Weathering O gauge freight cars

I weather almost all of my HO scale trains. When done carefully it makes them look more realistic, and I am not really concerned about their re-sale value. There are a couple of expensive, ready-to-run HO cars I purchased that I haven't gotten the nerve to touch yet. For my O gauge trains, I have also begun weathering them. It is a bit unnerving to make them "uncollectible" but since I am generally paying only about $30-$50 a car I can live with the risk. Besides, I enjoy the work and I don't buy them for their potential future value. However, I don't weather my tinplate trains or trains that are clearly "toy" proportioned because that would look silly and it would also ruin their cute, toy appearance.

I frequently buy my O gauge cars used, so the first step is to them over and repair broken or missing parts. Sometimes replacement parts are available, and sometimes I have to fabricate them myself. I then completely disassemble them and make sure everything is glued in place. Boxcar doors are usually secured shut (unless I am modeling an open-door car), detail parts like brake wheels that were left unpainted by the manufacturer are painted to match the body, and the car's weight is checked. Then, everything is washed in preparation for weathering.

The wheel faces are brush painted various shades of brown, and the backs and axles are painted flat black to hide the shine. Truck sideframe are painted flat black and then highlighted with drybrushed orange rust and brown dirt. The couplers are carefully drybrushed brown. The car underframes are sprayed flat black followed by various short bursts of brown and rusty orange. The car bodies are Dullcoted and then weathered with oil paint washes and drybrushing to match prototype pictures. Finally, everything is reassembled.

It all takes time, but all that work is what I enjoy most. It is the process, just as much as the finished result, that makes it worthwhile. And, after having put 3-5 extra hours into a boxcar I can justify its price tag.

I don't have a lot of cars right now, but they are already taking up a lot of space. Each car is 8x the size of its HO equivalent, and that adds up. So, I am slowly adding to my collection one or two cars at a time. When I am ready to jump scales, I will have some of my trains ready. I don't even have a proper place to photograph them, though I am currently working on building a small diorama for use in future photography.

On a related note, the O Gauge Magazine's online forum sometimes features pictures by a guy named Steve who goes by the handle "SIRT." In his signature block is a link to his photo albums containing hundreds of pictures of weathered three rail, O gauge cars. They are inspirational for someone weathering in any scale, but more than that they show that you can make really credible looking models from three-rail trains.