Canadian/Canadien National cars

[James Costello]

Maybe Highball?

This set at least has both versions, not sure how the size compares from a 40' to a 50' though

https://highballgraphics.com/index.php/956/9/freight-car/freight-car-1/canadian-national-freight-car-40-grain-loading-boxcars-n-scale-detail

[peteski]

"Canadien" and "National" font
Width:      12.57mm/.4945"
Height:     2mm/.0785"

4###### numbers
Width:       8.88mm/.350"
Height:      2mm/.0785"

I'm looking for the following numbers
400603, 400835, 400845, 400876, 400948, 401653, 401684, 401731, 401775, 401781, 401888, 401923

The lettering is all upper case letters (not like you spelled), correct? 
And 2 of each number?  How about the end numbers?

Point me to the specific font you want to use from http://www.cnrha.ca/node/963  There a re 19 fonts listed!  Looking at the decal scans, the typeface/font look like one of the Helvetica typefaces.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

The lettering is all upper case letters (not like you spelled), correct? 
And 2 of each number?  How about the end numbers?

Point me to the specific font you want to use from http://www.cnrha.ca/node/963  There a re 19 fonts listed!  Looking at the decal scans, the typeface/font look like one of the Helvetica typefaces.

I think CN61 in bold may be close to the TLT font but the letter are too far apart and "Canadian" and "National" are not the same length.

CN61 is correct for the numbers (not in bold).

CN234 is also close for the lettering but the lengths don't match. Maybe try both?

[peteski]

I think CN61 in bold may be close to the TLT font but the letter are too far apart and "Canadian" and "National" are not the same length.

CN61 is correct for the numbers (not in bold).

CN234 is also close for the lettering but the lengths don't match. Maybe try both?

I can adjust the kerning. If you have a flatbed scanner, put the car on it, along with a ruler, and scan it. 300 dpi, grayscale.  Save it in PNG format and email it to me.  You should still have my email address. If not, let me know.

This way I'll see exactly that the lettering looks like on the car. 

[daniel_leavitt2000]

My scanner is not very feature rich. It only does B&W or color, no gray scale. Also only PDF and jpg. I sent both.

[peteski]

My scanner is not very feature rich. It only does B&W or color, no gray scale. Also only PDF and jpg. I sent both.

Scans are fine - thanks.  We'll work the details offline.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Quick update for those following along. Pete has designed some decals for me and this will allow me to model the correct car numbers for this specific car type.

My cars have gotten upgrades: replacing MTL trucks with modified BLMA 70T trucks. Body mounted offset couplers, and reworked door tracks.

The door tracks were especially hard to figure out because the model features a very shallow C channel and normal styrene strip wouldn't blend in well. Further complicating this is that the track needs to be mounted over both the side of the car and the overlap portion of the roof meeting the car side (this is modeled with a deep groove on the model). Then I found out that .01" x .02" strip styrene fills the channel perfectly and GMM EMD type stanchions are a pretty good match for the molded-in door track.

I'll upload photos soon.