Menards Union Pacific Tank Car and Hopper Lettering

The tank car is pretty much a freelance design.......artistic license as such......so it's hard to get worried too much about fonts....I'd never noticed if you had not said something. Still nice tank car for those that like fantasy schemes. 

Is pointy more prototypical?

Goshawk posted:

Is pointy more prototypical?

There you go.  I learned my new thing for the day.  Thank you.  I'd never seen that style Union Pacific "N" until now.

I have seen the 'pointy' N on both full scale motive power and rolling stock. I can't say with certainty but it seems to me that 'pointy' shows up more often with a yellow background????

Now having said that- I have never seen the 'point' above the 'U' like on the model tank car in the real world.

The problem on the tank car is that Menard's is using Futura, a font commonly installed on computers.  It is similar, but not the same, as the actual typeface used by the UP.

You can see that the points on the N rise above and below the line, which is not the case for the real UP typeface. You also can see quite clearly that the crossbar on the A is too high compared to real UP lettering, and the ends of the C do not match the UP typeface.

It also looks like Menard's uses Helvetica or Arial, very common fonts on computers, to print the numbering on the cars. Not like the real thing and makes the numbering stick out.

It always surprises me that manufacturers don't take a few minutes to ensure they're using accurate lettering. It's especially glaring for the UP, where the typeface is such a distinctive part of their corporate identity.

Goshawk posted:

Is pointy more prototypical?

An excellent point.