That picture is helpful. Thanks!
Modeling the D&H in 1984: http://dandhcoloniemain.blogspot.com/
Here is a 1976 photo of a Pillsbury Air Slide hopper from Dan Kohlberg's decal site:
http://home.mindspring.com/~paducah/ga09.htm
Thank you to everyone for your advice. I now have an idea what I should be doing.
The flour residue would be found around the loading hatches and yes,flour is shipped in dedicated covered hoppers or 100 pound bags on pallets in 50' boxcars or 53' trailers.
A large bakery like (say) Nabisco will require several loads of flour daily for production and those airslides is just the ticket for bulk flour loads.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
My photos of Pillsbury covered hoppers show streaks of rust, grime outlining every vertical seam (easy to do with a #2 pencil) but not the sort of "powdered" whited out product sticking to the sides that you see with some cement covered hoppers (because water just washes flour away but mixes with cement). I'd suggest perhaps some modest flour spills on the roof but otherwise a fairly normal weathering job on the sides
Dave Nelson
The cars would probably be carrying grain to the Pillsbury plant. Flour would most likely be shipped out in sacks, either by truck or in earlier times in boxcars.
Covered hoppers are filled with grain using a long hose inserted into the car hatches, so there really isn't much spillage that would show (except maybe a little on the car roof). The sides would just show regular weathering - dirt, dust, mud etc.
I have some covered hoppers decorated for "Pillsbury" and assume that they carried flour. They have many small circular loading holes on the top, instead of long troughs.
Problem is, I have no idea how to properly weather them. I looked for prototype pictures online but most of the Pillsbury cars are just weathered covered hoppers, and don't show much flour residue on the outside (as opposed to cement covered hoppers, for example.)
Can anyone give me some advice? Thanks.