I like my trains to look clean.[:)]
The real world is weathered why should’nt my model world be?
Lightly weathered.
I prefer to model a day & age when locos were the pride of their crews - like a racy sportscar is today. As “Sin der Pitt” editorialized in MR a number of years ago - the crews kept their Iron Steeds in 1st. class livery. Anybody who dirty’ed up the engine got a taste of ire from the crew. This could be th crew of the little pigsty switching the yard who sprayed the polish job with steam from blow offs, or the farmer who stalled on the tracks with a load of chickens and eggs. (Read George B. Abdill’'s “A Locomotive Engineer’s Album”) Read the accounts of SP&S’s No. 700. Her Engineer (ret) stated in her history " we didn’t let her get dirty. !st. thing when she came in from a run - she got a steam & kerosene bath."
Look at photos of the old steamers and trains when they posed for their portrates. In many of them you can see the scenery reflected in the varnish, paint, and polished brass. This includes both cars and Locos.
But I must bow a certain extent to reality. The weathering I alow is a very light coating of what I call “desert dust” on freight cars - boxes, flats, etc. I apply vibrant earth colored chalk, and spray it with a sealer of Dullcoat. I have done it only on MDC, etc rolling stock. This process has received kudos at the club.
1st. Lady of the Northwest
No. 700
Westbound, Sunset Jct.,
Spokane WA.
Randy
I weather everything; locos, rolling stock, structures, landscapes, etc. Most items get get light to moderate weathering. A few items get the works when it comes to being weathered! I like models and scenery to look realistic and natural.
I love to weather but i don’t do it to often.
I like the BN box car pic.
Unless the builders just finished the building yesterday or it just rolled out of the plant
it gets weathered. That’s the way life is, is it not???
Heady! Things get real dirty, that’s life, although I haven’t done much yet, I plan on it.
Eventually I want everything weathered, but right now, probably only one in ten pieces of rolling stock has gotten “the treatment” because of all the extra time involved. Some will only be lightly weathered, while others will be rust-buckets, but I want to do as realistic job as possible, not just slop on some chalk and a wash and call it good. And since I’m still developing my weathering techniques, each car is an experiment, so I’ve not been too speedy at getting it done.
We like to dirty them up a bit…
While everything in the real world shows some degree of weathering, all too often modelers get carried away and make their weathering dependent on how many decades separate the modeled era from today, i.e. if its the 1920’s or 30’s, everything is covered in grime and filth. In fact 70-80 years ago railroad equipment for the most part looked a whole lot better than today’s motive power and rolling stock! Same goes for structures. One of the biggest mistakes hobbyists make is to depict the Great Depression era as a time of total decrepitude, decay, and filth. Such was actually true in very few places.
In contrast, today one often really does see prototype locomotives and rolling stock almost too filthy to identify by roadname or so rusted as to make one wonder how they are held together. Likewise, probably the worst indications of urban decay did not center on the Depression but rather in the 1960’s, when totally rundown and boarded-up urban structures reached a pinacle and massive urban renewal began.
So…since I model the years at the outset of WWII, I choose “lightly weathered” for my response. And I strongly suggest anyone weathering their equipment and scenery go by period photographs and not by imagination if their intent is to represent the world of bigtime railroading as it really was/is.
CNJ831
I like to do a mix of weathering, Some buildings and Rollingstock are new some old. just have to decide what you want to be Aged.
Here are some cars i weathered, these were my first attempts…
Enjoy !!!
Marc
Midniteflyer, one word “NICE”!!!
Weathered. I haven’t began yet though still constructing the layout.