All,
I have noticed many shots of steam locomotives where the air tanks for the brakes and such have white writing on the sides of them… I am sure its tank size or PSI or such but i have not seen any decals for this in HO Scale. Anyone know exactly what some of them said (close up shot?) and who has decals for such?
Know i bet we have never talked about this before (grin)…
NC
The one thing I remember being stencilled on air resevoirs was the test date. Riveted resevoirs had to be taken down and hammer tested after a specified time (every 18 or 24 months?). Don’t know if the date stencil was a Federal requirement or not as seem to remember a lot of engines without the date.
That’s one problem of getting old - you’ve seen a lot of interesting things, but you can’t remember half of them.
As mentioned, the writing is test data. On the Microscale decal sheets which I have for CNR locos, they read, on four separate lines: HAMMER TEST / WATER TEST 160LBS followed by, on a third line, a shop symbol and test date, with the railroad (CN) on a fourth line. Oddly, on a similar sheet for CNR-affiliated lines (GT, GTW, CV, and DW&P) the first line, under a loupe, appears to read “MANAGER TEST”. [%-)] Maybe a wise-guy in the layout and printing department?
There’s also small data to be applied to the valve/piston covers. It reads, over the valve area, and on three lines: “MP / C4. 2. 55 / USP” and over the piston area, again on three separate lines: "MP / C4. 2. 55 / BS
I’m sure that Microscale includes this data on all steam loco decal sets. Champ includes air brake inspection data with at least some, if not all, of their freight car lettering sets. As you can see (or not), it’s not highly visible on either locos or cars:
Wayne