There are many how to's to get plastic to look like wood. I like the Weaver cars. They MTH cars are similar as well as some of Lionel's. I start by gouging the plastic wood deck with a chisel Micro Mark sells for removing cast on details such as grab irons. I give it a good scrub with a small wire brush and may even hit it with a wire wheel in the Dremel to smooth out the roughest spots. Then it gets a coat of paint with Scale Coat Grime no. 1. It dries kind of a tan. Flat grey will work to. I then carefully hit the individual planks with a sharp mini angle pick. This brings out the individual boards better. Finally a wash of black.
I had thought of going with real wood over the decking. The only problem was in order to distress the wood. It would have to be on the thick side to begin with. Not sure how it would look with a deck sitting on top of the deck that was already there. If the plastic doesn't come out to your liking. You can then try going over it with real wood.
