Reflections on 3-Rail Scale, Weathering and the OGR Forum...with a Video, too!

Nice work. The hardest one to weather, modify, or cut into is the first one you do. After that, it gets easier.

Nice work on the weathering. I agree with what Matt stated, the first one is the hardest. I keep pushing off weathering my SW1. No idea why, I've done numerous cars, guess I'm just a bit afraid to do an engine, even though I hacked at the thing as soon as I got it. Makes no sense. Anyway keep up the great work!

Thanks Matt & Ben.  7 short years ago I would have never even entertained the thought of hacking up or weathering one of my pristine engines or freight cars!  

Fast forward to today and I don't hesitate even one little bit in pulling a brand new engine out of the box and "going to town" on it.  My, how things can change if you're willing to open your mind to trying something new!

CNJ #1601 posted:

Thanks Matt & Ben.  7 short years ago I would have never even entertained the thought of hacking up or weathering one of my pristine engines or freight cars!  

Fast forward to today and I don't hesitate even one little bit in pulling a brand new engine out of the box and "going to town" on it.  My, how things can change if you're willing to open your mind!

I have a trio of ATSF U25's I reluctantly weathered a few years back (liked the result after getting over the reluctance). Have some other Blue/Yellow Santa Fe units slated for weathering, but for some reason I just can't bring myself to weather my trio of Warbonnet C40-8W's. I think I just need to bite the bullet, pull them all out of their boxes and hit 'em all.

I really like your ALCO road switchers, that you've posted elsewhere.

Great work!

Nice stuff Joey!

I actually find engines quicker and easier to weather. Aside from masking all the windows prior to Dull-Cote, you don't have to take anything apart!

S.

Wow. 

Those interiors on the boxcars where just perfect.

Great job!

-Mario

Matt, I say bite the bullet and "go for it!!  You know and I know that you'll like them even more if they're weathered! 

Thank you EBT JIM, those are some of my favorites, too.  I love ALCo's!!

Steve (SIRT), you know that you're one of the people that I didn't name above...thanks for your inspiration in the world of weathering!

Mario, thanks!  Your great (and very innovative!) work in the 3RS arena has gotten me more and more intrigued by that aspect of O-gauge model railroading hobby.  I follow all your threads with great interest...and I'm really looking forward to using some of your locomotive and freight car pilot coupler pockets/shims to convert more of my fleet.

Joe,

Love the weathering jobs!

Now, let's get started on the scenery, LOL 

Yeah, those box car interiors were great! The weathering was just enough and not too much. Glad to see you didn't join the "powder-puff" clique!

Scrapiron Scher posted:

Joe,

Love the weathering jobs!

Now, let's get started on the scenery, LOL 

Haha...you're soooo right Scrappy!  It has taken me to age 50 to finally get a brand new train room all to myself.  I'm really looking forward to building a mid-sized layout with scenery that does these detailed & weathered models justice!  I've been living with this tiny 4'x6' toy-like layout for waaaaay too long!

Joe,

Very nice job and welcome to the Dark Side.

Best Regards,

Ron H

Ron H posted:

Joe,

Very nice job and welcome to the Dark Side.

Best Regards,

Ron H

I thought the Dark Side was DCS?

Anyways nice weathering!

Beautiful weathering job...most modelers over weather to the point of making a caricature .

Knowing when to stop weathering I the hardest part!!!

Dave

Dave Funk posted:

Beautiful weathering job...most modelers over weather to the point of making a caricature .

Knowing when to stop weathering I the hardest part!!!

Dave

I couldn't agree more!

For a long time, I thought I was the only one cutting up brand new locomotives to make versions never produced. Or crazy enough to paint and weather new items...but the world has turned for you my friend!

Great work, especially on the box cars.       As for the influence of OGR members. I can fall in that boat too and there are no doubt that there are many more willing or not so willing to admit to being under the influence of the Dark side(3RS). The big thing as 3RS has grown is the willingness of people to help and give advice and encouragement, and yes even Mr Grumpy himself HW . The real point is that we are learning from each other and that's what makes 3RS great.  As a side bar. Over in 2R you have Erik which I think has also influenced us as into doing better scenery among things., certainly in the detailing of engines. Then you have FrankM and others who are not 3RS but have fantastic layouts that have also inspired us. So as I said not only do we learn from each other but also 3RS in my opinion embodies the best of both worlds.  

Thanks for the kind words Big Jim, Ron H, J Daddy & 86TA355SR...much appreciated!

