Looked really nice anyway.
Modelers love details.
A pristine building or a box car fresh from the shops does not have the charm brought on by rot and rust. We'd rather duplicate Ma and Pa Kettle's shack than Mr. and Mrs. Blueblood's mansion. So we have come to associate wrenching poverty with details and we strive to create the most dilapidated of neighborhoods, on the verge of total collapse. Another reason for this depressing world view is that so much of yesterday's railroading and its immediate environs are abandoned ruins. Yet of course this is NOT how they looked in their steam-era heyday.