Wheathering track and ties?

[Anonymous]

I Heard about wheathering track and now I want to try it, but how?
Give me some tips or lessons on how to do this. [?][?][?]

[:0][:0][:0][:0][:0]

[Anonymous]

I Heard about wheathering track and now I want to try it, but how?
Give me some tips or lessons on how to do this. [?][?][?]

[:0][:0][:0][:0][:0]

[Anonymous]

Rails, in real life, are shiny only where the wheels contact them (if they get much use at all) - the rest of the rail is rusty. This can be modelled by painting the sides of the rails. This also helps disguise the fact that most of the rails we use are terribly oversized compared to the prototype! There are various techniques to do this - for example spray painting everything and cleaning up after, using a small brush or a "paint pen". It's much less tedious to do this before the track is installed, but if it's flex track you will need to go back and touch up the unpainted spots exposed when the rails slide through the ties while bending the track.
Ties can also be weathered, by painting, dry-brushing, etc., but I've found that after my ballasting attempts they look pretty weathered anyway.

[Anonymous]

Rails, in real life, are shiny only where the wheels contact them (if they get much use at all) - the rest of the rail is rusty. This can be modelled by painting the sides of the rails. This also helps disguise the fact that most of the rails we use are terribly oversized compared to the prototype! There are various techniques to do this - for example spray painting everything and cleaning up after, using a small brush or a "paint pen". It's much less tedious to do this before the track is installed, but if it's flex track you will need to go back and touch up the unpainted spots exposed when the rails slide through the ties while bending the track.
Ties can also be weathered, by painting, dry-brushing, etc., but I've found that after my ballasting attempts they look pretty weathered anyway.

[Anonymous]

I use a mixture of 75% rail brown and 25% rust from Floquil. It produces a color I found on CSX on the W&A sub north of Atlanta, Ga.

Note - you need to wear a respirator (about $ 35) to work with Floquil indoors!

I thin the paint mixture to 25% paint and 75% Floquil thinner and do the ties and ballast immediately adjacent to the rail. I thin the paint mixture to 10% paint and 90% thinner to bru***he rest of the ballast and ties. This produces a fairly heavy look, which is what that CSX main looked like at the time.

If you want a lighter look, like newer ballast, you might use the 10% paint mixture around the rails and skip or 1-2% paint mix the rest.

A cool trick is to mimic new ballast track work. Ballast your main except for a gap of about 15% of your total mainline length. Weather this section. Then, place ballast in the gap, and overlap some at the ends of the already weathered ballast. Apply a light or no coat of weathering. You just simulated summer trackwork. You could lay some worn out wooden ties next to the track to make it look like tie replacement was done as well.

Happy modeling!

[Anonymous]

I use a mixture of 75% rail brown and 25% rust from Floquil. It produces a color I found on CSX on the W&A sub north of Atlanta, Ga.

Note - you need to wear a respirator (about $ 35) to work with Floquil indoors!

I thin the paint mixture to 25% paint and 75% Floquil thinner and do the ties and ballast immediately adjacent to the rail. I thin the paint mixture to 10% paint and 90% thinner to bru***he rest of the ballast and ties. This produces a fairly heavy look, which is what that CSX main looked like at the time.

If you want a lighter look, like newer ballast, you might use the 10% paint mixture around the rails and skip or 1-2% paint mix the rest.

A cool trick is to mimic new ballast track work. Ballast your main except for a gap of about 15% of your total mainline length. Weather this section. Then, place ballast in the gap, and overlap some at the ends of the already weathered ballast. Apply a light or no coat of weathering. You just simulated summer trackwork. You could lay some worn out wooden ties next to the track to make it look like tie replacement was done as well.

Happy modeling!

[der5997]

Bryan: If you've laid your track and haven't ballasted yet, the act of ballasting is going to weather the ties anyway. Do you have an air brush yet? Probably not as you're just starting out. So, a paint brush is your likely choice for the rails. I would vary the color of the "rust" the from place to place (perhaps a siding is a lighter color, or a high speed main line dustier? Grease builds up on curves equipped with track greasing equipment.)

When you come to paint your turnouts have a look at real ones if possible. There's generally a lot of dark greasy places. Be careful with the paint around the parts of the turnout that have to conduct electricity by rail touching rail. Paint on those parts will stop the power from being transfered!

Wipe off the paint that gets on the rail head. If you do this while it's wet you will avoid scratching the rail head, which is almost certain to happen if the paint dries and you scape it off. Why may this be important? Scratching the rail head leaves places where dust and gunk collect, making track cleaning both more necessary, and more difficult.

Before you're through with the paints, (and this bit is easilly over done so go easy) do a darker line down the cetre of the ties to represent oil and muck that has dripped from the trains, or been sucked into the centre by the backdraught.

Again, less is more.

