbers on the end at the top when I have just a couple of cars that were renumbered. On grain cars/unit trains, I don’t, but I “dirty” them up so they are not too legible and let them go. In some cases the manufacturer makes several different numbers for the same car/road name, and I try to keep two with the same number apart. Otherwise, I would rather operate than have a coronary at the workbench changing the itty bittys of life.
Bob
After you have scratchbuilt a car and dealt with the grab iron holes, NBW castings, and rivet castings, a few small numbers are no big deal. Getting the right capacity numbers and builder’s stencils on the car, now that is the tricky part.
If you buy a decal sheet for a car, they should have the small numbers for the ends.
Dave H.
Microscale has decal number sets http://www.microscale.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=ALPHA .
Woodland Scenics has dry transfers in different fonts, each sheet has several different sizes, they only have a few colors, but white, black, yellow, red are some of them. http://www.woodlandscenics.com/items.cfm/DryTransferDecals
Those itty bitty end numbers can be a little tricky to do, but not impossible.
I had some old Athearn Santa Fe reefers. Then I purchased some new ones. The new cars had end numbers printed on. My old cars did not. I wanted the fleet to match so what could I do?
I looked through the many decals in the old decal box, and found out that the Microscale Santa Fe Ice reefer decal set has the small itty bitty numbers in the right Santa Fe font on a small almost “extra” set of decals included with the main set. Not too hard to do really, but I would advise using some form of magnification.
Here is a link to the decal set I purchased:
I’m betting most of the Microscale decal sets have the small end numbers for the particular cars. If you can find a decal set for your roadname go for it, more then likely the small end numbers are there.
Dry Tansfer numbers and letters sets should be available thru most stores that deal with artist supplies. Years ago they were also carried by many hobbyshops. In fact I remember them being available for sacle models of aircraft, ships and tanks. One company was called Letraset but I haven’t seen them in years and I haven’t visited the local Michaels either.
I would think this would be something that would be a good seller to those of us in this hobby who aren’t interested in working with messy decals.
As for putting numbers over the couplers, while they may be necessary in the real world, I don’t think they make any difference in the way we use our rolling stock on out layouts especiaslly in the smaller scales like N or Z.
Irv
When renumbering cars, I do what the protype often does and patch number them (the number on a patch the same or a contrasting colour of the car), as I make my own decals, it is no problem, if you are interested to know more please PM me.
Much easier to apply one complete decal than try lining up separate numbers.
Teditor
HO? Itty bitty numbers? Ah, quit your cryin’!
2 point numbers on an N scale hopper! The other lettering is 1 point!
I had someone run some decals for me on an ALPS printer. I set up the art, he prints it out. That allows me to set up the numbers so there are as few cuts as possible. As you can see, it’s still tricky to get everything just so.
If you go with dry transfers, get some decal paper and set them up on there. It’s hard to align dry transfers on a 3-D surface…
I wouldn’t leave them off… that’s a cop-out. You might as well leave off the brake wheel…
Lee