As noted in several recent posts, before WWII Scale-Craft had a line of decals. Shipped with drawings, these were sized correctly for OO and were used on the cars in all of their catalog photos and advertising.

They seem to have ran out of the decals during the war. After the war they contracted with Walthers to supply decals for their OO line. These were packed in a different style envelope and included the prewar drawings. Most likely a large quantity were optimistically purchased in 1946.

In a prior post (in 2012!) I looked at a boxcar lettered with the S-C/Walthers decals, and this Johnson tank car and decals provides an even better example to see the comparison. The prewar decals match the postwar decals — except that the postwar Walthers decals are actually HO scale, not OO as stated on the packages.

Looking at the drawing (which was packed in the envelope), it is clear that the postwar decals would not fit the car like the prewar decals. But all the elements are there (and more) and were deemed “good enough” by Scale-Craft.

I suspect an OO gauger of the time might have been a bit disappointed by the updated set overall. On the other hand would a car lettered with the postwar decals be rarer? In any case it is a decal type to keep on the lookout for.

More drawings of pre-war Scale-Craft OO decals may be found here.