Painting Rail

[Anonymous]

How 'bout that "Kitty Litter."
Having lived in Steamboat Springs, Co. before moving to STL, we carried bags of Kittly Litter in the car instead of sand for emergencies. I wonder if you could strain it in progressively smaller strainers and use the larger pieces for small rocks and the smaller pieces for ballast?

[ClinchValleySD40]

Avoid using the Brite Boy - too abrasive.
Easy solution - wipe Goo Gone onto the top of the rail prior to painting. It leaves an oily residue to which the paint will not stick. When done painting and paint is dry, just wipe the rail with a clean dry rag.

[Anonymous]

Here's a link to a similar thread I posted a few weeks ago. It might give you some additional suggestions.

http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=10930

[dknelson]

I paint flex track outdoors with a spray can (actually two spray cans, one of rusty red and the other a dark camoflage brown) and then immediately wipe off the tops with a piece of masonite soaked in paint thinner. The flatness of the masonite hits the entire rail head and the rough side of the masonite is lightly abrasive but less so than a bright boy. I have built a "stand" for the flex track out of foam core board I got cheap so I can do about 6 pieces of track at once. Only drawback- when the track flexes you can sometimes see little shiny spots. I can live with that. Painting in a room where there is no ventilation is sometime I want to avoid if I can
Dave Nelson

[Jetrock]

I paint my track with an airbrush, typically Railroad Tie Brown, followed up by one of those disposable mini-paintbrushes with some diluted Rust along the sides of the rails themselves. I prep the rails with a little 3-in-1 oil applied with a paper towel, but in a hurry I neglected this step once and didn't have much more trouble getting paint off the railhead. I use code 100 Peco switches and Atlas track.

[Anonymous]

Paul,

I paint my track with an airbrush. I shoot the various shades of rust color on the rail sides from a low angle, then color the ties from directly overhead. I use very dilute paint and use only 10 lb of air pressure. This keeps the overspray to a minimum. I clean the top of the rail with a clean cloth just dampened with laquer thinner. I use code 70 flextrack for most of my layout and I have experienced no problems. I paint all the turnouts on the layout using a brush so I can keep paint away from the points and other moving parts.

Tom

[Anonymous]

I hope this generates quite a few responses. I have painted the rails on two other layouts in the past. I did not protect the top of the rail from paint at all, and did not have much of a problem removing the paint from the top of the rail with a bright boy. I have heard of many ways of protecting the tops of the rail from paint and was wondering what others have used. On my current layout I am using Peco code 75 rail in HO.
Thanks for the input.
Paul