Hi Wayne.
Thanks for sharing your techniques. As always, another good tutorial from the master.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Some very nice examples of weathering have been shown, and each of us have our own methods and preferences about the degree of weathering needed.If you have an airbrush, it offers an easy entrance into weathering even if your skills are still pretty basic.
This car represents a pretty new one on my late '30s layout, but I wanted it to look at least a bit used. To achieve a not-new look, I simply selected a boxcar red - doesn't matter too much if it's the same one originally used on the car or not. Pour a small amount into the jar used on your airbrush, then add some thinner - lots of thinner. The mixture should be about 90-95% thinner.Take a few vertical practice passes on a scrap of paper or cardboard, then do the car: quick vertical strokes, overlapping a bit, and don't forget the ends and roof. This will do little or nothing to the car's colour, but it will tone-down the starkness of the lettering. Now it's no longer a new car.
I also added a little dust and road dirt along the bottom edge. All you need is a light earth colour, well-thinned, and a place where you can roll the car back-and-forth as you spray. I use an old Bowser turntable, but a 15" length of 1"x2" will suffice. Place the car with the wheels nearest you over the edge of the wood, then use your free hand to roll the car back and forth as you spray. This keeps the wheels turning, so that they accumulate the "dirt" over their entire face. Flip the car around and repeat for the other side.
Before you put the airbrush away, don't forget the car's ends. They tend to get streaks of wheelspray from adjacent cars when in motion. A simple masking device makes this an easy job, allowing you to do at least a couple of cars per minute.
Here's the device I use. It's .060" sheet styrene, the interior width just enough to accommodate any rolling stock in your particular scale. The cut-out at the centre bottom is at coupler height, and the two tapered slots are for the wheelspray effect:
...and this shows it in use. Same well-thinned paint and same quick vertical passes. Check and repeat as you feel necessary:
I used both light and dark colours on this one, but it's still fairly subtle. The distance you hold the mask from the end will affect the width and the definition of the spray effect:
...not much here:
...and fairly indistinct on this one:
...and more noticeable here:
When the paint is well-thinned, it helps to prevent accidental over-weathering, at least at first. This allows you to build-up the weathering effects gradually.
Weathering paint can also add dimensionality to a car. The steel sides of a boxcar aren't really all that thick, and, over time, that becomes more apparent. To achieve this shadow effect, I used a colour darker than the car - anything from a darker version of the car's original colour right up to black, well-thinned of course. I used a business card as a mask, holding it against the car's side at each vertical row of rivets. Cover the panel to either side of the joint line on one side of the door, then, on the other side of the door, reverse the position of the card - in other words, spray either the area where the rivets are visible or where they're hidden by the card. On the car below, the seam between panels is between the paired rows of rivets, and it looks as if the widely-spaced rivets were the ones covered, so each side of the door was sprayed towards that end of the car:
When I first got into weathering, I used masks like the one shown below. Each is light cardstock, notched with slots similar to the mask for car ends. I have several of these, each spaced to match the panel lines of a particular maker's car:
This car was done with a similar mask, but the effect was too stark for my tastes:
I eventually managed to tone it down a bit, using an overspray of well-thinned boxcar red, but still a bit much, I think:
This is the car shown previously under the custom-cut mask. It got some very heavy weathering, (sprays, washes, and more sprays) over a period of several years, and is probably one of my "dirtiest". However, even though it's now got more paint on it than when it was at it's dirtiest (over-weathered for sure), I'm not overly dispeased with it:
An overspray of boxcar red pulled it back from a total repainting, and the fresher re-weigh info, along with a cleaning attempt by a switchman trying to discern the car number made it acceptable to me.
Wayne
I model 1907, so weathering looks quite a bit different than in more modern times. For freight cars, grafiti obviously doesn't exist yet and most cars are all wood, so rust is much less prominent than on metal-body cars.
