New Cars

[John Ramsden]

 Car Numbers
« on: Today at 06:37:29 PM »     

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Ok:  We finally have some cars that were promised long ago in a faraway realm, they are nice, good detail, good coupler, ?? paint on FCC Box, little pricey.
But ___ ARE WE TO GET ONLY ONE ROAD NUMBER ??
AMS WAS SMART ENOUGH --  they provide lots of numbers on their offering.
I would like more than one, but I would like different numbers on them.
I know better to suggest things to BMANN Inc.  But??

[az2rail]

I need to agree here. Multiple road numbers would be nice. Same problem with the ON30 cars.

Bruce

[Loco Bill Canelos]

Hi guys,

Bachmann has listened a little!

They did a new name and number on the WPY G Scale coach, and there are four different numbers on the EBT hoppers.

It is an easy fix to change the numbers, but also not that tough to do it at the factory each time they do a new run.

I think Bachmann would sell more cars if folks did not have to do the "fix"
 

 

[Charlie Mutschler]

I think I've mentioned it before on this board, but one of the H-O manufacturers offers sets of decals with new numbers on the correct shade of paint for the car kits they sell.  The modeler has to cut out new numbers for sides and ends, and apply them over the existing ones on the kit.  This allows the modeler to get a string of similar cars with different road numbers with only a little extra work.  I like the system myself.  Maybe an after market vendor will come up with these decal sets for some of the popular Fn3 cars. 

Charlie Mutschler
-30-

[bear100]

What is the other number of the EBT hoppers? I thought there was only 3. I have 838 842 and 849.

[Kevin Strong]

The 1:20.3 EBT hoppers (and the other road names) all come without numbers of any kind, which is a nice compromise. You can get "Railroad Roman" and "Gothic" dry transfer numbers in sizes up to 1/2" from Woodland Scenics (Model Graphics) in many of the common colors--white, silver, gold, black, and a few others. The fonts may not be 100% accurate for the railroad whose name is on the side of the car, but in most cases they'll be fairly close to what was used. They will--at least--be consistent from car to car.

If you want an exact match to a specific font or want to create your own graphics for an undecorated car, there are a few options available beyond having vinyl letters or custom decals printed. Some of them have recently been discussed here:

http://www.largescalecentral.com/LSCForums/viewtopic.php?id=9586

Ideally, I'd love to see the manufacturer leave the numbers off and supply a dry transfer sheet with a bunch of numbers to give the customer the ultimate in flexibility. I don't think including such a sheet would add more than two or three dollars at the most to the cost of each car (and that's assuming US wholesale production costs for dry transfers, Chinese costs are likely far cheaper). It still may be cheaper to produce multiple road numbers. Either way, I think that some capacity for multiple road numbers would be a good thing.

Later,

K

[Peter O]

This has been raised many times going back to the 1:22 stuff. Even after cars were out of production for years, the revised run still had the same number as previously. USA Trains does the best job on this. I have many of their DRGW American series box cars, all with different numbers and variations on the heralds etc. Makes for a nice mixed train.

They did it with the locomotives also. When the Annie RGS came out, it was #25 just like the tired offering in the Big Hauler set. Never mind that people may want a #20 or #22 to go with it.

Not sure why Bachmann misses the easy opportunty to sell more stuff?

Peter.

[FordcvP71]

I would love a RGS 20 Annie, It would need a wood cab and the other valve gear though  I have a RGS 25 Annie that i run with the red D&RG combine & "Rico" parlor car from the Gold Rush big hauler set that I relettered as RGS with decals from Microscale with a RGS caboose from MDC taking up the rear

Just take the WP&Y set and give that annie a wood cab, renumber it 20 and reletter the set RGS giving the coaches black roof's and number them... Say 260 and B-20 "Edna" 

Same goes for making a D&RGW Annie that isnt a bumblebee! Here is an example!







Back to car numbers, it kinda sucks out of the 4 D&RGW J&S coaches only the combine has a number! Im not the best with decals so I picked up a D&S Passenger set (also for a spare 177)  and swapped the roofs with the numbered coaches with two of my D&RGW coaches that had no numbers so now I have D&RGW "North Star" and "Alamosa" to go with the 202 combine. Now I just need to add a few windows to one of those baggage cars to turn it into a RPO and ill be set hehe