I would like advice on how to "lightly" weather my locomotives and rolling stock. I have seen the thread on the finished examples of weathered stock. They look great but I do not want all out weathering at this time. I basically want a light weathering below the frame rail. I like the look of a new or washed engine etc, but obviously the wheels, trucks, fuel tanks get "grey?" pretty fast. I do not own an airbrush. If I used chalks, what keeps the chalk on? These may seem like basic questions, but I think a little goes a long way. I just need advice on how to begin.

Okay, I went over to ExactRail before the show closed so I could get some photos of their new wheelsets - they come in brass, nickel-silver (which is plated brass, I believe) and blackened. 

Now, the whole idea was to get a more prototypical appearance out of the things. That's it - and according to Blaine, the machine they got to both make the stepped appearance on the axle as well as the curves on the inside of the wheel was a whole lot more expensive than one that they could have gotten to just make them in the regular shapes. 

I have recently shaved a brand new 44tonner body down to slip inside my old MDC boxcab and IT FITS like a glove.

Having mucked about with the crappy MDC drive for too long,trying to get it to work, I bit the bullet and got a new single motor DCC'ed 44tonner, cut the handrails width off the sides and the grilles off the hoods and a bit of a shave here and there,got it to fit.

I have pulled out several elderly brass locomotives - all acquired 1985-1991. All but one have some kind of operational hitch, and a couple of them have minor damage. For example, one articulated doesn't turn its front engine but the rear is fine. One steam loco has very jerky running, I believe because it makes intermittent contact over the drawbar but I haven't really nailed that down yet. Yet another has a broken footboard pilot (one footboard is missing its tread) and a missing injector although both pipes are in place.