Here are some freight cars that I've done a little work on recently (a mix of plastic and wood kits and modified ready-to-run cars from Blackstone):
These cars are generally weathered first with washes of paint close to the cars' body color to fade the lettering, followed by Bragdon powders, and then a shot of Dullcoat. Overall, I try to keep the cars' relative age and environment in mind. For example, UA&P boxcar 1061 is probably about 20 years older than the SPV boxcars behind it. Since my freelanced roads are set in the mountains and desert of southern Utah, dustiness is the predominant effect, with some dirt and mud kicked up around the trucks, and plenty of soot on the roofs from spending lots of time behind steam locomotives.
Speaking of steam locomotives, they look a bit different in 1907 as well. This was a time when locomotives were well cared for, and many were frequently cleaned and polished.
#20 is a good example of this:
#20, a significantly modified Blackstone C-19, has a clean Russia Iron boiler jacket and freshly polished brass work. Note that she does, however, have some dust kicked up around the pilot, running gear, and tender trucks, as well as some grime on the smokebox and soot on the cab roof. A closer-up look would reveal some cinders on the running boards as well.
Sister engine #19 looks to have spent a little more time out on the road lately and is a bit dirtier.
#16 has mostly seen yard service lately and thus is the dirtiest of the SPV engines. Truth be told, #16 was the first of my engines to get weathered and it came out somewhat heavier than I had wanted, but I can live with it.
Chris
BATMANThank goodness for modern environmental regs.
We tend to take our clean air for granted and assume it has always been this way. But here's what Chicago looked like in the 1940s...
The Merchandise Mart in '46...http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/cushman/full/P03134.jpg
The Merchandise Mart today...http://file26.mafengwo.net/M00/3F/ED/wKgB4lNLjBuAZjXTAAHZPpff8tQ23.jpeg
The Art Institute in '41...http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/cushman/full/P02197.jpg
And today...http://www.saic.edu/media/saic/gfx/about/buildinghistory/building_history_badge.jpg
The LaSalle-Wacker building in 1948...http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/cushman/full/P03998.jpg
And today...https://www.multihousingnews.com/Photos/450px-Civic_Opera_House_060528-2.jpg
Steve S
I think one thing that nobody mentioned is that with this thing called the internet you can find pictures of almost every car or locomotive and see exactly what they look like so you can use the picture as an example of how and where to add weathering. Go to your favorite search engine and click on "IMAGES" and then search. Of course if you are modeling an era different than when the picture was taken you need to make adjustments.
j........
Thank you all for the good thoughts on this so far and the really fine examples posted. I learned even more about weathering.
For me worrying about ruining the value of a piece of rolling stock by the possibility screwing up a weathering job just doesn't hold water. If you are looking for investments I would suggest toy trains are the wrong vehicle for a good return on your dollar. My view on "purchases for pleasure" is that I look at the hours of enjoyment for the cost and what they are worth when I am done with them won't matter even if I am still alive. MRR offers a very good return on cost when I think of the hundreds of hours I have spent in the train room.
I have had the oppoutunity to step inside some roundhouse and other similar engine shops that had been in service for a hundred years give or take. My boots could not come in contact with the concrete floor if my life depended on it. A very thick layer of dirt and grease lay btween the floor that was poored a hundred years ago and the bottom of my workboots. It was like walking on the thick rubber mats at the ice rink.
I am old enough to remember dirty plces like this and the railyard I am trying to emulate was way worse than this in so many ways. Thank goodness for modern environmental regs.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Of course you can get dirt and weathering wrong. To avoid that, I spend some time researching how to weather and what colors are often seen on different cars. Freight cars are meant to get dirty and do things. Having them sit with their shiny finishes makes them look toy-like.
I've not touched my first loco yet, b/c I'm focusing on trackwork and scenery on my expanded layout. I will hit the loco soon, but will follow the same philosphy of how to weather the loco so it looks 'loved' without being overdone.
