I have lots of rolling stock (and some locos) I want to reletter and renumber-- just to talk numbers lets say 200-250 hoppers, 100+ boxcars, lots of gondolas and other cars, and some engines (mostly diesel or electric but some steam).
Whats the best way to go about this? Is there a hidden secret I oughta know?
I’ve looked into decals and dry transfer sheets and they are very expensive. Okay to do a car or two that way but will likely bankrupt the railroad (and probably me along with it) to do 300-400 cars.
I’ve been looking into the idea of making my own dry transfers but can’t find any real good info on how to do it… anybody know anything about that? The commercial services appear to be about as expensive as just buying the pre-made sheets!
I’m not really fond of decals plus they’re kind of a pain (for me at least) to do well.
I’ve been reading about how the mfgrs do it-- “hot stamping” and “pad printing”-- are either of these feasible ways to go? Where can I find more information on any of this stuff???
Has anybody else had to reletter/renumber that many cars? What was your method? How long did it take and how did it work out? Any problems with appearance or longevity?
you may only be able to as long as time and money permit. that would go for decaling. you could also design and make your own using blank decal sheets(sold by Walthers)
If you are wanting to letter 300-400 pieces of equipment for your home road that implies you must have total roster of 600 to 1000 cars, since only about one half to one quarter of your cars are typically home road cars.
If you talk to the model manufacturers they will custom letter cars, but they provide the cars, they won’t letter cars you already own.
How are you planning to strip and paint that many cars anyway?
Do what the prototype does when it acquires a fleet of someone elses cars. Paint a rectangular block of color over the existing numbers and then put new numbers in the block. For what it is worth, I numbered 24 unit train hoppers by printing a series data blocks on a sheet of paper and then used a draftsmans lettering stencil to add the numbers. Then I cut them out and glued them to the car sides. Either people are very polite or they never noticed what I did. By theway, you can get just about any style lettering stencil for a few bucks. Cheaper and easier than decals. You can even set your printer to give you a colored background if you want.
There are a number of small operators who can make decal sheets from your artwork. I have a fairly large fleet of hoppers myself, some I’ve lettered for my freelance short line, and others I just need to re-number. I had sheets made up that included new numbers, including markings for the car ends, as well as the shortline lettering.
It can be pretty tedious, but if you have things organized, and have enough printed to get you going, it can be done. I think I paid about $10 for an 8-1/2 x 11 sheet of white decals. You can get a lot of N scale decals on a sheet like that!
I laid out the lettering in MS Word, and sent the file to the guy.
For me it depends on what era the car is. Most of the time I try to be prototypical so I make sure when I renumber the car/s it will have a correct number. Most times I can get away with removing one number and replacing it with a decal number that matches the factory lettering. Some of my more modern cars I have put graffiti over part or all of the number and then painted a new number over or near it like the prototype does. Other times, I will obscure part of the number with weathering and paint a rectangle of a fresher color and apply new decal numbers. If you are going to renumber that many hoppers it sounds like getting a custom decal sheet made would be the way to go. The HO club I am a member of requires that the cars we want to run on the layout for Op. sessions not to have duplicate numbers and they must be legible. In Nscale I have a bunch (30+) PFE refers that I need to renumber. Most are from the same mfg but I can’t do the single number replace trick on any of them because the decals don’t come close enough. I’m not looking forward to renumbering 30 cars. 200 cars, wow. Better you than me.
I bought some commercial solution designed to remove lettering and decals. Several people said it works pretty well so I figured I’d give it a try-- if it doesn’t work I’ll see if I can think of something else The stuff I got is “Joes Gel and Decal Remover” from this site: (http://www.joesmodeltrains.com/products.htm). I haven’t had a chance yet to try any of it so I can’t speak from personal experience yet.
That may be the best way to go. To be more specific, I have a large number of hoppers, boxcars gondolas, etc that I would like to reletter/renumber to PRR. They are already appropriately colored (boxcar red, black, whatever) and just need the original name, logo and abbreviation redone (I can live with the remaining marks) and I would like to renumber them as well. Don’t care (much) if they match or not original Pennsy cars but I would like them to be individual on my layout. I know there are commercial decal mfgrs that sell ready-made decal sheets (and probably dry-transfers too). Item one: I suck with decals and don’t really want to use that method. Item two: irrespective of item 1, that many decals/dry tansfers/whatever is gonna cost a lot of money, even in bulk, and I’d rather put that money toward my layout. Those commercial places just want way too much money. I could live with the cost if I was just gonna do one or two cars but not the volume I’d like to do.
If I can’t find a low-cost method to achieve my goal, I’m almost of a mind to sell the current cars on ebay and buy replacements already in PRR livery. But I don’t know how much time that would actually save me either since then I’d have to sit and comb ebay for days and months on end. And then hope I could find what I want for a good price. (sigh) Its always sumpthin, isn’t it?
The thing you are going to have to work out is if you will ever be satisfied with relettering and numbering them for the PRR. Some day you may get to the point you aren’t satisfied as they won’t be prototypical and if you think that may happen save the ones that would have run on the PRR and start a collection that is of PRR equipment. You may as well bite the bullet as early as possible and save all the work. By the way, do you subscribe to the Keystone Modeler? Great free publication for us PRR aficionados. You can sign up on the PRRT&HS web site.
That’s also a good point about the prototypical numbering. I might not care now but you’re right, in the future I could change my mind-- and that’s a big chore so doing it right the first time is probably better.
The stuff I got is “Joes Gel and Decal Remover” from this site: (