I have a question for the Canadian guys on here. I’m modeling the CN/GTW and am trying to locate MOW decals. I’ve tried my local hobby shop, M.B.Klien’s, etc., and only found a few decals for freight, hoppers, and locomotives. Any suggestions? Gerry S.
For what era and what particular equipment do you need lettering? Most MoW equipment that I’ve seen didn’t have a lot of lettering - usually the road name or reporting marks, and a number. Occasionally, the purpose of the car (Bunk Car, Blocking Car, etc.) would be included, and, of course, safety markings appropriate to the era.
The Champ catalogue shows a lettering set for a wrecking train, which could be combined with a CN or GTW roadname set.
Wayne
I would check around for CDS dry transfers or contact Black Cat decals to see what they recommend.
David B
I’m a member of a historical group that owns an old CN baggage car that was formerly in work service in Northern Ontario. It’s painted light grey and has absolutely no lettering other than the car number.
A lot of other work equipment may just be older freight cars demoted to work service. These would be in their previous paint still, with the number changed to a work series number (pretty much anything from 10000-99999 on CN)
If you’re looking for specifically work items like snowplows, I second the recommendation to look into CDS dry transfers (which is out of business now, but some dealers like TMR Distributing may still have some stock on hand) or Black Cat decals.
Also, take a look here for some work equipment photos on CN:
http://freight.railfan.ca/cn.html#mow
http://freight.railfan.ca/hbry.html (pretty much all their stuff is ex-CN)
Just to clear up a common misconception, C-D-S is no longer producing dry transfers: however, they still have quite a few sets in stock. As far as I know, though, they have nothing specifically for MoW equipment.
If you want “CN”, “Canadian National” and an assortment of numerals, your best bet would be sets such as #4, 12, 30, 73, 257, 470, 522, 559, all for older (pre-noodle) freight cars, as these contain lettering schemes for more than one version of the same car, meaning duplicates of some lettering. For the “noodle” era, the only multi-version set which I saw in my catalogue was #72, for steel cabooses.
Wayne
Sorry, I should have been more specific about my needs. I found an old Bachmann set of a crane car and flat car at a train show that was in PRR livery. I stripped, resprayed them in CN orange (from color photos found at the site mentioned above), and want to decal and stripe the crane with the “noodle” type lettering as I’m modeling the 80’s/90’s era (I also converted the crane from steam to diesel). I thought there might be a Canadian supplier that I don’t know of (I’m in the U.S.). I’ll try the resources mentioned, and thanks for your help. Gerry S.
The views of the wreck crane shown in my b&w photos were taken, if I recall correctly, sometime in the mid-'80s, so well-within the noodle era. Any of the older sets which I mentioned would work for the lettering. As for the striping, if you can’t find suitable decals, it shouldn’t be too difficult to mask and paint them.
Wayne