Dirty engine?

Joe,

I spotted 3 CSX engines at the Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt Line yard today and all 3 looked rode hard and put away wet

 

I think whatever weathering we do still will not be enough to match the prototypes!

 

Still, I like my engines to be clean, but I may change once I do 1 or 2.

 There's something about real weathering that's different. I see some good examples on models in pictures. In person, they fail to capture all the history. With all the years and miles put on these things, how many layers would be needed to capture this accurately??

 I guess I have to remember they're just models. Capturing the overall spirit will do. It would be cool to have newer models (or repaints) cleaner and older ones heavily weathered.

Just remember, all "modern era" diesels on the class 1 railroads get HAND WASHED in the shops every 92 days. The Machinists and Electricians don't want to work on dirty units. 

 I thought they might be cleaning them. When I was younger, everything seemed dirtier? A lot more shine now days. I thought it would be good for "public image". I figured they were just machine washed.

Not on the CN! They do get washed pretty well when they're sent to contractors for modifications or heavy repairs.

 

CN_Hogger

I was going to say I see a lot of UP units that look like they never get washed. It takes me about an 30 minutes to hand wash my compact car and an a hour to hand wash my Suburban. I really don't se a train engine getting hand washed. Ken the guy from AR

I thus assume that you have not been inside any of the UP, BNSF, NS, nor CSX diesel shops.

I know the UP uses wash racks.  I thought in 2006-07 they began installing new wash/water recycling racks in several yards.  They have a nice facility up at Hinkle,Or.

 

cause you got rubber tires and the RR's don't!

Nice weathering and a nice photo....MTH ?