JWhite Things were incredibly dirty during the steam and transition era in much of the country. Soft coal was burned for everything from steam locomotives to home heating. When I was a boy in the 1960s we lived in a house that had a coal furnace for awhile. The dirt, grime and dust was unbelievable. Let's not forget that many larger cities were taking steps to curtail the use of coal as far back as the early 1900s. It was laws passed to eliminate the use of coal fired locomatives that prompted electrification of the railroads in many areas. Photos from that era, especially color photos will reveal just how dirty things were. I agree that weathering is easily overdone, but I don't think you can accurately model the steam and transition era without weathering and in some places that weathering needs to be very heavy.
Things were incredibly dirty during the steam and transition era in much of the country. Soft coal was burned for everything from steam locomotives to home heating. When I was a boy in the 1960s we lived in a house that had a coal furnace for awhile. The dirt, grime and dust was unbelievable. Let's not forget that many larger cities were taking steps to curtail the use of coal as far back as the early 1900s. It was laws passed to eliminate the use of coal fired locomatives that prompted electrification of the railroads in many areas.
Photos from that era, especially color photos will reveal just how dirty things were. I agree that weathering is easily overdone, but I don't think you can accurately model the steam and transition era without weathering and in some places that weathering needs to be very heavy.
I remember a black and white photo of Pittsburg in our geography books and it's hard to believe people lived there. I visited Pittsburg for the first time in the early 1980s and thought it was one of the most beautiful cities I'd ever been in although a royal pain to drive into or out of. I do remember driving through Gary, Indiana in the late 1960s on our way to Chicago and the air was so bad we had to roll the windows up in the middle of summer with no AC. I'm guessing that too has improved from an air quality standpoint.
jecorbett ATLANTIC CENTRAL jecorbett Maybe this has already been covered in this topic but since my modeling railroading is limited to the cold weather months I may have missed it. The idea is similar to that expressed in the OP and it occurred to me last week in writing about my town of Willoughby which is an idylic town at the end of my branchline. It was inspired by an episode of The Twilight Zone and is the kind of place you could imagine Beaver Cleaver having grown up in. It is in sharp contrast to the other town on the branchline which is Summit Station. It is something of a sin city, with some of the structures coming from the Downtown Deco series. Anyone familiar with that line probably knows the kind of establishments I am talking about. So a possible future topic for FF might be whether modeler's layouts represent an idealistic world or a more gritty, realistic world, warts and all. I do agree that some stuff should look new, others things lightly worn, other things worn out - that is real life...... As to you second point above, I lean toward a somewhat idealistic world in my modeling - no visable crime, no slums, no fires in progress, etc. And I am inclined to "leave out" some things that are not part of my real life - no Bars, for example. And, as a result of this view, nearly all my weathering leans to the lighter side, I paint buildings bright cheerful colors, even if I then weather them slightly, etc. I want a realistic version of a "good" world, even if that is a contradiction. Crime would only be shown if it involved a clear depiction of the bad guys loosing......but I would rather not bother. Sheldon Even my idylic town of of Willoughby has a couple taverns. It is after all a lakeside resort town and naturally the visitors would want a place to wet their whistle. Nothing wrong with Dad stopping in for a beer after work either. As for the other types of establishments which I won't name because this is a family oriented website, I'll leave that for the sin city. As for crime, Willoughy does have a city hall/police station that is one of the more prominent structures but one could imagine Andy and Barney keeping the order in this peaceful burg. Just in case, it is right next to the bank.
