Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge

[TMo]

I received a surprise gift from a benefactor of mine earlier this week.  Unexpected gifts like this lead me to believe that humanity is not lost, and there are good and caring people lurking around every corner.  Included in the box were three Bowser 100-ton hopper cars, two assembled Reading units, weighted and complete with coal loads, and one mint-in-box Penn Central kit.  In amongst scenery taskings in Hazleton, I've been adding Kartrak decals, assembling the kit and doing a little weathering.  While I was at is, I put Kartraks on my other Reading 100-ton units and proceeded to weather one of my 70-ton PC hoppers.  I like subtle differences between weathered cars, and there's nothing wrong with random in my world.  For the 100-ton hoppers, the Reading company ordered their last hoppers in 1975, just prior to the Conrail merger, so the Reading units were weathered assuming there wouldn't be a whole lot of rust or grime, and in the case of my two new units, I decided to leave 1 just like the previous owner had weathered it - just ever so slightly around each panel of the hopper with a little road grime.  The other one received a fairly uniform black wash that just seemed to me to the be perfect way to show sun fade on a black paint job.  I liked that so much, that the two Penn Central hoppers got the same treatment, with a little rust on the 100-ton and more rust on the 70-ton hopper.  All of the couplers got a rust treatment and the faces of the wheels got a uniform dark gray or gray/rust depending on the truck bearing type.  Each car got some gray and brown road dust.  These are going to be fine additions to my coal fleet. Photo bomb follows: