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Weathering freight cars without an airbrush


Tried and true techniques/Bob Walker


PHOTOS BY BOB WALKER


Streaks of rust and dust on the carbody, along with grime on the wheels and trucks, give this boxcar (above) a used, but not


T


here are some extremely rare sights in railroading that are vividly memorable if one is wit- ness to one of these “events.” How many of us have seen a wreck while it was happening or were able to photo- graph the business end of two trains passing each other at speed on a two- track main? In the 60 or so years that I’ve been at track-side and interested, I have seen both of these situations only a few times. What I have found to be an even more elusive sight is a clean, spit-shined freight car. I honestly do not remember any. I mean on the road, in a train, not a spanking new PS-1 pulling out of the Pullman works. Clean, shiny freight cars are much like unicorns, a figment of an overactive imagination. A lot of railroads have been known to occasion- ally wash their locomotives and more often, their passenger cars. The only washing the freight equipment ever gets is when it rains. Wind and rain usually do more harm than good. Time, the sun, and the elements take their toll quickly on stationary objects, add move- ment to the mix, and you get even more


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abused look. The author uses a mix paints, chalks, washes and pastel pencils (below) to give his models a weathered appearance.


“toll.” Keeping freight cars clean is a lot like herding felines... not possible. Not all of us strive for realism in the


extreme, and some folks model things the way they feel they should be rather than the way they are. To some, shiny


JULY 2013


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