1. RealSTMFC | Main
  2. Topics

[EXT] Re: [RealSTMFC] Rapido X31a

Bruce Smith
 

Rob,
In general, cars during WWI were "rode hard and put up wet" meaning that they only got the minimum work needed to keep them on the road. Given that the X31 fleet was 10 years old at the end of the war, the cars probably looked pretty well weathered. However, they probably also looked different from each other. Some would have faded paint, others heavier soot, still others, rust. One or two cars might be in pretty new paint from a repaint.

Regards,
Bruce Smith
Auburn, AL

From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> on behalf of Robert kirkham <rdkirkham@...>
Sent: Saturday, January 22, 2022 1:25 PM
To: main@realstmfc.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io>
Subject: [EXT] Re: [RealSTMFC] Rapido X31a
 
CAUTION: Email Originated Outside of Auburn.
I have a broader question on weathering the Rapido cars: So far I have precious few photos of these cars from the immediate end of WWII when I model.  I’m trying to get some sense of what the cars might have looked like at that point.  I have a bunch of guesses about things that might factor into how the fleet looked, but not sure how material any of them are to this group of PRR cars.

We generalize about various factors such as quality of paint products used prior to WWII, the effects of acid rain in the east, of coal and smoke; about paint peeling off galvanized roofs, and weathering and wear and tear.   But how were the cars used in WWII?  How did that affect their appearance after the war?  Did PRR maintain them during the war?  Or only gear up that form of maintenance sometime in 1946 or 47 . . . ? 

I’m thinking 
a) aged worn paint, within a range from pretty good to almost unrecognizable.  
b) some with peeling paint on the roof (was it small spotty paint failure, or large failures?)
c) lettering still pretty good & legible?

I’m thinking for my modelling period they may be in rougher shape than within a couple of years post war, when repaints might have caught up?

But all of this is just speculation, not PRR-informed insight.  

So, is there something more informative to go from when weathering the Rapido cars?

Rob 

      

On Jan 22, 2022, at 11:02 AM, Mike Clements via groups.io <mbclements@...> wrote:

For me, I’m fine with exaggerating this feature to make it visible. The main idea is to give a lip for the oil wash to settle on. I went back and used a pointed q tip with horizontal strokes on the patch as opposed to vertical on the rest of the car. It helped build up grime on the lip and set it off much better. This also makes the rivets on the patch fade away- which is good because there appear to be less of them on the patches.

From what I can tell these got repaired on an as-needed basis. I model 1965 though, so any car that lived that long probably had something done to it. I’m sure one of the PRR die hards can give a better answer. 

Mike Clements
Wakefield, MA
nyc65.wordpress.com

1 - 1 of 1