Track weathering

[pidge456]

Hi everyone, currently my track is non weathered and to be honest looks unnatural. I was thinking of using a weathering spray paint. Are there any things I shouldn't do when spraying the track. The track is complete with all point motors etc, would spraying the tracks with all connections in place damage or reduce electrical conduction of say the point clips. Guess I should have done this at the start but as a newbie you dont always think of everything at the beginning.

[2e0dtoeric]

I've not tried spray-painting track, and I don't think it will work too well, because you cannot get the paint ONLY on the track.

 

Before you start, are you absolutely sure that the track layout is working properly, how you want it, and you won't be making 'adjustments' in a few months, thus wasting a lot of time and effort?

 

The way I do it - very tedious! - is with a fine brush, and a tinlet of 'rusty rails' paint. I don't bother painting the 'back' of each rail, (because you can't see it on a one-sided layour!) but the front face of each rail is (will be) painted with multiple blotchy rust. As you go along, clean any paint off the top - running surface - of each rail.

 

Then, depending if you have 'wood' or 'concrete' sleepers, they can be suitably coloured as well.

 

When you get to the points, then it becomes very tricky, because you MUST NOT get any paint on the inside edges of the blades or rails, because then the electricity cannot flow, and the blade can be stuck to the rail.

 

The same applies to the tie-bar (the bit of the point that slides across, with the very thin blades attached to it). If you get paint on the small area that slides under the fixed rail, that can glue the point up, too. Think about painting the house windows - shut the window while the paint is wet, and you cannot open it again later!

 

Do your rail and sleeper painting BEFORE you ballast the track, assuming you are not using that foam stuff, or you will end up with painted ballast as well, and that also looks wrong!

 

Go to your nearest bit of railway, and have a good look at the rails. They are not nice and shiny, unless brand-new, but an assortment of shades of black, brown, and grey, made up of different kinds of rust, spillage, oil drips, and general muck. Also, on today's badly maintained railways, there are weeds growing in all sorts of unlikely places! A branch line will have much more weed than a busy main line. They are not neat, tidy, and pristine.

 

The sleepers are also all shades, and states of repair - again, a branch line gets a lot less attention than a main line.

 

Once you have finished  painting, then go over ALL the running surfaces of the rails with your track rubber, and then a vacuum, and get all the stray smears and dust off, before you think of running a loco.

[walkingthedog]

The perfect reply 2e0. That's exactly what I do so it must be right. 

[Graskie]

Sounds good, 2toes. I used that sort of method on a layout years ago, but was not mean enough to leave any rail sides unpainted. My current layout has been run for just over 20 years now and, because I had and anticipated quite a few track developments necessitating lifting and relaying my semi-permanent way, I've never got round to rail rusting or ballasting.

 

What I don't like to see is how some rail painters carry the rust paint so obviously onto the adjoining inside sleeper areas, by quite a margin at times. I know there was rust creeping onto sleepers close by the rail chairs but not that much.

 

I just don't know what will rust first, my rails or me.

[poliss]

Dave Howarth has a demo on weathering track on his Youtube channel. Can't remember offhand exactly which one it is, but it's there somewhere.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwiY7pWyrvYZtxHKBLybdWQ

 

Easiest way to paint the sides of the rails rusty is to use the rust yrails painter so I've been told.

I had an idea that you could split some electrical cable down one side and put it over the rails when spraying the sleepers. Haven't tried it myself so far, but it might work.

[walkingthedog]

Split drinking straws a good for protecting the rails poliss. 

[poliss]

But they're not very long and curves would be a bit tricky wouldn't they?

[walkingthedog]

Lots of split  drinking straws then. Never tried it but they're fairly flexible.

[81F]

Try googling "track painter pens" I have two but they are still in the packet so I cannot vouch for them. Previously I used Humbrol 113 (Also good for brickwork as a slightly different shade to brick red) and a fine brush.

 

Oddly SWMBO enjoys painting the sides of rails so tem does not come into it.

[Bean can]

The ROUGH way. For the 'shed' or 'yard' effect I am using car Plastic Bumper paint. There is a Light and Dark version from Halfords, and it is available in most car stores. Being lazy I spray the total track, then rub off (with worn sanding block) the paint on the rails top. Any electrical mechanical joins/connections have to be considered but solder power from beneath is no issue. Points slidy bits and switchs have to be considered as well perhaps with a bit of masking tape or news paper.

I also use P60 (black) grit sanding paper as ballast......Perhpas I need to write the 'ruff giude to model trains?'

[The Doc]

I went for a more chocolate brown colour for sides of rails (I don't know what humbrol colour it is, usually a mixture of black + M29 Dark Earth,  I think), rather than brick red or rusty, because most rails I see are darker than the colour of rust.  I suppose it is because they get coated with oil, soot, powdered break blocks and decomposing leaves etc.  I don't worry about getting tiny bits on the sleepers because it is not such a different shade to the dark chocolate colour of plastic sleepers.  Peco flexitrack has to be painted more carefully because the rail chairs (?) that actually hold the track to the sleepers are much more prominent and stop you from sliding the paint brush along the sides of the rails.