Dave, I couldn't agree more with your "over-weathering" comment.  I ruined quite a few cars--especially in the first few years of my brief weathering career--by overdoing it.  Even now, I sometimes have to fight the temptation to go too far.  Looking back now, I just chalk up those ruined cars to part of the learning process...LOL!

suzukovich posted:

Great work, especially on the box cars.       As for the influence of OGR members. I can fall in that boat too and there are no doubt that there are many more willing or not so willing to admit to being under the influence of the Dark side(3RS). The big thing as 3RS has grown is the willingness of people to help and give advice and encouragement, and yes even Mr Grumpy himself HW . The real point is that we are learning from each other and that's what makes 3RS great.  As a side bar. Over in 2R you have Erik which I think has also influenced us as into doing better scenery among things., certainly in the detailing of engines. Then you have FrankM and others who are not 3RS but have fantastic layouts that have also inspired us. So as I said not only do we learn from each other but also 3RS in my opinion embodies the best of both worlds.  

Suzukovich, thank you...and very well said!  I follow your posts/threads, and those of several other members (some of whom you mentioned), with great interest.  I'm always learning something new or different, which makes this Forum such a great place to hang out.

You've given me an idea, but more on that later.

Wow...very nice.  I must echo what others have said and just say the weathering is done very well...not too much and the interiors add a big touch of realism. 

What a good story - very similar to mine when I returned to the hobby in January 2009 after a 15 year layoff.

I still liked postwar and had a small collection from my hobby shop days as well as an assortment of (then) modern trains.

As I began to read here and learn about more the scale-oriented aspect I found myself wanting to achieve a similar look. Honestly, I never really noticed before that our couplers were so huge!

Have been somewhat inactive since selling our home and dismantling our layout but still have involvement with our club. No time to work on the trains themselves however as we have a monumental task ahead getting the new layout up and running.

I hope to get into weathering some of my equipment over time and convert to Kadees.

 Joe, always enjoy reading your posts and studying your photos. Love the job you did on those D&H diesels. I have just started gathering pieces for an early 50's diesel era. I'm working on my first diesel with fixed pilots and Kadee's. A lot of trial and error fitting the pieces together to make sure it would work before doing the final cutting of stock pieces. Seeing it run and function well makes it all worth while. In the steam era I operate during the war era. Everything is heavily weathered. In my diesel era. The engines as well as the rolling stock are still fairly new. Looking for rolling stock with build dates of 1952. So a lot will have a factory fresh look. Cars transitioned from my steam era will have a heavy dose of weather. I'll have to do some photo studying and learn to weather on the lighter side. This Forum is a great source for these projects. Seeing what others have done as far as detailing and styles of weathering takes a lot of the guesswork out of the project.

 Joe, at some point early next year I plan to have a get together with forum members in the area. A lot of us share the same interests.  Look for an e mail. Your not to far from me. Probably a short ride down 495. Would like to meet up with you and share ideas on weathering.

I like your weathering.

Nice work!

Peter

Very nice work, including the retaining of some normal coupler equipped pieces of rolling stock. Many overlook the ability to run Lionel style couplers on their Kaydee equipped layouts when a visiting youngster (of any age) has a favorite locomotive or car and would like to bring it over to see it operate elsewhere.

Most of us can still run Kadees with 3 rail couplers. Either you use the 800 series which will couple up with Kadees or have a conversion car.

My Dad and I deal with this all the time. All my stuff has Kadee, but his do not. We still mix and match power and cars without issue.

BobbyD posted:

Very nice work, including the retaining of some normal coupler equipped pieces of rolling stock. Many overlook the ability to run Lionel style couplers on their Kaydee equipped layouts when a visiting youngster (of any age) has a favorite locomotive or car and would like to bring it over to see it operate elsewhere.

Thanks, Bobby.  For me it's more of a matter of just getting started in adding Kaydees.  I've only converted about a dozen cars so far, and I may never get around to converting my entire freight car fleet (it probably numbers in the hundreds!!).  

In the meantime, and as LOS (Doug) stated above, having a few "transition" cars gives me the ability to run all freight cars (Kadee and "claw"-equipped) in the same train.

Laidoffsick posted:

Most of us can still run Kadees with 3 rail couplers. Either you use the 800 series which will couple up with Kadees or have a conversion car.

My Dad and I deal with this all the time. All my stuff has Kadee, but his do not. We still mix and match power and cars without issue.

Have had success with those Kaydees on Intermountain and Red Caboose cars, IIRC the Atlas cars with their scale coupler do not couple with the big knuckle and we had to convert them.  It just make sit easier for a youngster who visits if we have the standard coupler for them to use. Biggest issue we have is 4 of the last 6 Lionel cars brand new out of the box the knuckle wouldn't stay closed. The other two, 86' high cube box cars, had one knuckle each broken off in the box