Renumbering N scale steam

[Barry Ten]

Hi all  - I've acquired a few identically numbered or undecorated steam locos that I'd like to renumber as Southern examples. I renumbered some diesels using Microscale sheets but I was surprised not to see an equivalent sheet for steam. I'm wondering if the big numerals that go on the tender side tend to be of similar sizes/fonts/colours between railroads, enabling me to use a generic sheet - or am I out of luck? It would be nice to be able to get the small "Southern" lettering, too, but at a push I could get by with just the numbers for now.

 

Can't just be the Southern that doesn't have a specific sheet of steam loco decals, can it?

[JWB]

One possibility would be to go to the Southern Railway modeling site, which has master decal artwork for N scale Southern Railway steam locos at http://www.southernmodeler.info/Graphics/SR-160_SLF-1_Freight_Loco.pdf The quickest thing might be to go into MS Paint or similar program, change the colors to a yellow/dulux shade, and print them out from your computer on decal paper. Alternatively, you might be able to get a custom decal maker to do some sets from that artwork.

 

The problem with any railroad lettering is that it's done from stencils cut from blueprints developed by the individual railroad -- a generic "railroad roman" decal font may or may not be a close match and probably won't be exact no matter what. You'd have the same problem with the large tender numerals for another railroad.

[Barry Ten]

Thanks - really helpful - it hadn't occurred to me to look at the specialist websites. Since I wouldn't need to print white, that could well be the solution.

 

Some of my Southern stuff has small cabside numerals, others have big tender numerals, so it's a mix of problems. The recent steam releases by Bachmann have tended to be of one number per road, and I now have a couple of the 2-10-2s as well as some Consolidations I'd like to do in black.