[der5997]

Bryan: If you've laid your track and haven't ballasted yet, the act of ballasting is going to weather the ties anyway. Do you have an air brush yet? Probably not as you're just starting out. So, a paint brush is your likely choice for the rails. I would vary the color of the "rust" the from place to place (perhaps a siding is a lighter color, or a high speed main line dustier? Grease builds up on curves equipped with track greasing equipment.)

When you come to paint your turnouts have a look at real ones if possible. There's generally a lot of dark greasy places. Be careful with the paint around the parts of the turnout that have to conduct electricity by rail touching rail. Paint on those parts will stop the power from being transfered!

Wipe off the paint that gets on the rail head. If you do this while it's wet you will avoid scratching the rail head, which is almost certain to happen if the paint dries and you scape it off. Why may this be important? Scratching the rail head leaves places where dust and gunk collect, making track cleaning both more necessary, and more difficult.

Before you're through with the paints, (and this bit is easilly over done so go easy) do a darker line down the cetre of the ties to represent oil and muck that has dripped from the trains, or been sucked into the centre by the backdraught.

Again, less is more.

[dknelson]

Fortunately my weathering is taking place before the track is laid. That way I can do it outdoors. Jim Hediger had an article recently about the steps needed to make your basement suited to spray painting track once it is in place on the layout (whether you use an airbrush or spray cans) and it is pretty involved.
I built two holders -- one holds the track straight the other holds it curved. You need to spray each piece several times -- once from each side, once straight once curved -- and I use two cans of spray paint, one a camoflage brown and the other a dark red primer. if you alternate bursts of spray from both you get a pretty good weathered effect. A rag dampened with paint remover nearby helps you get the railtops shiny again -- it is harder to do once the paint dries hard.
Dave Nelson

[dknelson]

Fortunately my weathering is taking place before the track is laid. That way I can do it outdoors. Jim Hediger had an article recently about the steps needed to make your basement suited to spray painting track once it is in place on the layout (whether you use an airbrush or spray cans) and it is pretty involved.
I built two holders -- one holds the track straight the other holds it curved. You need to spray each piece several times -- once from each side, once straight once curved -- and I use two cans of spray paint, one a camoflage brown and the other a dark red primer. if you alternate bursts of spray from both you get a pretty good weathered effect. A rag dampened with paint remover nearby helps you get the railtops shiny again -- it is harder to do once the paint dries hard.
Dave Nelson

[jwfoise]

If you don't have an airbrush and don't want to use a brush (lots of work) I had very good results with Floquil rail brown color in a spray can after the track was laid. And yes it will also color the ties, but I think that looks good too, the wood around here tends to have a redish hue anyway. Where the ties got a little too red I just added a dilute wash of black paint on them with a bru***o tone them down. Do follow all the other advice about protecting the points of turnouts and cleaning the tops of the rails after.

[jwfoise]

If you don't have an airbrush and don't want to use a brush (lots of work) I had very good results with Floquil rail brown color in a spray can after the track was laid. And yes it will also color the ties, but I think that looks good too, the wood around here tends to have a redish hue anyway. Where the ties got a little too red I just added a dilute wash of black paint on them with a bru***o tone them down. Do follow all the other advice about protecting the points of turnouts and cleaning the tops of the rails after.

[der5997]

Thanks dknelson for the track holder idea. Sounds interesting.

[der5997]

Thanks dknelson for the track holder idea. Sounds interesting.

[dknelson]

Maybe I should try to describe that track holder. It is 3 feet long about 7 inches tall and maybe 7 inches wide.
It looks like bleachers -- like steps, slightly angled down
So I can do 6 pieces of flex track at a time -- I used foam core because I had a batch but box type cardboard would work too -- assembled with a glue gun.

Dave Nelson

[dknelson]

Maybe I should try to describe that track holder. It is 3 feet long about 7 inches tall and maybe 7 inches wide.
It looks like bleachers -- like steps, slightly angled down
So I can do 6 pieces of flex track at a time -- I used foam core because I had a batch but box type cardboard would work too -- assembled with a glue gun.

Dave Nelson

[der5997]

dk: Thanks again, I know just what to do now, and the foam board won't disolve with apint solvents since I'm using acrylics in an air brush.

[der5997]

dk: Thanks again, I know just what to do now, and the foam board won't disolve with apint solvents since I'm using acrylics in an air brush.

[Anonymous]

what a great idea Dave. I weather my Peco 55 N flex track outside with a rail brown acrylic paint. But I was putting them on newspaper, one at a time on an old picnic table in the back 40. But your idea is much better. I just need a board that is around 7 feet high and some nails to hold the track, 4 across on top, 4 across on the bottom, and spray. I still have paints on my hands from my first attempt.

[Anonymous]

what a great idea Dave. I weather my Peco 55 N flex track outside with a rail brown acrylic paint. But I was putting them on newspaper, one at a time on an old picnic table in the back 40. But your idea is much better. I just need a board that is around 7 feet high and some nails to hold the track, 4 across on top, 4 across on the bottom, and spray. I still have paints on my hands from my first attempt.