something caught me eye recently on the old Wabash, (now NS) i was sitting in my car at a grade crossing waiting for a northbound train to pass and noticed that all the wheels were bright and silver on their outer rims. looked like a bunch of white wall tires. the entire train was that way and i only see it on an occasional train, not all of them.
obviously the result of recent hump yard activity where the retarders grip the wheels to control the car speed coming off the hill. the train was probably made up at either the A&S at E St Louis or the TRRA at Madison Il. and enroute to Decatur and beyond.
i'm sure this condition doesn't last long and the clean metal starts to rust again right away but it would be an interesting modeling idea.
grizlump