MT depressed center flat cars

[mmagliaro]

Trust me, they look bad-a$$ with 28 inch wheels.

The difference between 28" and 30" in N Scale is .012", which would be about equivalent to wrapping a strip of .005"
styrene around the wheel tread (.005 on each side = .010").
I would be surprised if anyone could ever see the difference.   28 seems like a fine idea to me

[bbussey]

Well, I never said that, nor did I intend to implicitly say it. At the very least, the decals won't say "F43" and it's hard to fudge that.
Also, the F30 set does not contain any "R's." They all spell out PENNSYLVANIA on the decals.
So Doug's pic from the flat car book says this is Shadow Keystone. Most PRR Flats didn't have the keystone on them at all. There's no keystones in the F30 set.

So...what about other decal sets? I don't know if they can be pieced together.

The "P" and the "A" can be combined to make an "R" if necessary.  You just need a "4" for the class, as you already have the "F" and the "3", but letters/numbers from a generic sheet should give you the needed characters, as would any of Microscale's other Pennsy freight decals.

My point being, it can be done form commercially available decals if desired.  With an existing (albeit incorrectly-deco'd) Pennsy scheme readily obtainable in multiple numbers, I don't see the financial upside to having limited-run decals made OR lobbying for them to be made commercially.

[Cajonpassfan]

Otto- Sad but true.  However unless you plan to bring the car to an RPM meet, no one else will know and you are the master of your model railroad universe.

Doug.

Lol...yea, but I would know....
Seriously, I probably have more RTR  foobs among my hundreds of cars, but somehow I'm more likely to be "flexible" with a nondescript box car than a unique attention getter like this, and I'm certainly not going to put a lot of effort into something inappropriate for my era; I'd rather invest my limited time and energy into things that fit the theme. But I do know I need more PRR cars on my left coast layout.....)
Thanks for your help,
Otto

[chicken45]

The "P" and the "A" can be combined to make an "R" if necessary.  You just need a "4" for the class, as you already have the "F" and the "3", but letters/numbers from a generic sheet should give you the needed characters, as would any of Microscale's other Pennsy freight decals.

My point being, it can be done form commercially available decals if desired.  With an existing (albeit incorrectly-deco'd) Pennsy scheme readily obtainable in multiple numbers, I don't see the financial upside to having limited-run decals made OR lobbying for them to be made commercially.

Interesting. Hadn't thought of mixing the P and A. That's solid.

I didn't provide full context of the discussion. It was more of a custom thing for me.
I should also add that I have a bit of a rapport with John. My lobbying (read: playful nagging) might just pay off when it comes to his MOW set being released in N. I just tacked this stuff on. He mentioned something about being able to do single one off sheets. I recommended the F43 and F41 off the top of my head. I remember your F41 is stellar and that you patched other sets together.

[bbussey]

Interesting. Hadn't thought of mixing the P and A. That's solid.

I didn't provide full context of the discussion. It was more of a custom thing for me.
I should also add that I have a bit of a rapport with John. My lobbying (read: playful nagging) might just pay off when it comes to his MOW set being released in N. I just tacked this stuff on. He mentioned something about being able to do single one off sheets. I recommended the F43 and F41 off the top of my head. I remember your F41 is stellar and that you patched other sets together.

Actually per Jason's suggestion on a related issue ... For the F41 I extracted the vector artwork from the Athearn GSC flatcar announcement PDF, corrected the errors in the data and used my more accurate PENNSYLVANIA from my files, and output white decals on an Alps.  That's why the deco on my model fits in well with their stock model.  Yes I "patched" the artwork, but did so virtually and not physically.  Athearn has gotten smarter with their PDFs in recent times by embedding bitmaps instead of vector art, but all their older PDFs are worth mining if for personal use only.

[chicken45]

Actually per Jason's suggestion on a related issue ... For the F41 I extracted the vector artwork from the Athearn GSC flatcar announcement PDF, corrected the errors in the data and used my more accurate PENNSYLVANIA from my files, and output white decals on an Alps.  That's why the deco on my model fits in well with their stock model.  Yes I "patched" the artwork, but did so virtually and not physically.  Athearn has gotten smarter with their PDFs in recent times by embedding bitmaps instead of vector art, but all their older PDFs are worth mining if for personal use only.

Ah. I do remember you saying that now.
I happened to find this. It's a jpg. I haven't worked much with vector art.


I'm not a fan of those decks. I don't even think mine is glued on straight. If they pry off easily, I'll likely sand them down.

[bbussey]

I wanted a recently-painted car, otherwise I probably could have lived with that roof brown Athearn used.  Since the car needed repainting, I improved the lettering artwork.  You can see that my capacity/dimensional data lettering arrangement is slightly different.  I think I also changed the car number but I'm not certain.  The font for the numbers was correct, but the railroad name font was wrong.  The wood decks were from the Railwire exclusive 3½ years ago.

[JMaurer1]

BBussey, is there anything you don't already have. I can't find an Alps printer any more, let alone the white 'ink'. I want to come over to your house to play...

[peteski]

BBussey, is there anything you don't already have. I can't find an Alps printer any more, let alone the white 'ink'. I want to come over to your house to play...

There are several members of TRW who own Alps printers.  Depending on their project (and family) workload, some can do some custom work.  If not, there are several custom decal manufacturers who use Alps printers and who will print decals for you. If you provide print-ready artwork, they are quite affordable.

White ink is still available (for Alps that is).  Even on eBay.

There are couple of Alps printer related Yahoo groups where there is a wealth of info about these printers.  I also see new members still joining them (sometimes few a week).  Used Alps printers are also often listed on eBay (but those are often a risk as many have damaged heads).  The prices are often outrageous too.

[prbharris]

Decals can't be pieced together from Microscale's Pennsy F30 set?  I find that hard to believe.

We have produced decals for the FD2 that may be of use for this type of work! It may solve some of the issues raised above. [Artwork for the PRR Heavy Duty Flat Car FD2 Queen Mary decals was courtesy of John Frantz Mount Vernon Shops http://mountvernonshops.com]

Peter

Peter Harris
N Scale Kits
www.nscalekits.com