bedding straw

[countboese]

What could be used for bedding straw in 40's cattle cars ho, what color to paint acurail metal weights used as floor of car[?]

[Jetrock]

maybe a little cotton wool? and how about brown?

[Anonymous]

Why not paint brush bristles (Expensive). Woodland Scenics puts out a product that is suppose to simulate wheat or tall grass in a field, which I've seen used and looks very good and to scale.

Or..... Do you have any blonds in the family in need of a haircut?[:O]

[Anonymous]

Paint the weight a flat brown or gray color. I use tan Woodland Scenic's turf as straw. Don't forget the straw gets pretty chewed up, under the cattle so the turf looks pretty good. Also, I take my tube plastic glue and dribble little cow flops randomly inside. After the cow flops dry, I paint them Scalecoat's Cow Flop Brown. [;)]

[Anonymous]

Fine saw dust?

Andrew

[dknelson]

Perhaps the bristles of very cheap paint brushes?
Dave Nelson

[dknelson]

I neglected to say in my prior post -- look at old photos of cattle cars and other stock cars and you will notice what looks like a two-tone paint job. They sprayed a disinfectant that tended to make the bottom half of the outside of the car white. But it was not pure white, sort of a dusted white. Might might be simulated with powdered chalk fixed with dullcoat.
Dave Nelson

[orsonroy]

Believe it or not, railroads and stockyards didn't use straw to line stock cars, except in the winter. AAR rules clearly call for various thicknesses of SAND to line stock cars. Sand was thicker and was to be wetted down for pigs, and a thinner, dryer layer of sand was to be used for other livestock (cows, horses and sheep).

So you don't need to use anything to model straw......

Dave: only Canadian stock cars had their lower half painted white, to hide the discoloration of whatever disenfectant they used. Most American stock cars were just steam cleaned inside. Any light color streaking on US cars was generally from the steam and sand.

There are several good photos of 1940-1950 stock cars on the NEB&W website. It's a pay site, but has the best info on stock cars in general online. There are also several St Louis and Chicago stockyard websites, but they generally deal with Upton Sinclair's "Jungle", and very little REAL information. Te Denver Public Library photo collection has a few photos of stockyards, as does the Library of Congress online photo archive (all free sites).

[AltonFan]

QUOTE: After the cow flops dry, I paint them Scalecoat's Cow Flop Brown.

Is this actually a color in the Scalecoat line?

[Anonymous]

Dear AltonFan,
No, there was a winking smilie after this sentance. I thought saying cow flop brown was better than using S--t brown. Any brown will work, even black.

No, I don't attempt to make stock cars smell like stock cars!

[Anonymous]

Bedding straw can be simulated by shearing the fibers on an appropriately colored piece of scrap carpet. Go to a carpet outlet near you and ask if you can take scraps from their dumpster. I use this source for weeds, reeds and so forth. If you are patient, in time you will find carpet scraps of many colors that can be used on your layout.

Steam was, is, and forever will be king.

Tom

[Anonymous]

DES:

"Cow flop brown"[;)] gave me a good laugh.

Perhaps a 'formula' thread for cow flop brown? How about 1 part alfalfa yellow, 1 part browse green, 8 parts railroad tie brown?

Randy