oil industry decals

[electrical whiz kid]

Greetings, all;
I recently acquired some tank cars whose origin shall remain nondescript, other than they are pretty old.  In tackling these beasts, the thought occurred to me [that] there might be a source of oil company type decals, HO scale.  Would anyone have knowledge of same?
Rich C. 

[Doneldon]

Rich-

You can scan old ads and then print them on decal paper.

                                                                            -- D

[electrical whiz kid]

Don;
This works well with a printer that can pick up white and other light colours.  I believe they are called "Arctic" printers?  A lot of the colours are in the lighter range.
Rich C.

[ACY]

This works well with a printer that can pick up white and other light colours.  I believe they are called "Arctic" printers?  A lot of the colours are in the lighter range.

Actually the brand is Alps not Arctic. The Alps printers have white ink cartridges which allow them to print white decals.

[ebtnut]

And, unfortunately, the Alps printers have been off the market for a number of years, with no suitable (i.e., white printing option) available. 

[ACY]

And, unfortunately, the Alps printers have been off the market for a number of years, with no suitable (i.e., white printing option) available. 

You can occasionally find used ALPS printers online but they will run you $500 at a minimum for just the printer. Finding the ink is extremely difficult, so unless you know someone with a stockpile of ALPS ink cartridges (especially white) then there is no point in buying the printer. The ink if you can even find it, is not cheap either especially now since it is so scarce. There is also the option of buying a laser printer for $5000+ but usually no one would unless they had a commercial use for such printer and not for personal or small scale use.

As far as printing white decals go, unless you already have an Alps printer with plenty of white ink there are no viable options unfortunately.

[Desertdweller]

Most tank cars used by the oil industry are leased cars, like UTLX, or ACDX.  These cars are black or (less often) white with plain lettering.  They do not carry company logos, but sometimes carry descriptions of materials carried (chemical names).

This way, many oil companies can ship their products in cars owned by lessors.

While the main products shipped are fuel oils or gasoline, there are many by-products produced by refineries that are shipped, too.  And major oil companies sell these by-products to each other, so one brand's refinery may ship by-products to a competitor's refinery.

If you research this, you will find many of these products are hazardous materials requiring spacer cars between the hazmat loads and locomotives and occupied cabooses.

Les

[Doneldon]

Rich-

I wasn't thinking that you should print white as that can't be done with all but a very few printers. But you can scan ads and print what you need on white decal paper if you need a white background or on clear decal paper if you need the background to be the car color.

Just an added note: Some Kinko's and FedEx centers still have the ability to print white. This is what you have to do if the design you want must be white. Sometimes that's the case, especially for dark colored cars.
                                                                                                         -- D

[ACY]

Some Kinko's and FedEx centers still have the ability to print white. This is what you have to do if the design you want must be white.

This was formerly the case but unfortunately when all the Kinko's were converted to Fed Ex the printers were phased out in favor of a different model that does not have the ability to print white. I was told the new printers will save them a lot of money (energy efficient/use less power and the ink is cheaper) and are capable of printing more pages per minute with the same quality as the old printers.
So unless your store is still a Kinko's, which I don't think any are anymore, you will have to go back to the drawing board. I found this out last year when my brother was looking at wedding invitations with white ink potentially.

For the record when I need white for decals, I use white decal paper and color match the background as close as possible to where I will be applying the decal. So for instance on a black steam locomotive, I left the text white but put a solid black box around the text in the background and then after applying the decal applied dull coat to blend it in. This is the cheapest and best solution unless you have a spare $1000 lying around to spend on an Alps printer and white ink.

[electrical whiz kid]

Don, ACY and all;
Yep; I do think I am going to have to go that route, with using the white decal paper.  Patience is not one of my stronger virtues, so I just have to suck it up and hit it hard, so to speak. 
I have used the white decal paper before making decals for my
Wolf Harbour Wyatt oil co. and they worked good.  Again thanks for all of the input.
Rich. C.

[trainm7]

Microscale has lots of tank car decals as well as oil industry sets

http://www.microscale.com/

Ron High