As my handle will likely tell ya... I am airplane guy... mostly. A long time a go though a RR guy told me a way to stain wood to look a weathered dark color.
The wood was soaked in a liquid with steel wool and it worked great. Can't for the life of me remember what the "liquid" was.
When dealing with wooden structures, I treat them like I would furniture, assemble, then stain, just remember to clean all excess glue from the joints. Once the glue dries, the stain won't penetrate it. As far as liquid, I've had good results with 90% rubbing alcohol (less water content than the 70%), mixed with the stain color you want to use. If you use commercial wood stain, remember, it will take longer to dry completely.
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
I have good results using Minwax commercial "stain". Available at any paint or hardware store. It's a "penetrating resin finish that soaks into the wood and hardens. It comes in all sorts of colors, from "special walnut" (really dark) thru colonial pine (quite light) and driftwood gray. Dries to recoat in an hour or so. Waterproofs the wood. Won't scratch off. The store will have a set of color chips showing the results on pine mostly. Basswood stains about the same as pine.
By the way, wood weathers out to a light driftwood gray , not dark. Look at phone poles. New they are a dark brown, almost black. They weather out to lighter and lighter shades of brown, and finally to light gray. Same goes for most wood exposed to the weather, like fences, flatcar floors, loading docks.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
wing_nut As my handle will likely tell ya... I am airplane guy... mostly. A long time a go though a RR guy told me a way to stain wood to look a weathered dark color. The wood was soaked in a liquid with steel wool and it worked great. Can't for the life of me remember what the "liquid" was.
Thanks for the responses. rrebell... I think that was it.