Dealing with Roadnumbers

[CSXBaltimore]

So, being new to the hobby, I have started to acquire, which I admit is way more fun than it ought to be.

One thing I am scratching my head around is dealing with duplicate road numbers for rolling stock.  For instance, I decided to start stocking up on cars for a coal train, or auto carriers, something that you see a lot of around here.  As an example, I just picked up 2 new ttx auto carriers from the latest Microtrain release and they are beautiful. But, realistically, Id need a fair number more of them to do a representative train, yet Microtrain only has 2 road numbers available.  How are people building such trains without duplicating lots of road numbers? Or are they just duplicating lots of road numbers?

Newbie minds want to know.

John

[Steveruger45]

Not looking through the bottom of my trifocals generally solves that problem for me. 

But seriously, you can remove all or just one or two digits and replace with decals of same size and font.

Some can be camouflaged, such as making an eight look like a three for example and then apply a little weathering.

Try typing “removing numbers” and similar key words in the railwire search box and a whole bunch of threads should show up describing various methods of decal or printed number removal.

One of my favorites is to use a new sharp no.11 x-acto knife blade and GENTLY scraping the digit away without scraping through the paint underneath.   

[Englewood]

Personally, I'm not too concerned with road numbers. Some of my cars have the same road numbers, but I don't think it's a big deal. As long as I don't run them next to each other I don't notice. With some things, like Micro Trains auto racks, that are usually available in only one road number, if they do a scheme I like, I'll buy a couple with the same road number. I'd rather look at the same road number on several cars than just one car of a scheme I like. And maybe, years from now, after I'm retired and got the layout 99% done, I'll get around to changing those numbers out. And quite honestly, these days I can't read those tiny numbers without squinting really really hard. 

[brokemoto]

I do not run these long trains, so it is not that big a deal.  If I do need extras of one type of freight car, I simply erase the entire number, spray Glosscote®, add the new numbers, apply setting solution, clean up then spray with Dullcote®.  Perhaps the last time that I did this on a frieght car was when MT issued the P&LE/NYCS fifty foot gondolas.

I do this more for passenger cars or locomotives.  When MT issued the B&O paired window coaches, I b ought several and re-numbered.  Of course, when MT issued the Runner pack of these, two of the numbers were duplicated, so I had to re-number, again.  This is one of Murphy's favourite tricks.  As soon as you assign a number to something, a manufacturer does it in that number.

Never have  I found a  manufacturer whose lettering matched anything on a decal sheet.  This is why I always erase the entire road.car number.  In most cases, you can erase the number with a common pencil eraser without doing too much damage to the base coat.  Patience and care are the order of the day.

[u18b]

MicroTrains and some several other companies will produce 6 and 12 pack cars with different road numbers.
They are pricey- buying that many cars at once.

If you are doing a unit train, you would definitely want some.

I tend to run mixed cars- instead of a lot of one car.  And once in a while, when I have duplicate road numbers, I carefully scratch off one digit and change it with matching decals (assuming I can find a match.)

Sometimes you can get creative.  For example, with a few scratches, an 8 becomes a 3.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Before you get too far, start a spreadsheet with all your cars including reporting marks, car number, type and notes (for paint schemes, loads and other odds and ends). I have about 1600 cars now and keeping track of the car numbers can be rather difficult.

I do end up with duplicate numbers. I may not have my spreadsheet handy during an impulse buy, or I may have just needed several cars of a certain type and the manufacturer didn't provide enough car numbers. Your auto racks are a perfect example of the latter.

There is some good news. Did you know that Microscale does a lot of contract work for manufacturers? That means that their decals will match the size and shape of many manufacturers. Microscale Conrail decals are size compatible with recent Atlas and Athearn engine releases. Same goes for a lot of their freight cars.

So you can simply paint out or remove a few car numbers and replace them with Microscale Decals without looking out of place at all.

If you ever plan on doing switching or operations, you will need distinctive car numbers because each will be assigned a roll.

