lettering

Having trouble seeing the reporting marks on the sides of the cars during your operating sessions? Why not put them on the roof of the car too? "It ain't prototype" I hear you say? Hah! Here's a tank car I found in Redondo Beach last Thanksgiving that does just that. Besides, on your model railroad, you follow Rule number 1: "This is my railroad."

Sometimes when a graffitist sprays a freight car, he will paint the reporting marks in a location that doesn't interfere with the main part of the tag. On this car, it looks like the same white paint was used to reposition the car number as was used in the tag. From the patches of blue bubble shapes above the tag, it also looks like the black and white colored tag is covering up a more colorful tag in the same location.

Unless you're modeling equipment straight out of the paint shop, it's OK if your decal is chipped. It happens on the prototype too, like this UP locomotive passing through Rochelle in 2005. A lot of railroads use large scale "decals" of their own to apply uniform lettering and numbers on their equipment, and their decals chip just like ours do on our models.