Texas Mexican railway caboose decals and coupler questions

[marc1kim]

I've just recently come back to model railroading after a  long, long  break (I need to pull all my old stuff down from thr attic). The Tex Mex Rwy brought me back into it as these were what I saw locally as a kid. So far in a few weeks I've purchased a GP-38 tex mex HO scale locomotive and HO tex mex boxcar. I was unable to find a tex mex caboose as they are rarer than rocking horse poop.   I purchased a Athearn bay window caboose kit, I've started assembly and painting it. It there any site that can make me custom decals?

Also, this caboose kit came with the old style horn type coupler, I'm not too familiar with the new style magnetic. my locomotive and boxcar have the newer style couplers. What would be a drop in replacemnt to convert over to the newer?

These are the decals I'm needing, "The Texas Mexican Railway company" and the "315" number

The rare Athearn caboose:

The real deal:

 

any info would be greatly appreciated. thanks

 

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

The coupler type you need is the Kadee #5 or Kadee #148. The #5 uses a separate centering spring, the #148 has the spring built in but costs a bit more. They can be found on Ebay for a good price. That's where I get mine.

[marc1kim]

Thanks, I have them on order now

[marc1kim]

Updates on my tex-Mex caboose:

So I have the caboose body painted, waiting on the couplers to arrive:

 

I saw the caboose window kits online, but i went down to the local hobby shop and bought some clear plastic to make the window glass with:

 

still in search of the decals, I wouldnt even begin to know how to make the decals myself, and i really dont want to invest in equipment at this point as this is the only custom build I see myself doing in the immediate future. So any info on decals would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

[maxman]

marc1kim

These are the decals I'm needing, "The Texas Mexican Railway company"

What you need to be searching for are Texas Mexican Railway caboose decals, HO set number C-1640.  These were made at one time by Herald King Decals. 

[marc1kim]

Thank you very much, I'll look for them

[trwroute]

I have the C-1640 Herald King set, but the lettering is white, not green like your picture shows.  It also has the round herald.

[maxman]

trwroute

I have the C-1640 Herald King set, but the lettering is white, not green like your picture shows.  It also has the round herald.

 

You are correct.  I didn't look at the picture in the catalog that closely.  The other thing I note in the catalog is that there is a 1980 date listed.  Herald King generally listed the dates to give the purchasers some idea as to the timeframe when the set applied.  So it is possible that they had some sort of reference for the colors they used.

 

Or, the set is just totally incorrect.

 

I did find a Microscale set that appears to have the alternate colors.  It is for a diesel, but maybe the sizes are good enough to be used.  The set number is MC-4373, shown here: http://www.microscale.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=MD&Product_Code=MC-4373&Product_Count=&Category_Code=

 

Unforunately it is also shown out of stock.  Just another thing to search for.