I wrote to the company about my situation. I wanted to see what that say about it.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
It's sometimes possible to removed painted-on lettering using an X-Acto #17 or #18 chisel-type blade.Hold the blade perpendicular to the surface, with the non-tapered edge forward, and using mostly just the weight of the knife, gently scrape the lettering to be removed. With some practice, you should be able to remove only the lettering and not the underlying paint. If necessary, touch-up the paint after the lettering has been removed, or, if the car is not meant to represent a fairly new car, paint-over those areas in a more deliberate manner, perhaps using a colour not exactly matching that of the original.
If you simply paint over the inappropriate lettering, there's a chance that, even with the lettering completely covered, it will appear under some lighting conditions as a low-relief image. The scraping eliminates that possibility.
Wayne
If there not decals than paint will match the safety stripes? So it look almost invisible.
When I was in N scale, back when Micro-Trains was part of Kadee, and there were virtually no undecorated N scale cars available, the STRATTON & GILLETTE railroad experimented with removing factory lettering.
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On Con-Cor and Atlas cars of the day, simply using Solvaset would remnove the lettering. Kadee N scale cars were much more difficult. What did work was soaking the car in rubbing alchohol and working it with the wooden end of paintbrushes. It took forever.
Then... Micro-Trains began offering undecorated cars and the world was saved. At least the world the SGRR operates in!
-Kevin
Living the dream.
THey are probably not decals. Most model railroad car and locomotive letering markings is printed. Can be difficult to impssible to remove without damaging paint.
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
I have in the past striped the paint off a car with no noticeable effect on the letering.
Since yesterday I wanted the new 89' Auto rack decorated in Conrail Quality. Later on I realized it had safety strips on it.
Now I'm wondering not to get it or get it but remove the decals (??) if they are.
Has anyone remove MT Conspicuity Marks on freight cars?