As you can see from my Forum name and avatar, I'm a CNJ modeler. I wanted to "weather" my rolling stock wheels and I'v realized that virtually every prototype photo of rolling stock on the CNJ showed wheels that had a thick black coat of I'm-not-sure-what on the wheel faces. See photo below.
I'm guessing that since the CNJ hauled about a zillion tons of coal from the mines to port, that there was a LOT of coal dust to adhere to the oil and grease that coated the wheel faces. As a kid growing up in Dunellen, NJ in the 60's we used to walk the tracks and pick up chunks of coal that fell from hoppers and tenders, so I know from experience that the railroad shed a LOT of coal along the line.
I've been experimenting with paint and powder to make my HO wheels look like those pictured below . I just tried mixing some Monroe Modles grimy black weathering powder into Model Master Grimy black paint but the result wasn't close to the look in that photo.
Seems like most of the articles I've seen on weathering freight car wheels focuses on rust. While that may be the dominant effect on the Union PAcific or the Boston & maine, scanning many, many color photos of CNJ equipment both passenger and freight reveals the dominant look is thick, almost three-dimensional dull black oily crud.
Any thoughts on how to duplicate that in HO scale?
Thanks,
Ed
cnjman721Seems like most of the articles I've seen on weathering freight car wheels focuses on rust.
Rust is the look you want for roller bearing journal wheel faces.
With the solid brass (with babbitt liner) journal there was oil filling the bottom-third of the journal box. There was a felt seal at the back of the box that was supposed to keep dust out and oil in. Cotton waste or in later years, special pads that looked like mop heads were used to transfer the film of oil to the journal face at the bottom.
If a car "knocker" overfilled the journal box there would certainly be oil seeping out the rear seal.
In the case of hopper cars if they ever traveled on a McMyler dumper or any other rotary dumper the oil would have yet another way to escape and deposit onto the wheel face where it would collect all sorts of dust.
A pretty big source of dust back then was brake shoe dust. Before the advent of composition shoes, the old cast iron shoes would generate quite a bit of fine, flaking iron oxide which would quickly deposit onto the wheel faces, adhered by the sticky oil.
After a trip through a rotary dumper some locations would use an automated oiler to return the oil level to the journal boxes:
Gateway_oiler by Edmund, on Flickr
Early roller bearings were oil bath type but had much better seals. Present-day roller bearings are packed in grease and are "NFL" meaning not field lubricated.
Good Luck, Ed
I see what you mean about the colour being black with no rust.
I would try an experiment with a spare plastic wheelset and try using some Delta Ceramcoat Charcoal paint with some texture medium blended in. Then brush on an excessively thick coat of Dullcoat from a bottle.
I give it about a 45% chance of success.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Ed, Good observation about the CNJ coal hauling and a nice proto-photo.
Not sure if this method will yield the look you're after. I like to airbrush wheel faces with a flat base color, maybe a dark grey for the CNJ? After paint is dry a brush coat of Pan Pastel, again maybe a very dark grey or black for CNJ, then a light airbrush application of Dullcote, repeat with Pan Pastel & Dullcote as needed.
GN cov. hopper 71482's wheel faces were done this way.
Regards, Peter
I have looked through all the pictures of my rolling stock, and GORRE AND DAPHETID number 8409 seems to have come closest to what you are looking for.
These were painted dark gray, then had washes of Citadel Nuln Oil wash brushed over them until they were dark enough.
I use a decades-old bottle of Floquil Pullman Green, with various types of black paint and other green paints added over the years, plus an occasional addition of some lacquer thinner. It makes a very good representation of the sludge you would see on the face of wheels installed in trucks with solid bearings.I use a not-to good brush to paint the wheel faces, usually when they're in the trucks which are mounted on the car - no point wasting time with dis-assembly and re-assembly. I then wipe the brush on a rag or paper towel, then get the rust coloured paint (could have started out as a rust colour, but I add whatever colours might be needed to keep it as some sort of a "rust-colour")...this one's been around as long as the oily green, and I use the same brush to paint the backsides of the wheels and the axles, too. The whole operation, front and rear, might take five minutes...less if I'm doning multiple carsWhile I do have some rolling stock with metal wheels, I much prefer plastic - rolls just as well, but is a lot quieter.If I wanted to do so, I'd remove the paint from the wheelrims of some of the metal wheels, to simulate what happens when a real car goes through the retarders at a humpyard.
I also weather pretty-well all of my rolling stock, to varying degrees, so some of those oily wheel-faces no longer look all that oily...just like some real cars.When I ran cars with rollerbearing trucks, the wheels were rust-coloured, front and back (and some of those got an overspray of "dust", too).
I can't think of any particular car that would stand-out from the rest...they're all done in a similar manner, weathered to varying degrees (determined by their age and service) and, I hope, with nothing particular that would cause a viewer ask "What did you do to mess-up that one?"
Here's one (a Train Miniature car with a few detail upgrades, a modified underbody to put the trucks closer to the car's ends, and Champ decal lettering on an airbrushed body shell, along with somewhat revised brake gear) from the four hundred-or-so that are in-service...
Wayne
Weathering wheels is my first step in rolling stock modeling, closely tied to sideframe and underbody weathering. The basis for all of the running gear weathering is a coat of Testors Model Master burnt umber enamel, especially on models representing cars that have been in service for years. Then, depending on the prototype, Pan Pastel powders are used to impart a rust effect on roller bearing cars, or a gritty, oily look on solid bearing cars.
