Hey guys, I am looking for somewhere I can get the SP lettering for a passenger car made. We are in the process of repainting the SP 127 "Alamo" and we need to get the proper lettering for both the letterboard and the car identification on the side.

We will also need the lettering for the SSW "Dixie" as well. I am assuming that the SSW letters are the same as the SP letters....?

I appreciate any help yall can offer.

THX

Gary Rodriguez
SA, TX

Gary,
I would first look at the holdings of the California State Railroad Museum Library. The library has an on-line index that gets expanded as more items are processed.
Link here: https://www.californiarailroad.museum/visit/library
This page provides contact information and links to the on-line catalogs.

The Southern Pacific Historical & Technical Society would be another resource. It has published a series of massive books about the SP's passenger train cars including the business cars. The organization may be able to direct you to other resources.

The Southern Pacific letterboard lettering is a 5" high extended roman style that essentially dated back at least to the time period of control by the Union Pacific when this lettering was documented and used for all the UP and SP operated railroads. This alphabet was documented by drawings showing full-size letters and numbers and other drawings showing the location and spacing of lettering. Similarly, other sizes, etc. were documented by full-size drawings.

Two other collections may have examples of the SP lettering. Pullman construction drawings in the Illinois Railway Museum's Pullman Collection. Diagrams for repainting of SP owned and Pullman operated sleeping that are in the Pullman Digital Collection at the Newberry Library, Chicago.

I don’t have any artwork for S.P. Hopefully someone has done it already. If no one else has done the artwork, you’re gonna need a lettering diagram that gives the dimensions and placement of the lettering and the corresponding alphabet drawings. If in image format, they can be traced and sized accurately using Illustrator or another vector software. Worst case, you might be able to use images of some cars for tracing but that’s a long, laborious slog. You can then have stencils or vinyl cut by commercial sign shops with vector pdf files or print and cut stencils yourself. If your time is money, a commercial shop pays for itself.

Curious - are you going to paint with stencils? You’ll get a better match to their lettering gray that way.

Edit - good info from Brian above.

Niles Canyon Ry. has close to a dozen ex-SP passenger cars in their collection, several of which they have restored, you might try them:
https://www.ncry.org/about/collection/p ... 2473-2474/

The SP 9010 group within Niles Canyon Ry. uses this company for certain paint masks (at one point they said something like "these guys are great, like their facebook page" so I did), they may have some SP patterns already:
https://www.facebook.com/StencilsOnline
https://www.stencilsonline.com/?fbclid= ... 48ExS7FTH0

Lots of resources for info on the SP as those above have already mentioned. I model the SP in S gauge and this site below is one of my favorites. Although he's "only" a modeler as well (unlike me he's a good modeler!) he's done lots of research into the SP and has some interesting pics and info. Worth a look to give some idea on what they did and when they did it. Ned

http://nightowlmodeler.blogspot.com/p/i ... r-car.html

Several computerized SP fonts are available here:

http://www.railfonts.com/cgi-bin/font_s ... page8.html

There are limitations here, as what was placed on cars was from draftsman prints, and these will have automatic font software spacing, but I have used Coifmann’s fonts on several full sized rail cars. Search on “DOTX 221” for a car lettered with his PRR font.

Steve

As for SSW/ Cotton Belt, the only passenger car (besides yours) I have seen photos of is the Fair Lane, a business car (that still exists at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn MI), below is a photo of it from the sixties. The font looks very similar to SP font.

I too have used Railfonts.com with good results on several full scale projects. If the photo linked here is what you are going for the SP Railroad Roman 3 looks like a good match. At full scale it may need to be tweaked a little here and there.

https://railpictures.net/showimage.php? ... ey=5437764

After loading the font print it out at the largest size for a letter size print and check it against your best photos.
If its OK a good graphics program like Adobe Illustrator will let you create a vector outline of each letter that can be scaled and positioned as needed. For masking probably cutting each letter individually and then placing the mask on the car will save on vinyl mask cost. For hand painting print to heavy paper and cut your own "dot" type stencil to transfer to the car.
If you're not up the the graphic work the font can be handed off to your graphics person for that. Remind them that it's copyrighted and just for the single use.

Adding to the books Brian mentioned

Jeffrey Alan Cauthen & John R Signor, Southern Pacific Painting and Lettering Guide, (Vol 1, Locomotives & Passenger Cars, 1913 to 1996) published by the Southern Pacific Historical & Technical Society, 2013

Of course like many wonderful books it is out of print.

I would be cautious about simply using SP standards for Cotton Belt equipment. The Cotton Belt had a significant amount of independence from its parent. For example, on Daylight painted diesels, SP used white grabs, while Cotton Belt used yellow...

Randy

I was looking around and found a photo of your car SSW Dixie in 1980. Edit: and there are a half-dozen in-service photos of SP #127 Alamo here http://espee.railfan.net/sp-business-cars.html