United States Mail - Railway Post Office decals

[nickelplate759]

I'm trying to letter an NKP heavyweight RPO-baggage, and I'm having trouble finding the right sized lettering that says

United States Mail
Railway Post Office

"United States Mail" should be just about 11' long.  The lettering in the Microscale NKP Passenger set is too big (just over 12') - actually, almost ALL the lettering in that set is too big and unusable. I've no idea what Microscale had in mind when they printed it!

I've looked at other sets - the Microscale B&O set is too small (and too dark), the Santa Fe heavyweight set is even bigger than the NKP set, and the old deRAILcals (After Hours Graphics) NKP passenger set, while wonderfully accurate, doesn't include RPO lettering at all, just Railway Express Agency and Baggage. It's also long out of print.

So - I'm looking for lettering that is yellow/Dulux, with "United States Mail" stretching 11' (N-scale of course) and "Railway Post Office" just a bit longer.   According to the NKP lettering diagram the letters should be 5" high.

If anyone has passenger sets with this lettering, I'd appreciate it if you'd reply and let me know if it's about the right size.

Regards,
George

[garethashenden]

I just measured the Boston & Maine set I have, it's Dulux Gold. Again, "United States Mail" is over 12' long. So that's no help.

[x600]

George, Buddy, I might have an answer.....,
PMD o37-N DL&W Green Passenger Cars

United States Mail is s 13' 6"

Railway Post Office is s 14'

Nice decals, Dulux Gold, nice fine letters.


Greg O.

[nkalanaga]

MSD 60-153, GN Empire Builder, is closer.  US Mail is 11' 6", RPO is 12' 8".

The font probably isn't what you want, but is Dulux Yellow, and you might be able to squeeze the words a little closer together.

[thomasjmdavis]

Not sure if this will help, but checked mine collection, and closest I could come was-

Bill Mosteller at Great Decals has an L&N Baggage-Dorm-RPO set in N scale and, if my old eyes do not deceive me, "United States Mail" measures 10'8" (measured .8" on my calipers), Railway Post office a few inches longer. It is distinctly "dulux gold" vs what I think of as "dulux yellow", so I am not sure whether these are the right color (it sure looks right for L&N once you get it on a dark blue car).   

http://www.greatdecals.com/  If you scroll down about half way there is an L&N decal section (multiple scales, with N scale at the bottom of the list) and a link to a B&W image of the decals).  Only 3 bucks and you get lettering for 3 cars (although you need to provide your own stripes where needed)

If color or lettering style isn't quite what you are looking for, might be worth while to check other decals listed on his site- he lists quite a few small batch decal makers.

Thinking about colors- is there a chart anywhere that identifies the Dupont color code for various railroads' lettering?  Would make mixing and matching decal sets easier.  "Yellow" seems a particularly difficult one, since you can have a diagram that says "dulux gold" (original paint in 1955, say), but someone  held his pantone book up against the lettering in 1969, when it had faded almost white, and so the decals look like that.  And railroads that used gold leaf until 1910, imitation gold leaf until 1917. metallic gold until 1942, dulux gold until 1955, dulux yellow  until Amtrak, and some paint that the fellow in the paint shop mixed up on his own when the paint order was late.  And you have a black and white slide dated 1957, and you are trying to figure out when that particular car had its last paint job.

[seusscaboose]

Why don't we just custom make them?

I gotta guy...

PM me

[nickelplate759]

Here's what I can do with (mostly) the Microscale set:
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

This is OK, but not great.  Given that there are some other minor inaccuracies in the car (the NKP version had a different rivet and vertical batten pattern) it may be good enough.

The road name is about 5' too long, and a little too tall. The tail of the K (under the E) gets lost in the RPO window. The left edge of the "N" should be centered above the middle RPO window.
The entire road name should be, and is, centered between the two doors, although I have found a photo of one of these cars with the road name centered on the entire car side rather than between the doors.

The "United States Mail" should be exactly as wide as the three RPO windows above it.

For contrast, the word "Baggage" came from the deRAILcals set (out of print).  I don't have many of those.  the Microscale set has "Baggage" in it, but I ran out of those words for now - more are on order.

The road number 831 comes from the old Northeast Decals set, because it exists just like that in their number-jumble.

George

[OldEastRR]

Why don't we just custom make them?

I gotta guy...

PM me

If you're gonna do those, how about the same wording in the New Haven style script? (but the lettering is much smaller)