Model Railroading > Removing Lettering from Walthers Passenger Cars

Just wondering if anyone has had any success removing the lettering (just the lettering) from Walthers HO scale passenger cars?

I just received one of the UP "City" Series Budd 10-6 sleepers, that I'd like to reletter to replicate the steam excursion service car Cabarton. To do so, I'll need to remove the larger "PULLMAN" lettering, and the small Union Pacific lettering from the ends, and replace it with the larger UP passenger car lettering.

My method of last resort is to repaint the letterboards only, but I'm wondering if anyone has had luck in removing the lettering with no or minimal impact to the paint.

I've wondered the same thing. Walthers has apparently been reading my mind, since they've now catalogued a few Southern Pacific- and CNW-lettered versions of the "City" cars, eliminating the issue for me.

I wonder if they intent to eventually produce the present-day 'UPP' train cars, saving you the trouble? (The included Walthers decals also feature the current UP car names, don't they?) In the meantime, I'd also be interested in what folks might have used, and whether there's any trace of damage to the paint as a result.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/05/10 12:44 by Notch16.

Notch16 Wrote:
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> I've wondered the same thing. Walthers has
> apparently been reading my mind, since they've now
> catalogued a few Southern Pacific- and
> CNW-lettered versions of the "City" cars,
> eliminating the issue for me.
>
> I wonder if they intent to eventually produce the
> present-day 'UPP' train cars, saving you the
> trouble? (The included Walthers decals also
> feature the current UP car names, don't they?) In
> the meantime, I'd also be interested in what folks
> might have used, and whether there's any trace of
> damage to the paint as a result.

Wish they had done that earlier. Would have saved me all the trouble of changing lettering on the coaches. Still have to put the numbers on.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/05/10 12:50 by WAF.

bioyans Wrote:
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> Just wondering if anyone has had any success
> removing the lettering (just the lettering) from
> Walthers HO scale passenger cars?
>
> I just received one of the UP "City" Series Budd
> 10-6 sleepers, that I'd like to reletter to
> replicate the steam excursion service car
> Cabarton. To do so, I'll need to remove the
> larger "PULLMAN" lettering, and the small Union
> Pacific lettering from the ends, and replace it
> with the larger UP passenger car lettering.
>
> My method of last resort is to repaint the
> letterboards only, but I'm wondering if anyone has
> had luck in removing the lettering with no or
> minimal impact to the paint.

FYI...the "PULLMAN" lettering came off in early 1969.

ATSF3751 Wrote:
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> FYI...the "PULLMAN" lettering came off in early
> 1969.

Thanks for the info. I'm modeling the cars as they appeared around 1996, before they got the UPP reporting marks and many of them carried only the names and no numbers.

ATSF3751 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> bioyans Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Just wondering if anyone has had any success
> > removing the lettering (just the lettering)
> from
> > Walthers HO scale passenger cars?
> >
> > I just received one of the UP "City" Series
> Budd
> > 10-6 sleepers, that I'd like to reletter to
> > replicate the steam excursion service car
> > Cabarton. To do so, I'll need to remove the
> > larger "PULLMAN" lettering, and the small Union
> > Pacific lettering from the ends, and replace it
> > with the larger UP passenger car lettering.
> >
> > My method of last resort is to repaint the
> > letterboards only, but I'm wondering if anyone
> has
> > had luck in removing the lettering with no or
> > minimal impact to the paint.
>
> FYI...the "PULLMAN" lettering came off in early
> 1969.

They were still running around with "pullman" later than that.

Ah, like these! Both taken 1970. Barstow, CA top, Fresno CA, bottom. The Pullman company ceased operations of sleeping cars at the end of 1968 and those roads still contracting with Pullman were free to remove the name from the letterboards and purchase or buy back their cars. Roughly speaking.

But take a close look at both cars -- it appears that UP just painted a patch over the 'PULL' and the 'MAN'.

If you did the same, even if it showed, you'd be correct! These prototype pics are of nicely maintained cars, and Walthers uses a satiny finish, not glossy. Use a little glossy Armour Yellow and not only are you accurate, you have a talking history note for your model! You could try spraying a sheet of clear decal film and cut the patches out of that, if you didn't want to mask and spray your models. That works very well, and if you didn't use solvent to test-apply the decal, you could decide if you like the look.

~ BZ



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/05/10 17:37 by Notch16.

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I use the decal and detail remover from Joe's model trains.
Use a cotton swap and follow the directions on the bottle.
The key words is gently rub the lettering.
I have changed factory numbers on locomotives from Athearn to Proto without messing up the paint under the numbers.

Thanks for the tip!

SD608708 Wrote:
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> I use the decal and detail remover from Joe's
> model trains.
> Use a cotton swap and follow the directions on the
> bottle.
> The key words is gently rub the lettering.
> I have changed factory numbers on locomotives from
> Athearn to Proto without messing up the paint
> under the numbers.

I heartily agree. The key word with the Joe's Model Trains decal remover is control. Because it is a gel, it stays in place and doesn't run on to lettering you want to keep intact. I even used it to remove lettering and heralds on Kato units, and we all know how hard those can be.