Do you weather different types of freight cars differently?

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

What (if anything) differently you do for weathering different types of freight cars? For instance, I’ve read some use a soldering iron near a gon or open-top hopper to bend the frame. Not looking for weathering tips in general, but specific cars.

Also, you weather more for older cars? I’ve got newer ones that I just remove the glossy look,

TIA!

2

The weathering I apply doesn’t really depend on the type of car as it does what the car is used for.

  • Passenger cars get a light dusting of a light earth or gray color.
  • Freight cars depend on the cargo they carry. Coal hoppers get a black dusting, gravel get a light gray, etc.
  • Of course, cars that have been in service for a long time get the full treatment; streaks running down the side, rust patches, etc.

As for weathering new cars, I generally give the bottom edge a light earth color (tan), along with the trucks. Then apply a coat of Dullcote to kill that new car sheen.

3

I weather my cars based first on their age, and then, for the most part, on their service and where they would have most commonly operated. Hoppers, both open and covered, along with gondolas and flatcars, are the ones most likely to have their weathering reflect their service.
Most of my flatcars and gondolas are fairly recently built, and don’t yet show much of the abuse to which these cars are often subjected.

This gondola was picked up used, with poorly-applied D&H lettering hiding the factory-applied PM lettering. I stripped away both, then added metal grabs and sill steps. The car was then repainted and lettered for Lehigh Valley, using Champ decals. Even though it’s no older than my home-road gondola shown above, it got the soldering iron treatment:

Some old blocking and dunnage material, along with a generous helping of loose dirt completed the “used” look:

Besides using paint as actual applied weathering, it can also help to show a car’s age. This automobile boxcar, built in 1916, was last re-weighed in September of 1935. It still has only a single grab iron on the end of the side to the left of the door. By the time its next re-weighing is due, in March, 1938, it will have either been scrapped or re-built into a steel-sided car, with either double- or single-doors.

Here are some home-road steel boxcars