Painting the deck of TTX flatcars white?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I'm working through my TV train mega project and contemplating a thing about my Micro-Trains flats: the prototype flats had white decks.

And, of course, the white paint doesn't go all the way to the edge, which would make masking easy. No, there's a district yellow border.

Have any of you attacked this task with satisfactory results before?

Anyone have thoughts on how to attack it?

[learmoia]

I'm working through my TV train mega project and contemplating a thing about my Micro-Trains flats: the prototype flats had white decks.

And, of course, the white paint doesn't go all the way to the edge, which would make masking easy. No, there's a district yellow border.

Have any of you attacked this task with satisfactory results before?

Anyone have thoughts on how to attack it?

Do you have a reference photo?

How long were they really white?

Another thing to consider.. White Trim film?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I do!

Here are some yellow cars:

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And an oxide car:
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The MTL car (after painting the under frame and some of the top side hardware):
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And an Atlas car that's got it right:
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The one thing I will say: while reviewing my photos, there ARE a number that seem to have yellow decks, so I guess I can live with these if I weather them enough, but I'd rather capture the proto closer.

I've thought about trim film, but the challenge is cutting it to the right shape.

[James Costello]

Some photos are better than others, but it's there:
http://freight.railfan.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=ttax973343&o=ttx
http://freight.railfan.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=ttax973614detail1&o=ttx
http://freight.railfan.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=ttax993479&o=ttx
http://freight.railfan.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=ttax973231&o=ttx
TT Brown:
http://freight.railfan.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=ttax972219&o=ttx

Interestingly enough, the recently released SP 89' from MTL was decorated with the white deck as well, although it's hard to see:
https://micro-trains.com/image/cache/data/product/2024/2404/2404-07100140-2-1000x1000w.jpg

[James Costello]

This is a Newark, NJ shot from 1984 from FallenFlags:


If you squint hard enough you can make out some white. I'd start my weathering that way - some strategically located patches of white blending into the yellow and a healthy amount of grime.

[bbussey]

I'm working through my TV train mega project and contemplating a thing about my Micro-Trains flats: the prototype flats had white decks.

And, of course, the white paint doesn't go all the way to the edge, which would make masking easy. No, there's a district yellow border.

Have any of you attacked this task with satisfactory results before?

Anyone have thoughts on how to attack it?

Just mask and spray.  I've done it with the open frame auto racks as they should have white decks too.  The auto racks really pop when all the decks are painted.  Tamiya tape will give you a clean line.

[James Costello]

Plus, those ACF screw hitches should be black....   

[randgust]

I've always done mine in a light gray and weathered them heavily.   They may have been white for the first 15 minutes.  That last shot is really typical, that's not heavy, that's just average. Oh, and rarely if ever any actual rust, just grime.

Most of the time, at least on ATSF moving at speed, you were hard pressed to even be able to read the lettering, they were so coated in ballast dust.  It's not like they ever got washed.   Half the fun of a piggyback train is the same flat weathered to about six different levels of hell.

Everybody gets weathered, but anything that was on Santa Fe was running over that reddish/dark gray basalt ballast in the early 70's and it really coated the piggybacks to the point you couldn't read half the trailers.  90mph running will do that.   They finally went to all granite because of that, the stuff broke down to dust too easy. 

[Rivet Miscounter]

I'll confess that the white deck on Trailer Train cars is about the hardest thing for my brain to get past as correct even though I know it is.   

Railfanning as a kid in the 80s, you didn't really see the decks and if you do from an angle and with all the weathering those cars endured, it just never seemed like white was a component.   And I don't think any of the models were done that way back then. (in HO and N in the 80s)   I even recall articles about modeling the Twin-45s in Model Railroader and maybe they did the white decks but I surely don't remember it if they did.

I recall the first time I saw a photo of a newer 89ft car it seemed much like a builders photo and I figured the white was done for some event/"dog and pony show" or something.   So it was probably 3 decades of ignorance then denial that has just made it weird.   

So finally I've come to accept the truth.   Now my new problem is getting past the mental block of weathering it and then figuring out how to make it look like James' photo.   But that's true of just about all of my freight cars I guess.   

[bbussey]

Now my new problem is getting past the mental block of weathering it and then figuring out how to make it look like James' photo.   But that's true of just about all of my freight cars I guess.   

I think the prototype in James' photo just had white stripes outside of the rub rails, where the trailer tires traveled.

Isn't the "white" actually anti-skid paint, or am I mistaken?

[randgust]

Bryan, that's what I always thought, mostly because it accumulated dirt so well!

But you do have to realize that you have to be ON the deck to raise the hitches, requires walking on the deck, and that really could be slippery if something wasn't on it beside slick paint on steel.  Would make sense. It's not style points.

[JoeD]

I'm working through my TV train mega project and contemplating a thing about my Micro-Trains flats: the prototype flats had white decks.

And, of course, the white paint doesn't go all the way to the edge, which would make masking easy. No, there's a district yellow border.

Have any of you attacked this task with satisfactory results before?

Anyone have thoughts on how to attack it?

Yep...called special runs.   LOL   

[learmoia]

This is a Newark, NJ shot from 1984 from FallenFlags:


If you squint hard enough you can make out some white. I'd start my weathering that way - some strategically located patches of white blending into the yellow and a healthy amount of grime.

Unless your modeling brand new paint, I'd go with this era.. Mask off the sides with regular masking tape (rougher line), give it a medium fade coat of white, then if you want a dusting of grimy black, then focus your attention on the black wheel guides and trailer hitches.

[bbussey]

... And an Atlas car that's got it right:

As I recall, both BLMA and Athearn along with Atlas released models with white/off-white decks.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I'll confess that the white deck on Trailer Train cars is about the hardest thing for my brain to get past as correct even though I know it is.   

Railfanning as a kid in the 80s, you didn't really see the decks and if you do from an angle and with all the weathering those cars endured, it just never seemed like white was a component.   And I don't think any of the models were done that way back then. (in HO and N in the 80s)   I even recall articles about modeling the Twin-45s in Model Railroader and maybe they did the white decks but I surely don't remember it if they did.

I recall the first time I saw a photo of a newer 89ft car it seemed much like a builders photo and I figured the white was done for some event/"dog and pony show" or something.   So it was probably 3 decades of ignorance then denial that has just made it weird.   

So finally I've come to accept the truth.   Now my new problem is getting past the mental block of weathering it and then figuring out how to make it look like James' photo.   But that's true of just about all of my freight cars I guess.   

This is all so true. All of it.