Recently, I have been going over my collecting and pulling "stand-ins", cars that were not correct but there was nothing better at the time. This includes a bunch of old Model Die Casting FMC boxcars painted to look like Conrail X58s. Now that ESM has the real thing, I have been stripping these and painting them into prototypical road names. It is a lot of busy work, but we are low on funds now that my wife is out of work and it keeps me modeling.

[nkalanaga]

For scraping numbers, I have a worn-out #11 blade mounted in a home-made brass tube and wood handle.  It's been reharpened so many times that the end is rounded off, but will still "chop" decals beautifully.  The idea was to use it for some that I have where the film isn't well attached to the paper, and a normal knife causes it to come off.

BUT, I also found that it makes a great scraper.  The edge is sharp enough to remove the lettering smoothly, while the rounded tip doesn't scratch the surface. 

If you have an old blade, it's easy to make one.  Just get some medium grit sandpaper and start "whetting" the blade, at not quite the correct angle, until the point is rounded.

[jpwisc]

I operate, so I make sure not to duplicate numbers. Sometimes it is easier to patch one of the cars than to try and match the font. I have probably around 100 sets of decals, and sometimes I still can’t find a proper match. In that case, I mask off over the numbers and hit it with a little paint, or I use a decal film as the patch. Then I can drop a whole new set of numbers down.

If I do have a font that matches, sometimes it’s easiest to turn a 3 into an 8, or in some cases I can add an extra number (car came with a 5 digit number, but I have photos of those cars having 6 digit numbers).

Point being, you have lots of options. Look through some prototype photos and you’ll get some fun ideas.

[CSXBaltimore]

Thanks. This is definitely helpful., What I notice is that I am not hearing wait years and years for the mfg's to put out multiple runs to collect what you want.

J

[nkalanaga]

If you have a lot of cars, and can't quite match the font, it might be easier to renumber ALL of them, rather than all-but-one. 

For renumbering one car, the idea of "patching" it is a good one, especially if you have one that's heavily weathered.  Numbers are often repainted by local shops, and very seldom in the "correct" font, or color.  Freehand with spray can isn't unusual.  Rules say they have to be legible.  They don't have to be pretty!

[Bob]

At first, I thought I would be bothered by having cars with the same numbers, but now that I have had my layout for two years I realize that at least for me this just does not matter - it is really hard to read the numbers on most cars are normal operating distances, so unless if you are into detailed operations I don't think it is worth worrying about - you would probably have greater impact spending your time on other modeling tasks.

[NtheBasement]

I have 50 or so black Atlas 3-bay coal hoppers with different road numbers, CSX and predecessors.  They release more every year, now under the Trainman label. Old ones show up on ebay; look for "n scale hopper 90".

[SkipGear]

Part of the fun can be researching all the previous road numbers that have been released of a model and then chasing them down. When I jumped back in, I did this with B@O steam era hoppers. Took me about 2 years to track down 90% of them. I bought 2 of each car for the eventual loads in, empty out matching trains. With that I have enough unique numbers in 2 bay hoppers to create 2 matching 50 car trains. Once I got to that point, train shows and swap meets aren't as fun anymore, there is nothing I am "searching" for at this point. If you enjoy the hunt, take it easy, they will come around eventually. Initially I bought enough to duplicates to make my complete trains with the intent of renumbering. As new releases have come out to fill in the gaps, the duplicates get shoved in the sale pile for the next show.

[nkalanaga]

For identical cars, operated as a unit train, it probably doesn't matter much.  Get 5 or 6 numbers, make sure no two adjacent cars have the same number, and forget about it.  As long as the train won't be switched, I doubt that the operators will notice.

[wm3798]

When in doubt, paint it out!


Over the years I've accumulated a stock of leftover decals.  In the case of my WM hopper fleet, I went ahead and ordered some custom decals that gave me updated reporting marks and numbers, so there was no fiddling with cutting out individual digits.  I just matched the font and size as closely as practical for the old Roundhouse hoppers, referencing the roster to make sure the numbers were reasonably accurate.



Then when all else fails, roll your own!



One of the advantages of running a freelance is that the numbers will never be wrong!  (I had these custom run by Bluford, but still only 3 road numbers...  I've printed decals so I can change up the rest of my 24 car fleet, including end markings.

Lee