Painting/weathering under rolling stock


R

RIRRfan

Member
Hi all,
Been awhile since I last posted but this winters project is getting all or most of my rolling stock painted or weathered.

I have searched for photo's of the under-carriage and have struck out thus far.

I'm basically interested in how the bottoms of the cars would look.

I.E
paint the underneath the same as the road color and weather it or just paint it black and go for a grimy grunge look?
 
Somewhere along the line of looking at RR pictures I've seen some that gave a partial view of the undersides of cars. Mostly I think they were just dusty and slightly rusty. You'll have to position yourself under a bridge (or off to one side) and take a few shots or a movie.
 
Most train cars are painted the same color on the underside as the rest of the car. However, road grime quickly obliterates most of it ! Below are comparisons of a new Athearn box car I weathered. You can see the weathering pretty much eliminates most all of the original color. Weathering the sides of the car can also greatly reduce that bright color as well ....


Mark.
 
Thanks Mark!

The look you achieved was what I was thinking. It might save me some time if I just go with black underneath and weather it from there.
 
@ Tootnkumin
That would almost be impossible for me lol. The trains that run by my house are usually going around 45 MPH.

But, I do know where IAIS parks some gondolas. They are mostly black with rust patches on the sides.
 
Mark pretty much has it correct. Most cars undersides were painted in the basic body color, but there were exceptions. Best way to determine what a car's undersides were painted in, would be by obtaining a copy of a RR's book of standards. The RR's books would generally cover one or two types of items. As such one would cover structure and signs, another would cover rolling stock, etc.

Copies of these books have been published over the years by railroad authors, and historical societies. You just have to make sure the book you're looking through/reading covers the date of the car, whether its the original built date or the repaint date.
 
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