ATLANTIC CENTRAL jecorbett Maybe this has already been covered in this topic but since my modeling railroading is limited to the cold weather months I may have missed it. The idea is similar to that expressed in the OP and it occurred to me last week in writing about my town of Willoughby which is an idylic town at the end of my branchline. It was inspired by an episode of The Twilight Zone and is the kind of place you could imagine Beaver Cleaver having grown up in. It is in sharp contrast to the other town on the branchline which is Summit Station. It is something of a sin city, with some of the structures coming from the Downtown Deco series. Anyone familiar with that line probably knows the kind of establishments I am talking about. So a possible future topic for FF might be whether modeler's layouts represent an idealistic world or a more gritty, realistic world, warts and all. I do agree that some stuff should look new, others things lightly worn, other things worn out - that is real life...... As to you second point above, I lean toward a somewhat idealistic world in my modeling - no visable crime, no slums, no fires in progress, etc. And I am inclined to "leave out" some things that are not part of my real life - no Bars, for example. And, as a result of this view, nearly all my weathering leans to the lighter side, I paint buildings bright cheerful colors, even if I then weather them slightly, etc. I want a realistic version of a "good" world, even if that is a contradiction. Crime would only be shown if it involved a clear depiction of the bad guys loosing......but I would rather not bother. Sheldon
jecorbett Maybe this has already been covered in this topic but since my modeling railroading is limited to the cold weather months I may have missed it. The idea is similar to that expressed in the OP and it occurred to me last week in writing about my town of Willoughby which is an idylic town at the end of my branchline. It was inspired by an episode of The Twilight Zone and is the kind of place you could imagine Beaver Cleaver having grown up in. It is in sharp contrast to the other town on the branchline which is Summit Station. It is something of a sin city, with some of the structures coming from the Downtown Deco series. Anyone familiar with that line probably knows the kind of establishments I am talking about. So a possible future topic for FF might be whether modeler's layouts represent an idealistic world or a more gritty, realistic world, warts and all.
Maybe this has already been covered in this topic but since my modeling railroading is limited to the cold weather months I may have missed it. The idea is similar to that expressed in the OP and it occurred to me last week in writing about my town of Willoughby which is an idylic town at the end of my branchline. It was inspired by an episode of The Twilight Zone and is the kind of place you could imagine Beaver Cleaver having grown up in. It is in sharp contrast to the other town on the branchline which is Summit Station. It is something of a sin city, with some of the structures coming from the Downtown Deco series. Anyone familiar with that line probably knows the kind of establishments I am talking about. So a possible future topic for FF might be whether modeler's layouts represent an idealistic world or a more gritty, realistic world, warts and all.
I do agree that some stuff should look new, others things lightly worn, other things worn out - that is real life......
As to you second point above, I lean toward a somewhat idealistic world in my modeling - no visable crime, no slums, no fires in progress, etc. And I am inclined to "leave out" some things that are not part of my real life - no Bars, for example.
And, as a result of this view, nearly all my weathering leans to the lighter side, I paint buildings bright cheerful colors, even if I then weather them slightly, etc.
I want a realistic version of a "good" world, even if that is a contradiction.
Crime would only be shown if it involved a clear depiction of the bad guys loosing......but I would rather not bother.
Sheldon
Even my idylic town of of Willoughby has a couple taverns. It is after all a lakeside resort town and naturally the visitors would want a place to wet their whistle. Nothing wrong with Dad stopping in for a beer after work either. As for the other types of establishments which I won't name because this is a family oriented website, I'll leave that for the sin city. As for crime, Willoughy does have a city hall/police station that is one of the more prominent structures but one could imagine Andy and Barney keeping the order in this peaceful burg. Just in case, it is right next to the bank.
I don't have anything against taverns/bars, it's just not part of my lifestyle......
I do model police and fire stations - my father was a volunteer fire fighter, my son is a fire fighter and EMT - I just don't feel any need to model either "in action".
As for other "vice" crime, I know some modelers who think that is "cute", but I will pass. Respectfully, I think some who model such things actually never had any "problems" in their lives, so it is "adventurous" to put that stuff on thier layouts. My life has had enough real life drama with one ex-wife, three grown children and three grown step children - I don't need even a hint of drama on my layout.......
I prefer to set a different example for my grand children......and other viewers.
This video which is mostly in color will give you some idea of how dirty things were in those days: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEdoxdnHwRY
There is a shot of IC 4-8-2 2550 being washed at 10:48 on the video. There is so much soot and grime on the engine that it almost looks grey. It's very revealing as to just how dirty a locomotive got. The IC (like the PRR) painted the roof of the cabs and the tops of the tenders a box car red color. But a lot of people don't realize it because from the photos of the era the locomotives are so dirty that you would think they were all black. The lettering on IC steam was aluminum, yet many of the manufacturers of the few RTR locos in IC colors use white lettering. Again because the dirt and the mainly black and white photography from that era makes the lettering look white.
