Steam locomotives

[Woody Elmore]

Inder - it is refreshing to see someone going to Barnes and Noble to get books and looking at DVDs for information.

As for what a consolidated type engines could pull keep in mind that there were small ones, like the ones used on the Ma & Pa in Pennsylvania. Then there were the big guys, such as those used on the Pennsy and Reading railroads that had a lot more tractive effort.

Concerning your mentioning the steam dome - these were situated on the highest point on the boiler because all the controls are steam operated and the controls were supplied from either the steam dome or a turret nearby. Even if there wasn't enough steam to run the locomotive, there was steam enough to start the pumps and injectors.

Welcome to the hobby. Don't mention reading too much. There are some young contributors to this message board who might get scared off by that word!

[Inder]

All this talk of weathered locos has made me want to see some.
I don't want to google for some.  I want to see you guys' work if possible.
Thanks. 
BTW, I will most likely be printing this out and turning it into a hand book with a highlighter for quick access to info.
Thank you all

[Atlantic Central]

Rich,

I agree! And, I was only commenting on your specific comments to Inder. I know the quality of your modeling, and it is similar to mine, we just get there from a slightly different path sometimes.

My point was more about not over whelming the new guy with complex "musts" for good modeling.

I have much respect for the work John Allen did, but to be honest, I would not want my railroad to look like his. All layouts are a balance of art and model, exactly what balance is visually and mentially pleasing is different for all of us. - that was my other point.

And, while it may not directly apply to you and was not ment as such, many do loose sight of the forced scale perspective of smaller scales.

Sheldon

[r.cprmier]

Sheldon;
I realize what you are saying-and ceertainly took no umbrage to your post.  As you say, we both model about the same quality work, and perhaps from a different angle.  'Tis what makes Terra Firma spin.

My point is as I have said here; it is a sense of balance; and to me, this is carried out even on a steamer.    I have found the camera to be my harshest critic-but an honest one, and it is one in which I place the most stock.  I take pics of my work- as does most of us, and use thaem as a tool toward whatever degree of excellence I can achieve.

Actually, I realize Inder is probably a relative newcomer to this hobby, and he sound like a pretty good guy; one who wants to get good at his every endeavour.  My thoughts, as are yours and others here, is to share my expertise for what it is worth, and perhaps in doing so, a newbie will avoid some of the garbage I have done.  Have a good night all.

Rich   

[rogertra]

All this talk of weathered locos has made me want to see some.
I don't want to google for some.  I want to see you guys' work if possible.
Thanks. 
BTW, I will most likely be printing this out and turning it into a hand book with a highlighter for quick access to info.
Thank you all

Inder.

Have a look at my work by clicking on the link in my sig.

[ebtnut]

Just a couple of thoughts on weathering--A steam loco started getting "weathered" the minute they lit a fire to it.  The cinders and soot coming out the stack began settling on all approximately horizontal surfaces.  If the engine were fresh from the shop, you wouldn't notice it immediately, but you would by the time she finished her run.  Railroads ran the gamut as regards cleaning engines.  Roads like the Pennsy seemed to not care much about cleanliness after the 1930's, at least based on the photographic record.  Other roads did seem to give them a wipe-down on a semi-regular basis.  Passenger locos generally got a bit more spit-shine care.  Poor, struggling short lines and other down-at-the-heels lines would defer such maintenance as well.

OTOH, most locos maintained at least a bit of shine to the boilers even after heavy work, so a uniform dead flat color is not necessarily desireable.

For the modeler, you also have to keep in mind your scale, and your layout lighting.  A dead black paint job will not look good in most situations, especially in HO and smaller scales.  You really want a deep grey color that will look black in our (usually) less than ideal lighting situations.  A lot of folks will say to use gloss paint in order to make decal application easier, which is generally sound advice.  It does, though, make the weathering process a bit harder, because you will want some areas to be dead flat--frames, drivers, trucks-- that would pick up a lot of road grime and be less likely to be wiped down.  Vertical areas, like cab  and tender sides, could have a bit more shine, since they don't collect as much of the soot.  As noted, boilers should generally have just a bit of sheen, unless your intent is to represent a hard-used and little-maintained engine. 

[Atlantic Central]

ebtnut,

Good thoughts, as where those from Rich. Since this has gone in this direction, here are some more.

If I am starting from scratch, with a loco I have to paint anyway, like Rich, I do not use pure black. I do use gloss paint for all rolling stock. Scalecoat is my weapon of choice. After decaling, I clear coat with a semi-gloss made by mixing Scalecoat clear flat and clear gloss. I vary the gloss level from loco to loco to reflect different levels of wear/age.

Some of my roads steamers are medium grey (Erie Lackawanna)with black frames and black accents, this brings a whole new demension to weathering and color perception. 

Then I weather, with a double action air brush, just a little, mostly with greys and tans that are flat. This overspray weathering flattens the areas more weathered and leaves the semi-gloss in less weathered areas, just like ebtnut discribed. I do little or no streaking, oil spots, rust, etc, etc, because in my experiance you do not notice those things from a distance in real life (unless we a talking about a derilict in the dead line at a scrap yard). And, as I said before, in HO scale at 2' you are 175' from the model!

