Model Railroading > TOFC Flatcar Weathering

It’s tough to find good images of TOFC flatcar decks to use as guides for weathering HO rolling stock. Can any of you share samples of photos of either prototype TOFC flats or your own weathered examples. Thanks very much.

Posted from iPhone

Lots of oil marks on the deck

What era are you looking for? Spine cars running around now tend to be total crud balls, however 89’ flats in the 70’s weren’t quite as bad. Keep in mind that cars that were circus loaded vs lift have different weathering. So an 89’ flat from the early 70’s would have much cleaner decks where the trailer tires rolled along the length of them vs the same style car from the 90’s when the trailers were just lifted on. The cars loaded by lift will mainly have clean spots where the tires bounce back and forth slightly during transit, otherwise they’re pretty dirty.

Scooter

Posted from iPhone

Here are some pics from a while back.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

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Those views are outstanding, Ted. Thank you!

Posted from iPhone

Good question. I should have included that info in my original post. I’m weathering 85ft cars from the 60s, many which would have been loaded circus style as well as 89ft cars from the 70s.

Posted from iPhone

It would be interesting to see how they looked in the 70's.  Maybe similar.  How old were the ones in the photo's?

When I weathered some of mine years ago, I was going for a generally dusty or sandy look with light colored tans and it seemed to work. I probably should have added a few little black and brown splotches first to be honest.

Nathan

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/ttx/ttx153452wba.jpg

Here’s an example of a 70’s era car that’s definitely seen some circus loading. Note how clean the rub rails on the edges of the car are, this would be the same on flush deck cars that had inboard rub rails, they would be just as scuffed and devoid of grime. A lot of cars also had white anti skid paint applied to their decks as well, some times only where the trailer tires would be, other times the whole deck.

Great shots Ted, those are great views of cars that would be lift loaded.

Scooter

Posted from iPhone

Hello,
Here is mine done with washes the trick is not to have brush strokes

Dave

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