This general dirty look doesn't just apply to the railroad equipment. Structures along the right of way also were covered with dirt and grime. Here is a photo of an IC cypress water tower that is still standing in Centralia, IL. This water tower is nearly a block from the tracks and fed a water spout located at the passenger platform. You can see how black it is.
I do most of my weathering with acrylic washes.
I think that you have to weather for the lighting on the layout. The last picture is of a roof taken with the flash. It looks very overdone and garish under the bright light. But under room light it looks pretty good. A lot like applying makeup for the stage or film.
You can also look at the vintage color photography from Jack Delano during WWII online. Everything was dirty in that era. Of course, there were new cars, cars fresh from rebuilding with new paint and lot or railroads kept their passenger equipment washed the way most of us wash our cars. So I think there needs to be a mix. My personal philosphy is that I model the transition era and the the equipment, the structures along the right of way and in towns in the North where there was a lot of coal heating got pretty dirty.
I'm not putting my modeling and weathering up as an example to follow. I'm not that talented, but it pleases me. The good thing about using acrylic washes if you can always wash it off and redo it until you fix it in place with a flat clear coat.
Lone Wolf and Santa Fe I have seen over weathered layouts where it looks like someone just sprayed brown paint on the whole layout. Yuck.
I have seen over weathered layouts where it looks like someone just sprayed brown paint on the whole layout. Yuck.
Yes, railroading is dirty, but badly weathered trains and layouts look even worse. Thats the trick, weathering done right but it's not necessarily a gimmie to have "right" looking weathering.
More often than not I see people post photo's of their effort, it looks like they painted brown on the box car and looks like crap and very unrealistic. People usually try to say nice things but in the end, it still looks awful.
So thats the rub for this philsophical issue. Whats worse, a clean box car, which could have looked that way for a little while at least, or a badly weather box car which never looked like that in real life. Moral of the story, YMMV but always best to go easy if realism is the goal.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
I have begun weathering my rolling stock to varying degrees. My feeling is some should be heavily weathered, others looking like they just came out of the shop, and everything else somewhere in between. That is how it would be in the protoype world. There is no right mixture. Same with structures. Not all should look like they have been standing for 80 years. Some should look like they were recently built. Others should also appear that they have recently been rennovated and/or received a fresh coat of paint.
I do plan to weather my locos as well but I have been a little reluctant to take that on. If I mess up a $15 Accurail box car it's not the end of the world. I'd hate to do that on a DCC & sound equipped steamer that I just shelled out $350 for. I've got some old DC Rivarrosi steamers to practice on before I take on my active locos. Right now I've got other modeling priorities so the only weathering my locos are getting is a nice coat of dust.
John Pryke did at least a couple articles on detailing and then weathering steam engines. His method was to rather over do it on all the weathering effects; the rust streaks were too red, the whitish fade from steam was too white, other lighter fades looked too light over the basic too dark locomotive.
And THEN, he'd go back over the entire model with an airbrush with very well thinned coats of the loco's final basic color, usually a medium to darkish gray until everything was blended and faded to just the right degree. They look fantastic.
I have one issue of MR with his article in my painting room, and when I get to my steamers, I'm gonna follow it closely. The cool thing about his method is that it really gives the model painter incremental control over the final weathering effects.
Wayne, your engines look great! Thanks for posting how your learning progressed and refined.
BATMANHave you had the guts to attack your prize Locomotive yet?
BATMANAre you just dipping your toes?
BATMANTell us about your filthy journey and how has it worked out for you so far?
Cheers, the heavy handed, hypocritical, chicken, Bear.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Thanks for your very kind words, Sheldon.
