I too, at first, hated the idea of possibly ruining my locos or rolling stock.
But I did want some of them to look like they had been 'around' for a while.
I had also found that if I 'motorised' some freight and/or passenger cars to become 'helpers', it would help my steam outline locos to overcome my tortuous gradients (max 1:10).
I had already 'kitbashed and weathered some plastic kit-built buildings and also constructed some scratch-built buildings from wood which were then weathered, so I had built up my confidence a wee bit..
After a bit of indecision, I jumped in and, at first, did some weathering and/or detailing of a few items and ........ then went on to the 'motorising' the 'helper' freight and passenger cars and their weathering.
I learned very soon that it is better to apply little by little weathering rather than going full blast!
For my first bash/weather/detailing I 'dressed up' an old Bachmann Climax that I had got secondhand and was in a bit of a state, so if I made a complete dog's dinner, at least it wouldn't be too much of a catastrophe. It was re-liveried in 'Beaver Creek Railroad' plumage and then detailed with bits and pieces and then slightly weathered.
Climax in front of weathered Piko, other kit and bashed and scratch-built buildings

STOCK CAR 'BASH'/WEATHER/MOTORISING
I decided to have three 'motorised' stock cars (cattle trucks) and so proceeded to give them a darned good bashing!
I gathered a number of Bachmann stock cars which were liveried (wrongly) in D&RGW plumage.
To make them look at least a little acceptable for the prototypical line, they needed new
name boards, the walkways amended, weathering and some extra details etc... but fiorst three of them needed motors put in and to try to 'hide' the fact that they had the motors.
A bit of faffing around and I was able to use the side frames from a normal unpowered bogie to camouflage the motor block
The other 'non-motorised' stockcars, out of the ten or so that I had collected, were just detailed and weathered.
Fresh out of the box
Motorised and weathered
Out on the layout (still needing the brake wheel assembly updated with white metal parts)
One non-'motorised' stock car poses by the stockyard all year round.. Weathered coaling and sanding station in background