Roller bearing cars get a dark rust on older sideframes with a lighter gray mud splatter around the spring group on some cars, especially gons, hoppers and those covered hoppers that would serve industries where a muddy environment is common. A lighter rust appears on newer cars after a base coat of burnt umber is applied. Wheel faces are given a burnt sienna tint applied in a random manner. The entire goal is to make each car a separate, independant model, as no two cars weather exactly alike. One point that should be remembered is, whatever effect represented on the wheels would also be found on the ends, splattered there by the very wheelsets we are modeling, meaning keep enough wheel paint to splatter the car ends as well as the end bays of hoppers and covered hoppers next to the wheels. Its all about making all of the seperate components appear as parts of the overall unit.
Weathering solid bearing cars begins and ends with burnt umber. A very dark grey weathering powder can be used to give the effect as illustrated on the CNJ caboose. Due to the fact that our artificial, indoor lighting in no way approaches the brilliance of natural sunlight, the only place I would use straight black paint is inside a diesel exhaust, if it has been throwing oil-otherwise, it is a "weathered" or "engine" black. On a car representing one that has a journal that for what ever reason is slinging oil, a darker, semi-gloss burnt umber would appear on the wheel face. The oil does not migrate to the rest of the wheel, axle, or car. Just like roller bearing cars, solid bearing cars take on the effects of their operating environments but, to a greater degree because of the oil holding the brake dust and other dirt on the running gear.
Passenger equipment is treated much the same as freight, with the base color being burnt umber, even if the underbody color is supposed to be "black". I found this out when I got up the nerve to take a brush to one of my Rapido, New Haven 8600 series coaches! It suddenly had all of the things I remembered-and paid Rapido to put there! I never slowed down until all of them,now had "underbody detail".
Since I had taken the plunge on the 8600s, I studied color photographs of NH passenger equipment and realized that due to the fact that car washers don't do underbodies, trucks, roofs or ends, they ain't all slick and shiny, even the stainless steel stuff. Depending on the railroad's finances, and the time of year, passenger equipment can look as nasty as the freight. One thing that stood out to me was, the underbody takes on the same rusty color of the track! This does not mean repainting the bottoms of your passenger fleet at the same time you are weathering your track. You DO weather your track--I hope? Just a light dusting or patina on the under body working from railhead upward is what you want to replicate. This color should be evident where the car washers regularly miss, especially in the area of the trucks and steps. Take a look at the passenger fleet of your pet road and follow their example. Passenger cars weather differently because in most cases, they operate in the same environment, daily. That is why they take on home road track colors, especially those of their regular ops regions.
Passenger car wheels weather much like freight cars. Solid bearing cars won't usually show the oily wheel faces that freight cars do, because passenger cars receive closer attention and better handling, for obvious reasons. The one area where passenger cars exceed freight cars is in brake dust buildup. As on freight cars, this can be simulated with a dark grey shading in the area of the trucks.
As much as I have looked, I haven't found any of the chromed freight car wheels the model manufacturers see everywhere. Nor do I paint my truck springs reefer orange as so many weathering articles in the modeling press direct us to do. I just try to copy what I see, in prototype observation, the only ones that do it correctly. You can't go wrong doing it that way.
NHTXDepending on the railroad's finances, and the time of year, passenger equipment can look as nasty as the freight.
I recently began a weathering "program" for some of my head end cars:
Head-End_Dusty by Edmund, on Flickr
Just the first batch of many. Small details and highlights will soon follow.
Note how the baggage car on the track behind the GG1 has more of a dark gray look than the rust/dust/grime of the B60b behind the G.
Penn Central GG1 4918 at Baltimore 1968 by Charles Warren, on Flickr
I agree, weathering sure brings out the details. My P70s will be next.
Regards, Ed
Ed,
Your head end equipment is beautiful, especially the PRR B-60s but, are much cleaner than the PRR stuff I remember. The X-29s and B-60s that showed up in Boston's South Station were so dark and dirty, it was as if they had no lettering, other than chalk marks. The Southern and Seaboard head end cars actually had some gloss on them while, the NYC stuff was usually trying hard to reach the PRR level of dirtiness. MoPac, Lackawanna and REA were "worn" but fairly presentable. Thinking back, it is as if each road had its own standards as to how much dirt was tolerated.
Your photo of the PC GG-1 led train is an excellent illustration of how much passenger equipment and, to some degree, locomotive underbody and running gear takes on a rustiness similar to that of the track it runs on. Note the similarity between the B-60 and the track.
Thanks, N-H
I, too, remember seeing lots of filthy head-end stuff coming through Cleveland on the NYC and I'd watch the Pennsy in Canton and Crestline. Occasionally some clean equipment came through but not often.
I remember after Amtrak it was thrilling to see the bright yellow of the U.P. cars and clean stainless of the SCL Budd stuff.
Still, on my layout I'd like to keep to moderate weathering with an occasional "just pulled out of the river" car here and there. Again, I do see quite a variety of equipment in varying degrees of "filth".
Here's proof that at least one B60 got a little soap and water:
GG1 4894 going through the Sunnyside washer by Charles Warren, on Flickr
The noses of the GG1s were always caked with more grime since the wash brushes never touched them:
PENN CENTRAL GG1 4879 at South Amboy 1973 by Charles Warren, on Flickr
Great observations about passenger car weathering!