Your go-to choices in HO for conspicuity/reflective stripes (rolling stock & road vehicles)?

[chutton01]

Well, anyone modelling the 21st century North American scene should be gracing at least some of their rolling stock and trucks/trailers with conspicuity/reflective striping, and so I better get around to it myself. I could use some suggestions.

1) What brands (for HO) are people favoring? Decals or transfers? Since there might be small "garage" firm decal and transfer makers that I never heard of, opinions are welcome,  Looks like different sets are needed for locomotives vs freight cars, and of course road vehicles are different altogether. If people have N or O scale preferences, while not helpful to me, others probably could use the advice

2) Any neat old tricks to applying the stripes to already finished and weathered  models, so that they look good?

Thanks

[UPinCT]

Hi C,

I am modeling present day in HO.  I am using Microscale decals.  Specifically, MC-4389 for both Freight and Locomotives.  Any layout representing 2005 + should have the reflector stripes.

I have yet to do my whole fleet as some weathering should effect the stripes as well.  Its a lot of cars and my small layout is no where near finished.

Good Luck

Derek

[chutton01]

Thanks Derek

UPinCT

I am modeling present day in HO.  I am using Microscale decals.  Specifically, MC-4389 for both Freight and Locomotives.

Hmm, that set seems to have only Horizontal Strips - actually, I don't see Vertical Strips at all (probably searching the wrong keywords). judging from images I've seen, Horizontal works for Locomotives, and in general gondolas, open-top hoppers, and boxcars, while tank cars and cover hoppers in general seem to have vertical strips,

Any layout representing 2005 + should have the reflector stripes.

Agreed - at least some of the revenue freight rolling stock should.

I have yet to do my whole fleet as some weathering should effect the stripes as well.

That's what I'm really interested in - applying stripes to already finished and weathered freight cars.

[tallcapt]

I used Pactra Yellow reflective hobby tape on my rolling stock. It can be found for about $6-8 a canister and comes in about 6 different widths. Only cutting you have to do is vertical cutting to cut to proper length. One canister will do about 30 cars.

[chutton01]

Heh, this thread dropped a bit - I guess only a few modelers (like those who responded) care about updating their modern stock to current FRA standards.

Anyway, my new March MR arrived this weekend, which means the Feb 2013 MR got moved to the "reading room" were it can get much more attention (in short durations) over the month (I'm not using my smart phone in that room).  With that said, I read the Feb issue article "Modeling Hoppers With History" by Matt Snell more closely - and he's using the (now well known to me) Microscale MC-4389 decal set. OK, what's bugging me is that he does NOT seem to covering the Hopper model with a gloss finish first  (he mentions putting MicroScale CSX decals on a patched-out area he painted Floquil Tan - I know that's flat, and it looks it from the images). I recall the last time I put MicroScale decals over a non-gloss finish (years back), it did NOT go well at all, but the magazine image of the finished hopper look good.  Anyone else on this board being doing that? (And if so, how? I'm reluctant to try to contact article authors who don't have their e-mail addresses listed)

tallcapt

I used Pactra Yellow reflective hobby tape on my rolling stock. It can be found for about $6-8 a canister and comes in about 6 different widths. Only cutting you have to do is vertical cutting to cut to proper length. One canister will do about 30 cars.

This one sounds very interesting, but searching around I only found what looks like a roll with varioius sizes of trim tape on them - is this what you meant?  There was some confused chatter about this in a year-old trainorders thread (pretty much asking the same question) - someone said the tape is pin-striping, someone said we need peel and stick, and someone stated using the Microscale decal set on 200 cars is really boring (perhaps why there's a lack of response to this thread). How easy is this to apply?

[UPinCT]

Hi Chutton,

I was hoping, like you, to find an easier way.  I have so many other things to do on my layout that I have been putting off the decals.    

One point I wanted to make about your concern about matching weathering, some rolling stock would be weathered before the requirement to add the stripes came on the books. So in some cases you could just apply over your weathering.   Not sure exactly what the prototype is using for reflective tape but to my casual observation dirt doesn't seem to stick to it as it does to the rest of the car.

[Burlington Northern #24]

the few responses may be from the number of non modern modelers, I'd do this in N scale but not at the moment because model trains have been on the back burner.