Passenger cars and diesels are near spotless, just the lightest road grime, because of my time period and my personal taste. And, there where many roads at that time who kept such equipment very clean. Freght cars vary, but I don't go overboard there either. The biggest difference is a flatter clearcoat.

Again, in my view, it is a 1/87 model, your are never close to it even at the the closest viewing position (6" is 43 HO feet!) go outside and look at anything from 43' and tell me how much detail you can see regarding its state of weathering?

And, a ebtnut said, lighting is very important and can make a big difference. I light my layout brightly with incandecent  mini flood lamps directly on the layout, with isles and non layout areas more dimly lit. Bright lighting and light weathering combine well to bring out details and colors in my opinion.

Sheldon

[Inder]

Hey guys,

Rogertra,
I checked out your trains, you did an awesome job with your steam engines.  They got an ashy look to them and certain sections shine off like a glare.
The Great Eastern 2-10-0 is my favorite.
I also like the picture where you have the two steam engines by the garage and all around the floor there is ash or oil that is sweet.

[Inder]

Hello everyone,

Prior to signing up to this forum I had just purchased a Spectrum 2-8-0 and I was happy with the way it looked.
Now, after reading so much on this forum and getting advice from all of you I couldn't  not weather my locomotive - I think Gene started me down on this path.  By the way now I have about 25 steam locomotives.  Six of them are Model Power, four of them are Bachmann standard but the rest of them are all Bachmann Spectrum.  Spectrum is good stuff I don't need to tell you guys this but man...

I printed out this thread and headed to my LHS.  I picked out all the stuff I needed and went to the desk and asked for advice but I didn't need any.  I had everything I needed based off of this thread. 

As you all know, I will be modeling Union Pacific and Nacionales De Mexico.
I found some Diesel Decals that I can use on the steam engines and they look just fine.  I found plenty of pictures through google so I can designate actual engine numbers.  For the actual weathering I have some books I picked up at Barnes&Noble in the bargain section and boy what a deal on these books.  Now I know I can get some custom decals made because I will need to change some rolling stock to NdeM but first things first.  I want to finish my locomotives.

I began work tonight.  I started with the Spectrums 2-6-6-2's and so far things look good.  I will take some pictures soon and post them for you guys.  Mind you, this is my first shot at this.

But I wanted to run this by you guys.  Based on whatever photos I find, the boilers are usually shiny.  All the lines around the boiler are a matte black probably from gunk building up.  The mechanism and the whole section under the boiler is a matte brownish/grayish black.  A few details here and there like the coupler and snow plow can show some reddish signs of rust.

Also by making the boiler shiny it will really contrast against the matte, filthy looking bottom of the machine. 

The tender will be shiny as well but the bottom portion will be dusty looking.  I want to portray the railroads in a period of prosperity. 

Now I know that most likely NdeM had all used locomotives but I'm sure they had a booming economy at one point they probably kept their locomotives pretty clean.  I just bought a DVD titled "Ferrocarril Pacifico" and man, their equipment looked in bad shape.

Anyway,
Like always I wait for your comments and proceed from them.
Thank you all for your contributions to this thread.  This has become my go-to guide when I need instructions.  For pictures I got some books and google as well. 

By the way, what's a good brand for airbrush equipment?  I read somewhere here to just get a decent compressor at home depot.

[SteamGene]

I can't find the small hobby compressor that's down in the garage someplace along with two air brushes, so I bought one at Lowe's for $49.  that included a nail gun complete with two sizes of nails and two sizes of staples.   I highly recommend it.
There are seveal brands of air brushes.  I just bought a single action Pasqual at a decent price.
Gene

[r.cprmier]

I use air for a variety of things, such as pneumatic tools, etc; so I have a pretty good sized compressor.  From this, I circuited down to the spray booth, and both filter and dry the air on site.  I decided to do the drying thing because once I uses a SCUBA tank as an air supply; and with the quality of air that is used in filling tanks, there were no problems with quality.

On brushes:  I have several:  some Badger, and two Paasche brushes; both set up differently.  There are a lot of high-quality brushes out there; I guessthe best thing to do is to read up on them, make your choice, and DO NOT skimp!  If it is expensive, save your money for it.  Do not buy junk; it will come back to bite you you know where!

Rich

[Inder]

Yeah I just bought two brushes and they were like $9.00 each.

Not overly expensive but they work nice.
They had a bunch of $2.00 brushes and so forth but they looked bad.

[Inder]

Well guys, here is my work in progress.
Spectrum Consolidation for my NdeM railroad.  She will be the first locomotive delievered to that railroad.  Keeping with NdeM tradition (I'm assuming) this was not purchased new but rather purchased from Santa Fe railroad.

I will be detailing the grime off of the exhaust a little better.  I will also be adding some red around the mechanism to show some rust and so forth.  I also wanna add some dust on the tender to show use.
Notice that the boiler and the Tender are both purposely shiny to show that it's a new machine I guess.  I bought some matte finish but I haven't tried it.  It might look better, I will try it next week.  She also needs an additional decal with the Locomotive number right by the window.

I will be getting an air brush system pretty soon.  So this is my first project.

[Inder]

Oh yeah, I meant to say she's a new used machine.
So she got a new paint job when she was bought off Santa Fe.

[SteamGene]

Nice job, Inder. 
Gene