What To Do With Surplus Rolling Stock

Many of us have more rolling stock than we need and may be trying to get rid of this excess inventory. Some of us sell at swap meets and some of us sell online. We give cars to friends, clubs and new model railroaders, and maybe we use cars for parts or kit bashing. Giving surplus inventory to your local NMRA division also is a good idea.

I've been selling inventory and giving some of it to friends and some free to my former module club for sale to other members. Then another use came to mind: weathering experiments.

The rolling stock I've acquired in recent years tends to be expensive models that are very accurate and highly detailed. The only thing I can do to make these models better is to weather them. And I have weathered some of them using simple techniques I've used on cheaper cars.

But their are some techniques I have little or no experience with, such as using artists oil washes and extreme rust applications. So the surplus inventory has become a source for learning by trial and error without having to ruin my expensive cars.

And what will I do with the weathered cars that look acceptable? Sell them on eBay. If you look at what is available in the way of weathered cars on eBay you'll see that model railroaders will pay a premium for halfway good weathering jobs.

Old Athearn "blue box" cars with just a little chalk dusting go for $10.00 and up. Cars with a little more to extreme weathering go for $20.00 and up.

This is a learn and earn proposition so consider this as just another way to handle your excess rolling stock inventory.

If you have other things you do with your surplus inventory please comment.

Thanks.