Decals for Lionel North Pole Central Reindeer

I should clarify that I am speaking about the passenger cars that each have a reindeer name.

They should all be pulled by Rudolf, the red-nose diesel...

Rusty

Are you really talking about the MTH Railking madison cars with the reindeer names ? 

Are the madison cars red with white roofs ?

Some photos would be helpful.......I have 1000's of fonts and can make my own.....but not without seeing what I need to match. 

Dave,

You can see them here: North Pole Central

This was the starter train with the passenger add-on and the add-ons from above. I have this, but went freight.

He means these: (from Lionel site, if for some reason it doesn't blow up when you click) link

And yes, some of the add-ons used to go for crazy money around Christmas over the years.  I think I have seen each of the dome cars go for around $300 at some point.

-Dave

That's better.........This font???

I think I have this on hand.......how are you going to print them???

PS>>>>>>>>>>>

This is a close as I have in my graphics pgm. 99% correct.......

I forgot about those passenger cars .  

I appreciate the font info.  Do I just farm this out to professionals since I cannot imagine how to print white decals.

I will never understand the business mind. Why would Lionel have decided to discontinue the numbering for the subsequent cars in the set?  Could two lousy decals per car really be a significant hit to their bottom line; enough that the savings would counter the ill-will that decision generated?

A ink jet printer does not print white ink. So you'd have to get decal paper that is white and print the red leaving the numbers clear showing the white under it. There are a few custom decal makers out there that can do what you need.....maybe someone here can recommend.  

I'd be happy to help with the art work if you need.....contact me offline. 

BwanaBob posted:

I appreciate the font info.  Do I just farm this out to professionals since I cannot imagine how to print white decals.

I will never understand the business mind. Why would Lionel have decided to discontinue the numbering for the subsequent cars in the set?  Could two lousy decals per car really be a significant hit to their bottom line; enough that the savings would counter the ill-will that decision generated?

You can find some info on producing these models.(trains)  They are painted and not decals from the manufacturer. Trains are painted with various steps of "masks". The whole process is quite involved for what the end user assumes is a simple task. Eliminating these steps is an obvious cost savings move to reduce the end cost to the user. Yes, it is enough savings to Lionel to omit the numbering.

Work with Dave. Get some extras made to sell to others and recover your costs.

Good luck!

Moonman posted:

BwanaBob posted:

I appreciate the font info.  Do I just farm this out to professionals since I cannot imagine how to print white decals.

I will never understand the business mind. Why would Lionel have decided to discontinue the numbering for the subsequent cars in the set?  Could two lousy decals per car really be a significant hit to their bottom line; enough that the savings would counter the ill-will that decision generated?

You can find some info on producing these models.(trains)  They are painted and not decals from the manufacturer. Trains are painted with various steps of "masks". The whole process is quite involved for what the end user assumes is a simple task. Eliminating these steps is an obvious cost savings move to reduce the end cost to the user. Yes, it is enough savings to Lionel to omit the numbering.

Work with Dave. Get some extras made to sell to others and recover your costs.

Good luck!

You're correct about the numbers not being decals, but numbers and roadnames don't involve a mask. They are pad printed onto the car in the final stage of decorating.

I don't think Lionel was trying to save money, in this case, since the car had to be printed for the "North Pole Central" roadname anyway. Though, who knows? Maybe there was a savings of a few pennies per unit. Otherwise, I'm not sure what the reasoning was to leave off the numbers.

It is correct that the factory decorated units do not use decals but rather a tampo silicon pad printed numbers.  But for custom decoration decals are the only option as pad printing would cost hundreds for each car. I could make the type decal were you print red on white decal paper but just white numbers will have to be sourced elsewhere.  Still be happy to help on art work.  

I've tried doing the white decal paper route. It worked okay with printing a black background to use on some black hoppers, but I couldn't quite get the right shade of red I needed for some cabooses I wanted to make decals for.

Is there a secret for adjusting the color of the printing to match the paint color?

Color matching is the difficult part on anything but black. 

I scan in the color I need to match. I then make a test print with the scan color and a few shades lighter and a few darker. This is needed as every monitor and printer is off a bit. I find a match and use it. Some work, not perfect....but good enough. 

This was done with white paper only. The nose logo has a thin orange print around it. Once applied it disappears. You can see it some in this close up...but works for me. . 

I only need the last one!  Would anybody have a LIONEL NORTH POLE CENTRAL COACH Car "BLITZEN" # 6-35173???

I can`t find one anywhere- So I noticed that the Prancer Coach car #6-25183 is the same -

How would I change the name to 'Blitzen" & remove number 1224 on the side of the car?

Is there anyone on the forum who can do some custom work for me?