Phil,

Don't always go by what "some people say", particularly since you
have a photo! Use that to make your judgments.

The O&W also used wood combines on the back of some milk and local
freight trains. Typically these were hand-me-downs from revenue
service, so had not been freshly painted, but were not that bad
off either. The paint was typically faded, often with evidence of
patch repairs, but still serviceable. I suspect that, given the
locale, the LV cars would have weathered similarly. I would
certainly try to avoid the John Allen Syndrome of making it look
too far gone.

FWIW, here's one that I did some time ago from a photo of an O&W
car in similar service. http://home.comcast.net/~oandw/images/123.jpg

Bill Schneider
http://home.comcast.net/~oandw/

----- Original Message -----
From: Philip Lord
To: STMFC@...
Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 2007 10:06 AM
Subject: [STMFC] How much is too much?


Hi all,

I am about to weather a combine to match a photo of the same one
in the late 1940s on the branchline I am modeling and near my
prototype area. The combine also served as the "caboose" on the
end of a short mixed train, and the photo shows one window
converted with weather guards and a rain deflector to serve as the
crew observation area.

Given all this, I am assuming it is pretty dirty and worn, yet
some people are saying passenger cars should not be weathered much
since they went through the washers all the time and stayed pretty
clean. True no doubt on the mainline. But I am thinking in this
peripheral service, on the low-end route, and late in the game, it
was pretty much a "poor relation" and not serviced that often.

Any thoughts? (Email me off list and I can send you a good sized
scan, or look in David Marcham, LEHIGH VALLEY MEMORIES, page 59.

Phil Lord