Lets take a minute to talk about the MTL weathered cars

[Ed Kapuscinski]

In the past I have been critical of Micro-Trains. Sometimes overly.

But I want to take a minute to recognize something outstanding that they're currently doing that could portend to be a huge industry changing thing: mass producing those amazing weathered cars.

Last weekend I picked up the Pennsy and Reading boxcar sets.

GTFO with these. They're gorgeous.









They may not be great for actual PRR or Reading modelers (see the ACI labels), but for PC or Conrail guys like myself? Fantastic.

But even better: this is a thing they can do on an industrial scale. I feel like the technology that they're using can lend itself to huge changes in the availability of niche and custom models. I mean, look at what they're doing with the Thomas Kinkade cars. While I'm only interested in those if I can get something like Goatse on the side of one I have a feeling it's a pilot of a larger effort (or at least, could be).

It all begs further questions:
Thinking about the possibilities: can the possibility of unique factory road numbers be far away?
Will doing custom runs come down in price and minimums?

While we may be facing some short term (I hope) struggles due to trade tensions, I am still really optimistic about the future of our hobby due to stuff like this.

[ljudice]

MTL should spin-off a new business that decorates OTHER manufacturer's cars...

[basementcalling]

Ed, I love the work @Shipsure and the rest of the Talent, Oregon crew are doing with these releases, with one caveat. Can you make a prototypical train out of these offerings? Many of their designs they issue are obviously some of the more eye catchingly weathered or grafittied examples on the rails. I'd think running a train full of these would be classic overweathering, just with exquisite colors and execution. I imagine their criteria for what makes a good weathered offering might exclude lighter examples of nature's impact, or less attention getting types of grafitti.

Just something to consider. I am hoping that their weathered runner packs will keep being offered, but will tone it down a touch. I think I see a trend that way with some of the more recent releases as MT, seems to have figured out not every car in a train needs to look like the taggers got ahold of it. But if you go to a webiste like Hogtrainz and look at which offerings are still available, it's often the most eye catching cars that are long sold out while more subdued examples are still in stock, some long after their release month.

[ednadolski]

They're gorgeous.

Most definitely!

can the possibility of unique factory road numbers be far away?

Depends on how prototypical you want 'em.   For starters, you would need (good) pics of all sides plus roof for each individual car.

Ed

[Rossford Yard]

Ed,

Agree they are loverly……..unless a new body style (like IM's new shorty covered hoppers, if and when they arrive) comes out, its about all I buy.  Yes, I have weathered many cars, but these are better and of course easier (except on Mr. Wallet, but even then, I find them reasonably priced.)

Also agree they should continue separate weathered and graffiti releases.  Maybe even split weathered into light, medium and heavy weathering, since all graffiti cars isn't (quite) yet prototypical.  I believe there is probably a way to mass produce some of the more mundane, typical weathered cars that wouldn't be noticeably the same.  I also think something like Athearn's "primed for grime" line with light weathering out of the box would be big sellers, but then, those in the industry might correct me.

If (I don't but if) I had a complaint its that they still favor box cars in their releases.  Having bought rolling stock for 30 years now in N, I overbought box cars early, moved my modeling time frame up with the times, consulted the railroad register, and find I need ANYTHING BUT box cars to keep a prototypical ratio of cars.  Need more covered hoppers, etc. weathered than anything if you model about 1990 on.

If they could somehow get on other mfgs cars, that would also be great.  Anyone remember Bev Bell from the 80's who did paint schemes on others cars that the "bigs" wouldn't do?  For that matter, Pacific Western Rail Systems does a lot of that now, actually, often with MT cars perhaps with a too Canadian emphasis to sell big. (I saw their CSX set of covered hoppers at Salt Lake, but they wouldn't sell the samples, dang)  IMHO, someone ought to do it!

[Maletrain]

I'll second the concept of light weathering and more road numbers. 

Particularly for N scale, where trains can be pretty long and still get run on a layout, it is hard to make things like unit trains or, in the older days, reefer blocks and stock trains, without having to renumber a lot of cars (or ignore the many dupes).

And, if one model train serves as more than one through train on a layout's timetable, having a very conspicuous uniquely weathered or tagged car, or even a distinctive load on an open car, can spoil the illusion that it is two (or more) trains coming out of staging.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Ed, I love the work @Shipsure and the rest of the Talent, Oregon crew are doing with these releases, with one caveat. Can you make a prototypical train out of these offerings? Many of their designs they issue are obviously some of the more eye catchingly weathered or grafittied examples on the rails. I'd think running a train full of these would be classic overweathering, just with exquisite colors and execution. I imagine their criteria for what makes a good weathered offering might exclude lighter examples of nature's impact, or less attention getting types of grafitti.

Just something to consider. I am hoping that their weathered runner packs will keep being offered, but will tone it down a touch. I think I see a trend that way with some of the more recent releases as MT, seems to have figured out not every car in a train needs to look like the taggers got ahold of it. But if you go to a webiste like Hogtrainz and look at which offerings are still available, it's often the most eye catching cars that are long sold out while more subdued examples are still in stock, some long after their release month.

That's a good point. I wouldn't call it a criticism of what they're doing.

Also, for the record, one side of the car is often much less "eye catching" than the other. The Reading boxcars, for example. One side has the oddball door replacement while the other doesn't (which I think is excellent).

[MetroRedLine]

I don't yet own any of the MTL pre-weathered cars. Are they weathered exactly the same way, or is there enough variation in them?

Also, I can't believe someone made a Goatse reference here, lol.

[learmoia]

Also, I can't believe someone made a Goatse reference here, lol.

There is gaping maw of Graffiti that one can explore if we lift the PG restriction on mass produced items.



~Ian

[basementcalling]

That's a good point. I wouldn't call it a criticism of what they're doing.

Also, for the record, one side of the car is often much less "eye catching" than the other. The Reading boxcars, for example. One side has the oddball door replacement while the other doesn't (which I think is excellent).

Definitely not a criticism, just an observation. Modeling the typical as a guiding principle is tough when it's the atypical that more often catches one's eye.

You are right about the reverse side usually being more toned down, although not too many guys will spend $25-30 bucks on a car to show the boring side towards the trainshow audience.

[chicken45]

I bought a set of these because of Ed shining the spotlight on them.

They are prob too late for my era, but I like them. Are these technically PC era cars?

[chicken45]

Until @tom mann gives me a paragraph on how to make streaks, these will do!

[peteski]

I don't yet own any of the MTL pre-weathered cars. Are they weathered exactly the same way, or is there enough variation in them?

Also, I can't believe someone made a Goatse reference here, lol.

In my experience, if the weathering/fading is ink-jet printed on the car sides/roof (as it usually is in the recent releases), it is identical (since they just use the same artwork to decorate all the cars).  But the subtle weathering applied to cars by airbrush will have subtle variations.  That type of weathering used to be used in earlier releases, and is used now, usually to weather the trucks.

[Missaberoad]

Until @tom mann gives me a paragraph on how to make streaks, these will do!

Is it time for the annual "where's vol 2 / take my money" thread? 

I do love the weathered cars that have been coming out of Talent... The quality of the decoration is making me bite the bullet when it comes to the unfortunate nature of the tooling... (which to be fair is only a few cars in their lineup)

[Missaberoad]

@Ed Kapuscinski did Micro-trains retool the 40' boxcar underframe? The newer releases look lowered compared to older runs... (I haven't bought a micro trains PS-1 in years)