How many weather their trains?

hello guys and gals.........

 

Not me, i like mine trains shiny and new . My 1970 ford Ranger has been weathered for 42 years.

 

the woman who loves the S.F.#5021

Tiffany

I don't weather my trains either. I think it hurts the value of them

My 3-rail trains are toys.  You know, three rails and all.  I like 'em bright and shiny.

 

Pete

No weathering for me, except layout dust, which is "natural weathering".

I haven't weathered anything of mine, but I've purchased a few pre-weathered freight cars from a friend.  They add character to my train of otherwise shiny, clean, cars.

 

You could always pick up a cheap starter set freight car and practice weathering on that, before moving to the more expensive equipment.  I know at local shows you can get gondolas for around $5 at some places.

No, I do not.  As Texas Pete stated, I like 'em bright and shiny.  That said, I do greatly admire some of the outstanding weathering jobs I've seen on here.  And I also enjoy

the few freight cars I've acquired that were "professionally weathered" 

 

- Mike

Everything on my layout will get weathered. I come from HO fine scale and it's just what I expect to see.

Cars both freight and passenger will get it. Some more....some less. Big name passenger cars will get a dust on their trucks...same for name locos.

Working items more....

 

Values??  I don't really care. Our trains today will have little value in the future. Even once high dollar pre-war have come down as supply runs ahead of demand. What happens when all of our stuff hits a smaller market. Enjoy them now I say!!!!

I would love to see a picture of that truck !!!

 

As far as the weathering goes you cant go wrong with this place ...

 

 

http://www.weatheringstation.com/

 

 

Pretty much everything I have is weathered since I model the mid-1950s with lots of big steam power. Since I am NOT a collector, but an operator and model railroader, I could care less about "value". 

I have a little of each the older trains that I  have are like thay were when new.

 the newer scale train that I have I have started wethering them.

 It is funney that The scale trains that are wethered are bringing more money than ones not wethered.

 There are lots of people that are not good at wethering and pay more to buy an engin or car prewethered. box cars that are selling $150.00 and more.

I've been known to do a few items, LOL!

All shown on the link below....

I've weathered a few and then realized I really really really suck at it... So I stopped. I do like to weather structures. 

I weather or will every scale piece I own. Unfortunately they seem to sell very quickly at shows so my inventory always seems small. If you build a highly detailed scale layout it seems logical that the trains be weathered. Its just a mattter of what you like.

 

Steve have you seen this product? I am experimenting now.

 

https://ogrforum.com/d...nt/10722205493504704

 

Ray Marion

I too have moved away from collecting, in favor of a more realistic approach. Not only do I like weathering, but graffiti too (post 1970 era). I still have reservations about modifying about some of the more rare pieces from Lionel, but Atlas, Weaver and MTH are all fair game. I have actually noticed on eBay, that well weathered piece are fetching higher prices. I think this signals a growing 3 rail scale movement.

I noticed a pair of nice older Lionel steamers posted on the FS board with a self-described '...incredibly faint odor of smoke and also a very thin layer of brown smoke residue'.

Does that qualify for inclusion here?

I only permanently weather the trucks on Williams diesels because they are to shiny from factory.  Just a quick coat of Floquil Grimey Black shot through an airbrush and then white weathering powder to bring out details.

Other than that the only other items I've done was to Winter weather my scale Polar Express passenger cars.  The roofs were repainted with Floquil Grapite and then I added a wind blown snow effect.  I'm not worried about it hurting the value because I will never sell them.  For the #1225 that pulls the coaches, I just add some baking soda for snow.

Weather everything but the trains and old Marx signals. I clean and restore all old rolling stock and the operating signals once. Then only natural weathering. Dust and dings.

I weather, i use photos of the proto types to guide me and will leave one shiny to represent a repaint.

My trains are naturally weathered by natural dust, and 50+ years of handling by previous owners.

I think you'll find that the majority of O gauge people are "toy train" collectors and operators. They prefer shiny and bright.

 

The few who have made the shift towards realistic railroad modeling will lean toward weathering to enhance the appearance to be more realistic.

 

Differant strokes for differant folks.

 

Either way, it's a great hobby!

 

When I first started purchasing Locomotives, I did not care about weathering, but now that I have added 2 Steamers to my roster that have been weathered, I prefer the weathered look over bright & shiny.  I'm not a collector, I am an operator.  I do not expect to get my money back on my locomotives in 10+ years.  I would rather have a locomotive that looks like its been run, rather than look like it has sat in a box or been on a shelf most of its life.  What is the point in investing $$$$ into a locomotive only to put it on a shelf???

