Dec MTL Weathered/Graf

[Chris333]

If some of those guys had gone public

Then I think a few of them would be facing charges.

[Rossford Yard]

Then I think a few of them would be facing charges.

Well, you would think so, but Joe made it sound as if some of them have, and are sort of accepted as mainstream avant garde artists now.  I am NOT going to take the time to Google that little bit of info....but I still think it would be cool to bring those guys to the MT booth at WGH.  Of course, considering how a few of us feel about graffiti, maybe we would start tagging the MT booth ourselves......

Not that its really on topic, but as I mentioned, I buy every one of these weathered MT cars that fits my era, which happens to be an era of heavy graffiti, so I appreciate them offering them.  I suspect its their way of reducing inventory, although the CP covered hopper must have been planned to add a unique unit to the runner set, as they were released in almost consecutive months.  Sounds like I am not the only one buying them, according to Joe (and the sold out CP......and others at most major sites)  So, we can be happy they filled a need or want in the market place, and kudos for that.

[Atlas Paul]

Doug made the subject line with my name in it just to make me read the thread.

[Rossford Yard]

Clever guy, that Doug!

[Denver Road Doug]

♫ You're so vain, you probably think this topic's about you
You're so vain, I'll bet you think this topic's about you
Don't you? Don't you? Don't you? ♪

 

[Philip H]

Doug made the subject line with my name in it just to make me read the thread.

And did you get any ideas Paul?  Having Atls duke it out with MTL for modern factory weathered rolling stock would be . . . well let's just say my wallet just exited my pants pocket at a high rate of speed to protect it self from the resultant damage.   

[Denver Road Doug]

Well, Atlas has done some faded cars and at least one faded locomotive. (ATSF Patched-BNSF Dash 8-40B)    I would love for them to do more with that, and possibly do some weathering, even if subtle weathering of trucks and underframes.

I would actually prefer less/no graffiti, or at least more "line art" style appropriate for a wider range of eras.  If you look at the "Side B" of the ACFX "GUFE" car that's what I want. http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=973629   As I said initially, that GUFE car is subtle enough but then I noticed after I ordered it that it has "inconspicuous" conspicuity striping....uggghhh.   So a car that otherwise is great, killed because of conspic striping...but I digress.   Looks like I'm not gonna get either car anyway, based on what I'm hearing.

[Rossford Yard]

DRD,
Well I will take that car off your hands, gladly.

It would be interesting to see Atlas and others get into the weathered car biz.  I get the impression that MT just does their leftover stuff, and with pre-orders, that model wouldn't be Atlas'. They would have to make that decision ahead of time to offer faded, weathered, grafittied, etc.

I can't help but comment that if the next complaint level for MRR mfgs is "era specific graffiti" they may just give up the ghost and throw in the towel as far as pleasing their customers.......but it would be nice if they did spread it around a little.  Just because one style was in effect in the 90's, it would stay on the road for decades, so I would figure some mfg would go with the earlier style anyway to expand their sales range.

[Denver Road Doug]

Just because one style was in effect in the 90's, it would stay on the road for decades, so I would figure some mfg would go with the earlier style anyway to expand their sales range.

Um, yeah that was kinda exactly my point.  Take conspic stripes off and you clear another 10 years or more.   And I'm not "demanding" graffiti be of a specific era, but it should be at least somewhat appropriate.   Garish graffiti on a boxcar with a roofwalk and 60's paint scheme is no different in my mind than putting BNSF on a wooden boxcar.   But a good old school "Bozo Texino" or Peace sign line art would be right on the money for that era.   In all honesty, I would advocate fading and weathering but NO GRAFFITI...not because I don't think it belongs, but because (a) it is readily available from several sources and (b) it sometimes makes more sense to add it after certain fading and weathering has occurred.   

As it stands, I AM buying it anyway...I have been buying a lot of the MTL releases and splitting (with Rossford Yard, incidentally!) the packs...generally taking the more conservatively tagged cars.  Between that, and not buying EVERY run, and missing on a couple that I *did* want, I have a nice, "rightsized" set of tagged cars so far.   The number of over-the-top tagged cars needed at this point are in the 1-2 handful range...the rest will be sparsely populated with more line-art style stuff or none at all.   Weirdly, the slow moving coal trains seemed almost immune to graffiti...I suppose owing up to their routing from the PRB to Texas coal plants...few er opportunities in the rougher areas of large cities.   Even nowadays they seem to be the least of the victims...I do see a lot of them hit with paintballs though.   

[peteski]

I think that some of the original batches of MT weathered/tagged cars were extras they had from production runs or older, unsold inventory. 

But now, these releases seem to be full-fledged production releases.  They have unique road numbers, never before released in weathered version.

While I don't know this from official sources, I got this info from reading George Irwin's UMTRR.  That is as close to being official as one can get, without getting the info directly from MT.  I also recall seeing a report listing all the weathered MT releases in the N Scale Enthusiast magazine a while back.  Looks like the weathered cars are becoming a sizable part of MT's business.  I wonder if it is just Joe wielding an airbrush over large batches of cars, or did they hire someone to help him. 

[Rossford Yard]

DRD raises an interesting point - how many or what % of your cars need to be tagged to get a realistic look? (His layout is 1990, mine set in 2005)

Every time MT releases something, I buy it (if a modern car, a la no box car roof walks) figuring I can't have enough.  I mean, right now, my graffiti cars from over they years (bought and/or decaled) probably total 20-25 out of maybe 700 on the layout.  Seems low for 2005.....

[Philip H]

DRD raises an interesting point - how many or what % of your cars need to be tagged to get a realistic look? (His layout is 1990, mine set in 2005)

Every time MT releases something, I buy it (if a modern car, a la no box car roof walks) figuring I can't have enough.  I mean, right now, my graffiti cars from over they years (bought and/or decaled) probably total 20-25 out of maybe 700 on the layout.  Seems low for 2005.....

Good question.  I think its somewhat variable by era and geography. My 1995-2005 KCS stuff has about 15% graf coverage, and about 90% weathered insome form or another (the southern sun does brutal things to paint in short order).  I'm aiming for about 50% weathered (including graf) - which is a lazy thing as much as a prototype thing.

[Denver Road Doug]

For the record, my era is 1998-2003, give or take.   I look to 1999-2000 or so for the focus of rolling stock, with the post-2000 stuff being exceptions.   

I feel like the explosion of graffiti was occurring during that time, but percentage-wise it was single digit percentages in 1998, and maybe 20% by 2003, and probably approaching 35-40% in 2005.  I think we've probably hovered there for a bit, with the introduction of new rolling stock and the retirement of a lot of older cars during the outset of the Great Recession.

I've tried to find hard information about the graffiti phenomenon, but so far no good hard evidence.

[nkalanaga]

Rossford:  In my case, modeling 1974, none.  Judging by the trains I see on NS, for a current railroad, probably at least 75%.

[Rossford Yard]

Of course, for the REALLY prototypical guys, I think graffiti would also vary by region, as I noticed the artwork at Colton in LA way earlier than I noticed it here in TX.  And, I am sure somebody with no layout now has a brand new category of nits to pick, LOL.

But, in all seriousness, it is probably a trend on proto, so it needs to be (for serious modelers) a trend in 2000+ era layouts.