Adding Dummy 4014 Number Boards to a Railking Big Boy 30-1840-1

I'm with you B rad......just received my new Imperial RailKing "Big Boy", and I am a little disappointed in the omission of these number boards, and the "Big Boy" chalk mark on the front of the boiler.

I ordered the "Big Boy" decals from a seller on Feabay that GunrunnerJohn put us onto (cost me a small fortune, including postage, to get them to me here in Australia), and they arrived yesterday. The decal set came with all of the lettering applicable to the restoration "Big Boy", and has the 4014 number board decals as well.

Would love to get some optional number boards to glue onto the top sides of the boiler, to complete the look of this loco. Are they out there???

Peter.....Buco Australia

MTH is shipping out the missing decals. It was an oversight at the factory to install them but they have them. I would not pay for them. Just get with who you preordered through. I did and they are aware of the issue and have plans to send them to all of their customers.

Brad

Thanks for the info B rad, but I can't see TrainWorld in Brooklyn posting me out the missing decals, all the way to Australia😢😢

Still want to know if there are some number boards out there that we can apply to make this monster look even better!!!

Peter  (Buco Australia)

Truthfully, it doesn't look that complicated to take something like the the Lionel Vision Line Big Boy number boards to the boiler, including lighting them.  They have LED's, so a 1K resistor and connecting them to track power would do the trick.  One 2mm threaded hole to mount them, and a hole in the boiler front to accommodate the light wire to light them.

This is a pair I have in the parts box from the VL-BB.

Thanks for the info John. Those appear to be 4012. I would need 4014. I did find them on the MTH parts site for the Premier model for cheap.

Brad

I suspect the MTH number boards would be a similar project.  I showed the 4012 because they were left over from a shipping damage repair.

The MTH Premier BB appears to have them all attached to the boiler front.  You could just buy a new boiler front to work on in case something goes south, cheap insurance.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Truthfully, it doesn't look that complicated to take something like the the Lionel Vision Line Big Boy number boards to the boiler, including lighting them.  They have LED's, so a 1K resistor and connecting them to track power would do the trick.  One 2mm threaded hole to mount them, and a hole in the boiler front to accommodate the light wire to light them.

This is a pair I have in the parts box from the VL-BB.

John, you just set the wheels in motion. I have two Williams scale GG-1s. The number boards do not light. I have not been able to find something that could be added, have you come across anything… ?

I have one of those that I upgraded years ago.  The shell is solid behind the number boards.

The only way to light those is to hog out the cavity for the number boards and add lights inside the shell behind some home-made number boards.  I made number board numbers using white on black printing on plain white paper using Microsoft Word.  I glue them to plastic using canopy glue.  I usually am making them to replace the numbers on something like the steam number boards, but I also have made them for replacing the numbers on F3 diesels.

I found the number board housings and number boards for $16. If im not interested in adding lighting could these just be glued in place with no drilling? What glue would be the best? Looks like I would just mount them on each side of the bell above the classification lights. The P/N's I found are FB1110020A, FB1120020A for the housings and FG1100011 for the 4014 number plates.

Brad

I'd really not try to glue them, but that's just me.  I don't think any glue is going to be all that robust.

@B rad posted:

I found the number board housings and number boards for $16. If im not interested in adding lighting could these just be glued in place with no drilling? What glue would be the best? Looks like I would just mount them on each side of the bell above the classification lights. The P/N's I found are FB1110020A, FB1120020A for the housings and FG1100011 for the 4014 number plates.

Brad

John is right if you call them they may stay for a little while but they’re gonna become real annoying every time they get touched that probably come right off