Your comment about specific stains is correct: if you wish to add such effects, it's often best done with a brush (not always, though), and usually before the final over-all weathering is applied. After all, the weathering common to just about everything is airborne (or waterborne) and accumulates over such specific stains regularly.Another thing to keep in mind is that weathering occurs on things which were painted with glossy paints, too. While they will dull over time, dirt will accumulate while the paint is still glossy, too. If your car or locomotive represents one that has just recently entered service, keep the weathering light and forego the Dullcote, or, if you're using an airbrush, mix a semi-gloss to spray the model before weathering to give it a not-quite-new appearance. I almost never Dullcote over the weathering, even if it has been done with pastels.
Mr. Beasley,
How great that is that you paid tribute to our old Friend Wolfgang Dudler with your Tank Engine. I still miss his posts and his creative mind and skilled hands.
You are remembered Wolfgang and the Westport Teminal. R.I.P.
Johnboy out..................
MisterBeasley Finally, this tank engine got a complete grimy black paint job. It was undecorated to begin with.
Finally, this tank engine got a complete grimy black paint job. It was undecorated to begin with.
from Saskatchewan, in the Great White North..
We have met the enemy, and he is us............ (Pogo)
My observations are that prior to the grafitti era, locomotives, and freight cars were dull and dirty, but not rusty or decrepit in appearance.
Weathering, should be minimal, predominately at the bottom of the car and the underbody, where the dust and silica particles tend to attach themselves. Rust spots would mainly be around doors, and car sides, showing scrapes and punctures made by collisions with fork lifts. Interiors of open bulk loads such as gondolas and coal hoppers would show more bare metal and rust than the outside of the cars. Over all less is more. In some cases an overspray of dullcote to kill the shine, is all that is necessary.
Wayne, in every photo you have ever posted, weathered heavily or lightly, your models always display a key point I was making - they always look realistic at normal operating/viewing distance. They have that softness or subtle look that makes them look natural.
I have seen too many models where too much effort was put into "specific" weathering details - a rust stain from a leaky pipe for example - and it seems no matter how hard the modeler tried, what should have been a small rust stain could be seen from 150 scale feet away.
That kind of weathering may look good viewing the model from a foot away with my glasses on, but looks over done as the train passes me on the layout at three feet away.....
Just my view.....
Poor weathering on a model can look like a MODEL that has been mishandled, like smudgy fingerprints, or it can look deliberate (usually brush applied). I weather things like freight cars in bunches, ang go fairly lightly. I use an airbrush and fade it on slowly until it looks good to my eyes. Freight car trucks esprcially need attention, those shiny black trucks kill realism instantly.
I weather pretty-well everything, but although I'm modelling the late '30s, there's not much that's overly dirty or dilapitated.
When I first started painting for others, I tried to suit the weathering to their tastes. Some of my own early stuff was weathered fairly heavily:
Once I had acquired an airbrush, I became a little more aware of the weathering process and of what appealed to me:
There's a little soot along the boiler top and cab roof, and some road dust on the pilot, running gear, and lower areas of the tender, but this is meant to represent a well-kept locomotive with many of the latest technical advances. The railroad and its employees are proud of its capabilities and keep it in top notch condition.
This one was done for a close friend, many years ago, and he was thrilled with the weathering job:
After seeing my more recent stuff, though, he asked if I could redo his in the same manner. Here's the revised version:
This freelanced BLI Mikado was done for another friend, and it illustrates how some of the weathering is included in the original paint job. There is not yet any dirt or grime added, but the smokebox and firebox are painted to represent their appearance after the locomotive has been fired and has become hot enough to discolour the metal:
I added light layers of weathering (and sent photos after each application) until the loco acquired the near-the-end-of-service appearance desired by its owner:
Weathering is certainly a matter of personal preference, though, and I've seen heavy weathering jobs which were well-done and also ones which didn't take into account why and how a locomotive weathers. I'm also not a fan of no weathering: in my opinion, even a coat of flat clear finish will improve most out-of-the-box locos or rolling stock. In most cases, as Sheldon notes, the re-sale value shouldn't be a consideration.
