I have a few tinplate trains with the paint in reasonably good condition, but the brass and other trim is seriously tarnished. Should I disassemble the train and clean all the brass, or would that create an unpleasant contrast between the old paint and shiny brass?
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Leave it alone, and just remove dust with small chip brushes, (cheap disposable multi pack), possible wipe down with damp (not wet), cloth, and dry immediately. Shiny brass, against an old worn painted object, serves no purpose.
I agree with Teledoc, leave the brass alone.
It's "patina"...leave it be.
It’s your train do what you want to do! If you really don’t like the way the brass looks than clean it up. If the paint is in good shape you could leave that if you wish but personally I like the brass to shine especially if it is on black paint.
Dull and such leave it, brass that is tarnished to green or with white flakey crap on it, take it off and clean it or replace with a similar original piece. I usually put all such cleaned or similar parts on loco's that I have chosen to repaint and kept the original patina parts on the original loco's. Again only my opinion and my choice. If I were to sell any I would disclose as well.
If the paint is good leave the brass as is/original.
If the paint is bad and needs to be repainted , by all means, disassemble the Loco.
Strip the old paint and clean the brass.
I know that the black letter/numbers on the brass panels on a 253 and 248 locos (not sure what loco you have). are on very good and will not come off in any type of cleaning solution.
I usually use #4 steel wool to clean the brass with Never Dull to polish it.
After the polish I clean the part with alcohol and give it a clear lacquer coat.
If the brass is held on with a tab, I will not push the tab down as it was done at the factory. I just give it a little twist to hold in place
character!!!
It’s your train do what you want to do!
Certainly Count Orlock should do as he pleases.
However, he did solicit opinions.
Popi posted:character!!!
That's what my wife calls me
Chris Lonero posted:It’s your train do what you want to do! If you really don’t like the way the brass looks than clean it up. If the paint is in good shape you could leave that if you wish but personally I like the brass to shine especially if it is on black paint.
I have a set of AF 3171/2 Pullmans and obs that had a lot of non-uniformly tarnished brass. The paint was in nicew condition. The observation railing was shiny. I took off and polished all of the tarnished brass. Now the set looks much better. Removing the tarnish was worth the effort.
I'd end up polishing it 
I like shiny metal, even if it accompanies old paint 
Remove it or at least mask it from polish or you may end up HAVING to paint it too.
I try to clean it on the car/engine. Every time you take it apart he chance breaking the little tabs.
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