I have two bulkhead flat cars that need loads. I am thinking about I-beams for them. I found several pics online, but I need help on what color looks best for them.
Here is a pic of what I am talking about.
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=391115
I think the color is either primer gray, unpainted steel, but tarnished, or tarnished black.
Thanks for the help in advance.
I use rattle cans of flat black and oxide red, then go over it with a wash of thinned silver acrylic. For fresh rust, you can use a raw umber with a dry brush.
Lee
Will,
My suggestion would be since they are being shipped on a rail car, that would more than likely make the steel being shipped from a rolling mill, warehouse or a shipping terminal. It is highly unlikely that a fabricator would ship steel by rail since a fabricator would be shipping the steel to its final destination or place of erection, which would most likely not have rail service. Since we are going to say that the steel is not being shipped by a fabricator, that would eliminate the steel being primed since the above three sources would not prime the shipment. So if we are to say that the car load of steel is then coming from the rolling mill, warehouse or shipping terminal (foreign sourced steel transported by ship - ie:china), then the steel would be covered in mill scale which is a residue from the rolling process. The steel on the bulkhead flatcar in the picture you attached is in its raw state which is mill scale. Up close its a blackish grey color with rust in places where the mill scale has come off. You could probably replicate the look by painting your steel load with something like weathered black and then drybrushing it lightly over the entire surface with a rust color or weathering powders. What I have seen in the field is that the exposed edges of the beam flanges and the fillet where the web meets the flanges are where the rust is the heaviest as well as the ends where the beam has been cut to length.
Pat
Well, I wrote a nice long answer explaining how and why they use rail to ship oversize items but my connection failed when I hit “post” and lost it all. Needless to say the air here is still a bit on the “blue” side.
Let me just ask the question of how do you suppose they ship bridge girders and those long I-Beams for buildings, there is a weight and size limitation for trucks on the highway thankfully even though it has been expanded way beyond what it should be.
Mark
I made a load of crane parts being shipped from the manufacturers to a steel plant, to be assembled on-site. There’d be lots of other components shipped in boxcars, too.
For steel, the structural shapes from Plastruct in ABS, while a bit heavy, are a good colour for recently-rolled steel. Add a thin spray of brownish-grey rust if you wish. I used their ABS sheets to create a load of light plate steel:
…although the light weathering doesn’t show in this photo:
Wayne
Mark,
I’m guessing that your directing your post/question to me. If not then ignore my response.
I’m not saying that they never ship fabricated structural steel members by rail but it is not the norm. Like I said earlier, unless there is a rail siding at the final destination of the steel, it is going to be shipped most likely by truck at some point in its journey to get it to the jobsite. There are instances when it is shipped by barge to the jobsite also but those instances are limited as well. Steel in lengths upto 80 feet long can be shipped over the road by truck but again that is not the norm. Most structural steel used in the construction of buildings is much less then 80 feet long. Columns can typically be anywheres from 30 to 50 feet long and beams almost any length but usually not more than the distance from one column to another which could be almost any spacing but typically no more than say 30 feet or so long. The length of the steel is dictated by the design and how it is going to be erected.
As for the weight being shipped by truck, with the proper permitting, trailer and axle setup, extremely heavy loads can be hauled over the road. If the steel members start to get big enough where weight is a concern they will reduce the load to a single piece. You see this done alot with bridge girders. Don’t forget that if the steel is shipped by train, truck or barge you still have to get it off its mode of transportation, which takes a crane. Cranes only come so big so they can’t ship a piece of steel that will exceed the ca
LeJeune Steel in south Minneapolis MN, on Progressive Rail’s former MN&S/Soo/CP “high line”, regularly receives gondolas of steel I-beams which it presumably then sells to contractors in the area. Usually they’re in long gondolas, EJ&E or BNSF gondolas are common. The color is sort of a dark metallic gray as best I can recall.