The thing about working on lettering is that there’s not much to show until it’s done. You spend hours squinting at photos, trying to decide if a circle is an oval, or if that’s just the angle, and even more hours deciding if it should be a hair skinnier or taller. Extra opinions help, and most of the family have weighed in.
It’s almost time to send these to the printer, along with the lettering for 622. Uncharacteristically for me, I decided to make a test before going ahead, and I’m glad I did. The “CANADA” did not initially fit between the stake pockets, but a little resizing fixed it in a jiffy.
Some of the lettering is unreadable in my one photograph, and so, I’ve had to make a best guess. On the right, the capacity and tare weights are half-correct, and half-guessed. On the left the mark for the Canada Atlantic Car Shops is a complete fabrication, shaped like the smudge in the photo (it is possible, but unlikely that the cars were made by Crossen or an American manufacturer). We turn-of-the-century modellers get used to this sort of thing.
Maybe getting some models complete will stir up better data. At least I can be fairly sure Rapido won’t come out with an RTR version.
Pembroke:87 
Hi René,
will you use decals or rub-ons?
Regards,
Andy
It’s going to be decals. My dry transfer guy was too expensive, especially considering I want to do the engine and flat cars in one order, and dry transfers are one colour per sheet.
Rene, it is my understanding that the Canada Atlantic built its own freight cars. I suspect this to be the case until Grand Trunk took over. At one time I could access a list of the various types of cars built, what year and their numbering on the internet but have been unsuccessful at finding the listings of late.
I will make reference to photos in ‘Over the Hills to Georgian Bay’ and ‘A Way to the West’ for my numbering however it is very difficult to discern some of the numbering. I have box cars, gondolas and flatcars to number. As for caboose I will number #4 and #10 as I have seen photos of both. I will also have Boston and Maine and Vermont and Province-line box cars. Lettering for these cars is very close to that of the Canada Atlantic.
Hi Peter,
Is https://sites.google.com/site/canadaatlanticry/ the site you were referring to? It is another of my sites, and the data is still there, just not always published for some Google reason (I should really just move it to WP as I’m more comfortable on this platform).
In any event, the CA did indeed build most of their cars. However, the V&PL cars (lettering and a builders photo available from Art Griffin) were from Pullman. The National Car Co (really CV) built the 5000-series and 8000-series box cars. The 2000-series cars (O&BLL) were also likely built elsewhere.
Cheers,
Rene
Thank’s Rene.