Micro Trains Weathered Goodness

[bobdobbs]

http://www.micro-trains.com/wc-HS_USA_1304.php

[James Costello]

Yeah, nice job this month!

[Catt]

My wallet is hurting already.

[peteski]

Nice!
I suspect that their new flat-bed ink jet printer (they used on the Meat Packers Series) is getting a good workout.  That is how they did the large graffiti on the recent 3-pack of gondolas.

[robert3985]

That makes me glad I don't model the modern era! 

As to the ill-kept U.S.Army tankcar....wouldn't happen...unless it's a derelict in a scrap yard.  No self-respecting NCO or officer would ever allow a piece of equipment he was responsible for to get dusty and oily...ever.  It would be his special duty to keep all of the railroad cars as clean as possible...especially the ones most difficult to keep clean! They'd be sooo clean you could eat your lunch off 'em.

I'm a Navy man, so I don't know the chain of command among the sand-crabs, but I am sure whoever was in charge of a dirty tank car would soon be in big trouble...so, there wouldn't be any.

[hegstad1]

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3250151

[mcjaco]

 LOL

[Kisatchie]

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3250151

Hmm... looks like it was
kidnapped by the navy and
left on a siding to rust...

[JoeD]

never say never.    I think if regular Army folks were responsible for the upkeep of these cars, then they would be spit shined daily...but civilians generally handle this stuff and the same level of care may not be there.

Joe

[lock4244]

If there was no graffiti on the SRN boxcar I'd bite. I hate graffiti 

[Bob Bufkin]

Dout that tank car belongs to the Army anymore.  Check out the solid bearing trucks.  Not even allowed in interchange.  Might be sitting there for scrap.  If you have ever been on a military reservation you would see that most of the equpment is not really in tip top shape.  Mostly used for internal moves on base.  The more modern flats and boxcars are kept in good condition for long distant moves.

[cv_acr]

Dout that tank car belongs to the Army anymore.  Check out the solid bearing trucks.  Not even allowed in interchange.  Might be sitting there for scrap.  If you have ever been on a military reservation you would see that most of the equpment is not really in tip top shape.  Mostly used for internal moves on base.  The more modern flats and boxcars are kept in good condition for long distant moves.

Check the date on the photo: 1983. Totally plausible.

[fredmoehrle]

Dout that tank car belongs to the Army anymore.  Check out the solid bearing trucks.  Not even allowed in interchange.  Might be sitting there for scrap.  If you have ever been on a military reservation you would see that most of the equpment is not really in tip top shape.  Mostly used for internal moves on base.  The more modern flats and boxcars are kept in good condition for long distant moves.

Also the location, and those hoppers behind it.
Alaska!?!  Not much interchange up there, probably used to ferry fuel from the docks to the base, back and forth, again and again.
Probably sold it to the Air Force, they need to move lot's of Avgas!

[C855B]

If there was no graffiti on the SRN boxcar I'd bite. I hate graffiti 

The problem I have with it is that this style of graffiti was not prevalent on rail cars until >~1990. Infrequently, maybe, in the '80s, but then only on equipment that lingered in Northeast dense urban. Very rare out West.

IOW, my pet peeve - added details on cars that "hard" date them even though the car itself would otherwise be good for a previous era. 

That said, I really like the improvements in the general weathering look. Just drop the representation of spray-painted graffiti for pre-1990 equipment and we're golden.

[sizemore]

I want a you can keep the Multi-Pack, I want the Mulit-Pack.


The S.