Ive been weathering rolling stock. I stay with the easier cars like boxcars, reefers and tank cars. Have not yet weathered an engine and will likely have this done professionally. In addition I detail the box cars with freight loads and hobo's. 

 

This past York I found two Weaver 40' boxcars for $5 each which are my next projects.

I did this one this morning.  Neolube on drivers and tender trucks and wheels, and anything shiny with regard to rods and running gear, then various powders for weathering.

I will be weathering all my rolling stock and locomotives in the future.  I looked at having it done professionally but the cost was pretty big for the amount of rolling stock I have to do.  I just want things to look dirty but well maintained like they were in the 1950's.   I will be practicing on some old MPC O27 stuff before I do my scale cars and locomotives.  

Pete, your engines look great.  Who does your weathering? Thanks.

Mine are weathered, as are a lot of the Independent Hirailer Midwest Division crew.  This Milwaukee Road S-3 and caboose were recently weathered by me for Sasquatch.  The train is also weathered and owned by me. 

 

 

The next video is my 3rd Rail Northern Pacific Z-8.  Same train as above. 

 

 

 

Regards,

 

GNNPNUT

I try to keep my weathering on the light side.

 

 

Wasn't initially a fan of weathering, but it has grown on me. This was a mass-weathering session where we weathered eight locomotives and seven hopper cars. The Apprentice taught me his technique. I'm still air brush shopping so I can do this at home. Standard procedure now is to weather the freight equipment and pretty much leave the passenger equipment alone (dusting the trucks) since passenger trains got washed regularly.

 

 

 

Love weathered items; I would actually pay more for an item that is weathered than one

that is not. I weather (and bash and paint...) when I get to it - but, strangely, while I

love the effects of weathering, and I've done it pretty well, I do not actually enjoy

doing it - so I tend to put it off.

 

When I paint a steamer, I use Duplicolor or Krylon Automotive Primer. These paints

pretty well match Floquil Weathered Black, so even a basic paint job using these

will give you a low-end weathered effect. Rust-O-Leum also has an automotive primer, but

it is darker, almost black. All are beautifully flat, but can be lightly buffed to a subtle

satin.

 

Steamers were typically "black" only when new or right after a major shopping. Some

locos were kept fairly clean owing to their service, as on a fancy passenger train. 

I've airbrush weathered a few pieces. The CSX SD70 got a light dusting with a mix of railroad tie brown and roof brown, plus I used some weathered black on all the grilles.

This one is a little more subtle. I mainly wanted to take the factory shine off of it, and I used a bit of weathering chalk on the exhaust stack. You can also see that this engine had its a/c unit replaced with one from a conrail engine, which was accomplished with a bit of conrail blue paint. This is a very common thing to see especially on BNSF units. I did this after the weathering so I still need to go back and dirty up that blue a bit.

 

 

 

 

You can see the top of my Southern RS-1 in the background which provides good contrast for how shiny this engine was!

Matt, those C&NW models look awesome!  For those that want to weather, please stay away from the rust overload that some seem to prefer- that ruins the effect and totally is off as far as realism is concerned. Trains are not junk and should have minimal amounts of rust. A light grime and fade is more like it-

wbg pete,

 

I am intrigued by that UP 9000 4-12 -2 model. Is that  Sunset/3rd Rail, MTH or Lionel? 

 

Thanks.

No, I've never weathered anything, even in my HO and N scale days.  I never saw the point.

 

Some people like it; more power to them, but it's not for me.

 

I like My ENGINES & CARS "Bright and Shiny" !! Why dirty up a beautiful piece???

 

Fredstrains

I don't know why anybody would weather either. All the real trains I see look like they were just taken out of a box, handled with kid gloves, kept in a garage and never used.

 

But, of course, they don't have anywhere near the value of model trains.

I guess the difference is whether you are a "model railroader/operator" or a "toy train collector".

 

 Real railroad equipment gets dirty, i.e. weathered, the day it goes into service. Thus, if you want to "model" real railroad equipment, regardless of era, then your equipment should be "weathered".

 

If your not into scale modeling, then it really doesn't matter.

I like to keep my stuff original, I do not fret over the occasional nick or sratch that is enough "weathering" for me.  That is the beauty of this hobby, there really is no wrong way it is what ever floats your boat.