While I've painted or re-painted many brass locomotives for the friend who owns the twice-painted CNR 3529, he did bring me a loco for weathering which I dissuaded him from doing. The fact that it was a $2,000.00 model played a very minor part in that, though. Instead, I suggested that he leave it as an example of a just-out-of-the-shop locomotive:
While the detail is exquisite and the factory paint job every bit as good as anything I could do, this is also one of the nicest-running locomotives (steam or diesel) that I have ever seen or (not) heard. Brass locomotives' values can go up or down, but I thought it best to leave it as is - even the best weathering wouldn't have made it any nicer.
A few simple thoughts on weathering:
Generally less is more......
From a distance, specific features of "weathering" are not noticable in real life - at three feet away in HO you are 270 feet away from the train you are viewing.
Dirt and grime are different from rust and decay - dirt and grime effect all eras and types of railroads to some degree - rust and decay not as much, and can be more specific to older equipment, specific eras, etc.
In the 50's in particular, some roads kept locos, cabooses, and passenger cars amazingly clean and in good repair. Similarly, early diesels saw the paint shop rather frequently - every 3-5 years - as marked by the evolving paint schemes on many lines - how bad could it get in 5 years? Dirty - yes, falling apart - no.
The 60's was a "run down" era, as is current railroading to some degree - but I have seen lots of color photos of trains in the 50's - not so much so.
One reason the 50's was "newer" looking is that the railroads came out of WWII flush with cash but somewhat neglected - so large percentages of equipment were being replaced with new - steam went to the dead line - replaced by shinny new diesels from ALCO and EMD..........
New, bigger better box cars replaced "war emergency" stuff as quickly as possible, and one last ditch effort was put into passenger service with lots of new equipment - big example the C&O passenger car purchases of lightweight cars.....
But even the Depression was not a time of total rust and ruination - first off the '29 crash did not really hurt the day to day economy until it was combined with the dust bowl, with '34-'37 being the worst years - the world infrastructure did not fall apart in 5 years........no matter how George Sellios models it........
Personally, I keep weathering to a minimum, with only an ocassional piece of rolling stock looking in "disrepair", and a fair percentage looking new but just a little dirty.
As for resale - I give that no regard for any of my models - they are like used cars, they lost most of their value as they slid out of the box.......
Fading, and exhaust stains? Yes.
Rust and grime on boxcar roofs? Yes.
Dirt, grime, rust on wheels and trucks? Yes.
Anything else? No.
Fading on all, varied degrees based on color and age, exhaust on loco roofs, black inside grills for depth, grime and fade on rail car roofs, fade on sides, rust on boxcar roofs, rust, dirt and grime on wheels and trucks only, that is the extent of what I call weathering. (Except on my model of WNYP 431, which I need to finish. The model is just too clean!)
However, dirt just for dirt? No. I have seen over-weathered rail are and locomotives, and have over-weathered my one in the past. Now, I only fade, then slight other work, based on type. Nothing else gets done. (Except for maybe adding reflective "conspicuity stripes" as needed, due to era. Zero gra***ty though.)
Ricky W.
HO scale Proto-freelancer.
My Railroad rules:
1: It's my railroad, my rules.
2: It's for having fun and enjoyment.
3: Any objections, consult above rules.
When weather and dent cars remember customers can refuse to accept a car or cars for loading if they deem it unsafe and it can be refused in interchange if its deem unsafe.
Also a lot of unkempt locomotives may be nearing their end of service life before being deadlined for the scrappers..
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
IRONROOSTERRealistic - no I'm afraid not.
Or maybe so.
https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/204/471324544_fbf72800b5_b.jpg
http://johanhedback.com/blogbilder/yellow.jpg
http://www.bronx-terminal.com/wp-content/uploads/1a34816u.jpg
Philosphically speaking, I have no desire to weather my layout. My layout reflects the world of my memories of my youth in the 50's. And in my memories there is no dirt. So except for some dust, my layout, rolling stock, structures, etc. are not weathered.
Most of the weathered models I have seen look very derelict. Some of them are very well done artistically. Realistic - no I'm afraid not. Unless you are modeling an abandon road of 50+ years ago.
Enjoy
Paul