I cleaned up my workbench last night when I had a few minutes of time and came across a package of eraser pens I picked up at the tool store a while ago that I forgot about.  One each of steel, brass and nylon.  This morning when I had a few free minutes before heading to work I thought I would try out the nylon pen to see how it did on the lettering on a boxcar.  I bought a pile of these Buffalo boxcars (see  https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/a-herd-of-buffalo-12196824 ) for a very good price but there are only 3 different numbers on the cars so they need a redo.  Since they were cheap I figured they were a good way to test the new tool. 

I elected to start with the nylon pen as I thought the brass and steel ones would be way too aggressive on the underlying paint.  The nylon did quick work on the lettering without affecting the paint.  All told it took about 3 minutes to remove the second last digit from both car sides and the ends.  A bit of the boxcar red came off as well but I can't see any difference compared to the paint around the lettering.  One car down, 20+ to go.

Before

  After.  The pen set was cheap (~$5 for 3 pens) so this is a very economical way to remove lettering.  Now if the pen would only remove the oversized rivets without affecting the paint... 

I think the steel pen might work well for distressed wood effects, and the brass pen might be usable for more aggressive lettering and paint removal.  More distractions ahead I suspect. 

Marc Simpson