Gold Mine Trains provides an excellent set of decals for the Gilpin ore car. This post will describe where to install these decals on the Gilpin ore car.
Historical View
This is a close up of a historical photo showing where the numbers are located on the side of the ore car.
The original “1/2 Cord” ore cars were numbered from 5-24.
The “1 Cord” ore cars where numbered from 25 to 155.
The Decal Set
The decal set above provides enough numbers to handle 3 ore cars. You can create numbers from 01 – 99 using this set. This is the O scale decal set, the other scales have similar decal sheets.
The set above has enough numbers to handle 3 ore cars. You can create numbers from 100 – 155. This is the O scale decal set, the other scales have similar decal sheets.
The decals are your typical water-based slide off decals and the method used to install them is basically the same as all decals so I’m not going to repeat that here. They use white lettering on a clear background, so you don’t have to worry about matching your paint job to the background of the decal.
I actually created a font specifically for the unique stenciled block lettering seen in the historic photos. You can read more about how I did that here.
Decal Installation
The decals are supplied on one piece of decal paper, and you have to cut out the “G”, the numbers, and the “T” separately to install them.
Here we see the decals installed on the side of the ore car. The letters were installed separately from the numbers. The ore car pictured above is an On30 kit produced by Gold Mine trains.
Here we see the end view of the ore car. The car number only is installed on the right hand side. (apologies for the bad focus on this photo).
Finally
So that’s where to install the decals for the Gilpin ore car. I hope you found this useful. For more information on modeling this unique tramway or how to hike the remaining right-of-way please read my other posts.