Removing Accurail lettering

Mark, You might try rubber cement thinner and a q-tip. This is not an instant process and takes quite a bit of gentle rubbing. It leaves a sheen in the area where lettering has been removed that is a good surface for decals or that a shot of dullcoat that will take care of. I have not used this on Accurail kits as I only have some of the wood box cars that came with the lettering I wanted. I have used it on several Bachmann On30 cars and one locomotive and it worked very well taking just the lettering off. I have not tried to remove black lettering though and that could be more difficult. Anyway it's something you might try if someone does not know of a better process. Bruce

As I wrote in my original message, I am looking for materials or methods specific for removing lettering from Accurail freight cars. I am pretty happy with rubbing alcohol and a pencil eraser as a "generic" solution.

"generic"

Mark,

Accurail makes special decals for each kit with additional numbers. These decals feature a background colour the same as the model (instead of transparent). This means you don't have to remove the old number first.

Check the Accurail site for more details:

Colin

Neat. How good are they?

Colin,

Thanks for the advice. I am aware of the special decals; as a matter of fact I have both a set of those decals and an order form from Accurail (but for different models than the one I am contemplating working on).

Accurail does not offer decals for the particular model I am interested in.

Chrstopher,

I think Accurail does a pretty good job with their decal renumbering program.

They deserve to be commended for offering something like this to us modelers; certainly we're all better off than if they didn't do this at all. I'm sure it makes having renumbered car fleets a possibility for some modelers who wouldn't have the time nor skills to renumber their cars otherwise. I think a very big "plus" for this program is that the decal font and size matches the original cars' font and size exactly -- since both are made by Accurail.

The decals are printed on colored decal paper so a modeler doesn't need to remove the base lettering (or mask and repaint the area). The new decal numbers can go right over the existing car numbers. Accurail seems to do a pretty good job of color matching - here's a scan of a yellow boxcar body and the corresponding decals for the car:

Thanks. They do look a good match. I hadn't realised they did this - it's a very good idea.

Chris