The older scale locos (mth, lionel, etc) often have very shiny bright drivers and rods. The newer editions have blackened/darkened drivers/rods. Has anyone experimented with darkening the original rods/wheels? Is it possible or feasible?

On tinplate we use gun blueing for many of the truck frames: produces a dull black/gray without paint.

It's very easy to use: clean the bare metal part thoroughly and dry; paint or swab the gun blueing on; remove after a couple minutes (directions on the bottle work fine); wash in soap/water to stop the chemical reaction; and dry the part(s).

You can get gun blueing almost anywhere - I bought mine at Wally Mart in the outdoors/gun section. There's also a remover available.

I think some folks have used a product called Neolube to blacken the driver rods. It wipes on and can be wiped off.

Someone else can confirm this I'm sure.

Fred

Neolube is available from P-B-L

P-B-L

Neolube is also available from www.micromark.com
It is an oil based graphite solution and sticks pretty well. It can also be used to do graphite smoke boxes.

John

I've used Neolube with good results. If you own an airbrush and some rollers to run your engine in a stationary position. You can mist on some Grimy Black while it's running to tone everything down. I recently did an older Williams brass Mikado with good results. Neoluble followed by some weathering colors.

I just brushed on some Floquil "oily black" and that worked fine. I was concerned about brush marks, but you can't see any of them when the loco is running.

thanks for the ideas guys- I like the neolube idea- undoable if you like