Clean and shiny cars ARE prototypical !

It's a shame to have to scuff up such nice pretty cars. Oh, well, it's the real world.

Chris

LVHR

I agree!  I like 'em looking new.  Here is one of my favorites from the SMS Railroad.

Ron

The build date on that car is 10-17.

Nice paint job.

Three-four years ago, CSX replaced all the gravel cars on the Rock Runner(s) that run between WVa and Bladensburg, MD. with new (black) cars.  It was neat to see, almost everyday, a clean string of new cars.  One old gravel car (gray), kept loaded, is always behind the locomotives.  Since the trains are kept on private property at loading/unloading, they are pretty graffiti free today.  However, over time, they have gotten dinged and banged up by the front end loaders.

Bob

That last photo of the string of boxcars must portray a just-delivered brand new batch!  At any rate, NICE! 

Here's a shot of brand new gondolas and diesels on the storage line in Roanoke, Va back in 2016.  The gondola string ran a good length of the yard.

                              imagine seeing these fresh out of the shop then...

I admire the realism of well weathered cars, locomotives and buildings. Putting these together is a demonstration of artistic skill. However, not all trains roll through only grimy cityscapes.

On my own layout I prefer equipment that looks new. There's no graffiti in my "little world", the trains are clean and bright, the buildings are as well. While railfanning, I've always preferred to watch trains working their way through dramatic scenery, as at Horseshoe Curve, Iona Island, etc.

There is plenty of room in the hobby to appreciate both approaches. One is not better than the other, though I believe it takes tremendous artistic talent to weather realistically and to craft scenes that are convincing. Guys like SIRT and Norm Charbonneau (and many others) have an artist's eye and a craftsman's touch which make their scenes so compelling. Me, I just like to do some scenery and run my clean trains!

That is an awesomely beautiful NYC Pacemaker consist! WOW!

Found one among my slides that also looks pretty spiffy:

Rusty

Some railroads, the Frisco included, took great pains to keep their locomotives clean.  Frisco steamers, for example, were scrubbed with hot water and kerosene at every major terminal almost right up to the end of steam operations.  The running gear was polished with oily waste.  A dirty Frisco engine is just as (un)prototypical as a clean, shiny one.  The T&P also devoted resources to keeping their engines clean.

The MoPac, on the other hand, . . . .

The Western Maryland Railway took great pride in keeping their passenger K2 Pacifics spotless.  Albeit the WM had a very small fleet of passenger steamers ( I think 9  k2s ) for passenger service was only a very tiny part of the over all WM operation. 

palallin posted:

Some railroads, the Frisco included, took great pains to keep their locomotives clean.  Frisco steamers, for example, were scrubbed with hot water and kerosene at every major terminal almost right up to the end of steam operations.  The running gear was polished with oily waste.  A dirty Frisco engine is just as (un)prototypical as a clean, shiny one.  The T&P also devoted resources to keeping their engines clean.

The MoPac, on the other hand, . . . .

The key word is "almost..."

Rusty

Being a big CNJ fan, this is one of my personal favorites.  A string of 10 shiny bright red boxcars fresh out of the paint shop!

That Pacemaker string is mighty impressive.  I like how there are four shades of gray on the cars.  One for each shot.  Just goes to show that matching colors from pictures may not be quite an exact science.  The same car looks four different hues.  Good follow up on the original thread to all.

However, with the exception of publicity shots like the Pacemaker pictures or new car deliveries, weathered, dirty or whatever cars will easily outnumber clean ones.

Rusty

Rusty Traque posted:

However, with the exception of publicity shots like the Pacemaker pictures or new car deliveries, weathered, dirty or whatever cars will easily outnumber clean ones.

Rusty

Not to mention the fact that those "new from the factory" freight cars only look like that for about 2 to 3 days. Thus, if you are trying to model THAT build date on the side of those cars, then they would NOT be prototypical for any time frame after that build date.

   nmp...

briansilvermustang posted:

   nmp...

Looks like a tourist railroad storage car.

No reporting marks or car data, it is a "captive" car.  Can't be interchanged with any railroad.

Rusty

                                           here is another "unmarked" train....???

briansilvermustang posted:

                                           here is another "unmarked" train....

So,,,,,,,,what is the point??????

Great looking trains and beautiful shots, guys.

On the other hand...

Rolling stock doing REAL work.

For the record, not a lot of my stuff is weathered.  I weather only when the mood strikes and it hasn't struck lately.  Most of my equipment however has a flat or at most a satin finish so nothing sticks out like a sore thumb.

Rusty

bbunge posted:

Three-four years ago, CSX replaced all the gravel cars on the Rock Runner(s) that run between WVa and Bladensburg, MD. with new (black) cars.  It was neat to see, almost everyday, a clean string of new cars.  One old gravel car (gray), kept loaded, is always behind the locomotives.  Since the trains are kept on private property at loading/unloading, they are pretty graffiti free today.  However, over time, they have gotten dinged and banged up by the front end loaders.

Bob

They have to keep that load on the head end because at Bladensburg, the first empty would derail when they started going in there with 6 axle units. That happened about 3 times or so, and out came a new bulletin saying you must hold onto one load when working Bladensburg. This didn't happen when they used 4-axles on those jobs.

I like all of my engines and rolling stock to run as just delivered from the shop.  Some pieces i have were actially weathered by hurricane Rita, but there's not much i can do about that.