just a theory

But think about why weathering occurs:  Dirt, mud, junk is thrown up from the track onto the car and sticks a little at a time.  Now think about snowplows - What is thrown up at them?  Snow and ice.  But snow and Ice melt away and don't stick.  And the snow shields the car from the dirt and mud. Heck, snow and ice even act as a "bath" when they melt.   Maybe "Museum quality" is because of the type of car it is?

Plow

A Jordan sprader would be perfect because it does double duty as a ballast plow and ditcher in the summer (the thing the spreader spreads is ballast).

Snow plows are only used when the snow is deep which means it get used one or twice a year every 3-5 years in most places.  Not much wear and tear.

Examples

You can find several pics of the IAIS's two current plows at  http://www.iaisrailfans.org/gallery/RSPlows , including a number of detail shots of their Jordan spreader.  Granted, no wood gondola plow, but hopefully they give you some ideas.

Treated as an emergency apparatus.

  Snow plows would be treated like any emergency apparatus would be. After every use it would be maintained and cleaned and painted if needed to be ready for the next time. If the plow was not ready when needed the railroad could possibly be shut down until spring or the plow could buck through the snow. Your Jordan spreader can be used all year long and it too would be maintained on a daily basis. When the winter would come close the spreader would be moved closer to the house it is dispatched from.

  Go to any decently run town or city DPW yard after a snow storm and you will see that things are just not parked waiting to rust away. The steam cleaners will be going full tilt getting everything ready for the next time.

         Pete

somebody forgot the maintance agenda on this beauty

Not much around to clean this thing up.  Lot's of rust area showing.

Weeds

Since all gondola-type plows I've seen are filled with dirt for weight, don't forget to model weeds growing in it, as shown in the Nathan Holmes photo of IAIS 9511 posted by Charlie above.  They apparently make an excellent planter on wheels.

Detail pics of this car are available at the link I posted earlier.

Plow Photos

Here is a direct link to the Plow Photos for IAIS: http://www.iaisrailfans.org/gallery/RSPlows?page=1

I missed this!

Sorry for the late response- sometimes there's so many New Posts I miss some by not clicking on page 2.

ChoChoCharlie, that is is a pic of basically what I have, only a wood gondola.  Still I can get the idea the plow blade is actually rusted but painted over (probably several times) and so has a different shade of red.  I'll have to experiment to see if I can get something similar, or if it does/doesn't look right.  Maybe some dabs of oil paint with a sponge, then painted over with a thinned acrylic base color.

Joe- good call on the weeds inside!  I planned on using talus to represent medium sized rooks left over from some blasting on a cut or two, as I've seen such gondola plows with rocks in them, but there would still be weeds in there I'd suspect-  not like they'd ever change out the rocks for fresh ones!  Again, I'll have to do some experimenting.

Debating on a coupler in the blade, a hinged 'handle' on the blade (naturally I can't find any pics of that type right now, and apparently never saved any) or even nothing up front as a means of coupling - I've seen pics of all used.