"Painting" Bachman E-Z track ?????

[MudHen_462]

I am building a layout for my grandson, and he already has his train & track
(Bachman "grey" E-Z track)... I would like to "weather" the track by painting it
and then apply ballast.... is there a problem painting this plastic sectional track ? Any suggestions ? Thanks for the assistance....

Iron Goat

[Anonymous]

There is no problem with painting "roadbed" track. I assume that this is a permanent type layout, as you plan to ballast it? If you want to ballast it, but take it apart on a regular basis, you are braver than me [;)]

Put a very light coat of oil on the railhead to stop the paint from sticking. Paint the whole thing some sort of base colour, then paint the ties an appropriate colour and the sides of the rails a dark brown or balck to make them look smaller.

If the simulated ballast comes up to the level of the "ties" you will have to be very careful when adding real ballast to make sure that the flanges on the wheels have enough room. Outside the rails there should be no problem.

I have seen one interesting layout where Nscale sectional roadbed track (I think it was Kato Unitrack) was painted with that stone-speckle paint to good effect. This option would allow the track to be seperated more easily than if you glued on real ballast.

Good luck. Hope that was helpful.

Andrew

[Anonymous]

I DID A FEW PIECES AS A TRIAL,,I USED A DARKISH BROWN FOR THE TIES USING JUST CRAFT PAINT MY WIFE HAD .50CENT - 1.00 IN ANY CRAFT STORE , AND USED THE STANDARD METHOD OF BALLASTING,,SORT OF,, 1.PAINT TIES LET DRY 2.APPLIED BALLAST MEDIUM WOODLAND SCENIC BETWEEN RAILS AND BRUSHED EXCESS 3. SOAP WATER WITH EYE DROPPER 4. 50-50 GLUE I LET GLUE SET UP A LITTLE WHILE AND RAN A SET OF TRUCKS ALONG RAILS FOR CLEARENCE AND ELIMINATE OBSRTUCTIONS OF BALLAST 5. THEN I DID ONE OUTSIDE RAIL FULL WHITE GLUE AND SPRINKLED THE BALLAST ONTO IT AND SPREAD LIGHTLE WITH BRUSH AND FINGER, REPEAT TO OTHER SIDE , 6.PICKED ALL BALLAST FROM JOINERS WITH TOOTH PICKS AND FIT ANOTHER PIECE ..AND HAVE MANAGED TO TAKE IT APART WITH LITTLE LOSS !! AFTER YOU PUT IT DOW PERMANTLY JUST GO OVER THE BARE SPOTS,, I DONT HAVE A LAYOUT AND AM LOOKING FOR HELP IN IDEAS OR DIRECTION ,, AND FROM SHEER BOREDOM AND FRUSTRATION TRIED THIS AS AN EXPERIMENT,, HOPE THIS HELPS ,,

[Anonymous]

I didn't have any problem painting the lifelike powerlock track which is similar to Bachmans, but ballasting all that sloped plastic can be an involved process. I am thinking of buying some 1/4" pink foam and cutting it to fit over the whole layout so I'll have 1/4" less to try to ballast on that track..
Keeping the ballst level or under tie level is a little tricky but with a little effort it comes out OK.
http://trains.script-host.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=sammyds

[Anonymous]

If you plan to make it a permanent layout, I suggest using a model glue or some other epoxy or super-glue to put the pieces together permanently before ballasting them.

[jrbarney]

Kevin,
It's not a big thing, but unless the Caps Lock key on your keyboard is broken, typing ALL CAPS is considered poor Net etiquette - the equivalent of shouting. Plus, it has been scientifically proven that reading text in ALL CAPS is slower and more difficult. (When we learn to read, in part we are learning the shapes of each word and the use of ALL CAPS eliminates most of those shape cues.)
Thanks.
Bob
NMRA Life 0543