Painting Track

[Track fiddler]

The heat has broke and the humidity is going to be low for a few days here.

I want to get outside and pre-paint my track before fall sets in.  I like how Midwest Products cork looks almost like ballast before you get the ballast done so I don't want to paint my track with an airbrush on the layout. 

I know myself and my procrastinate tendencies so I better well get it done so I can finally lay my track this winter.

 

OK. The 3-foot PECO Flex track is a no-brainer.  My thoughts is to use Rust-Oleum Earth Tone camouflage paint in the rattle can as it is a good rust color, unless any of you have a better suggestion.  I'll take lacquer thinner to the top of the rails before it is dry. 

I also have some small rubber tubing to put over a quarter inch of the rail ends not to get paint on so I can solder the rail joiners later.  Of course radius where I cut the rail off, I'll still have to clean the paint off one side.

Being that I am Track Fiddler I should know all the ins-and-outs about track.....but I don't and I can't have any fiddle tracks until the track is laid 

This is where you guys come in because I know very little about how I should paint the turnouts so they don't seize up, mess up or whatever.  What precautions should I use to paint the turnouts?  Can I use a rattle can for this?

Also, what colors have you guys used to hand paint sporadic ties to look like they've been replaced?  Any other techniques you can tell me about painting track will be appreciated. 

Anything else on this subject is welcomed as I'm lacking some knowledge here.  I have never painted track before and this is a new learning experience for me.  I've admired all your work here over the years and respect all your opinions

 

Thanks for your response and advise here in advance gentleman

 

 

 

TF

[SeeYou190]

-Kevin

[Doughless]

Mark P, AKA Pruitt here on the forum, mentioned that he used Chapstick on the rails before painting.  He reported that it helped with removing the dried paint after spraying.

I thought that was an ingenious idea.

I hand paint the sides of the rails and ties with a medium sized chisel nosed brush.  Goes quickly actually.  Then follow up with a swath of lighter colored browninsh gray down the center of the ties.

I noticed out west and in FL, the ties tend to wash out more quickly in the sunlight and actually look gray and not brown, IMO.

I mix the paints on a pallett as I go.  Like Bob Ross.  You quickly learn how much paint from each pile to grab, and then it blends further as you go over the previously wettened rails you just painted.  

But I think I'll try Mark's idea simply because I find it so cool.

[kasskaboose]

Are you going to ballast the track?  If so, that will cover most of the track.  The real area to focus is outside the rails. 

[7j43k]

I do the overall camo spray, and wipe the railtops off.

Then I, too, brush paint individual ties.

When everything is nice and dry, I use 1/4" blue tape to mask off the wood of the ties, leaving the tie plates and rail.  I airbrush that with dark rust.

I remove the tape, let it dry, and ballast.

I then use my airbrush to put "dirty striping" down the middle of the track.  And maybe a bit down the ties, generally; keeping the ballast edges a bit lighter and cleaner.

And, once again, clean off the railtops.

 

 

Ed

 

 

[Pruitt]

I use rattle can brown for my track - Rustoleum flat brown.

For turnouts I just paint the whole thing. My turnouts are Fast Tracks, so they aren't power routing. Power is connected between the stock rail and the closure rail on that side through the PC board ties to wich the rails are soldered. I build solid point turnouts (no point hinges), so I don't have to worry about the hinges carrying the power to the points. My frogs are unpowered.

Once the paint's dry, I just flip the points back and forth a few times. It doesn't take much effort to break the paint bond between the points and the ties. They loosen up pretty quickly. Then I just clean off the tops of the rails, and everything is fine.

If you're counting on point hinges to carry power painting probably becomes more complicated, but I've never done that so I don't know what works there and what doesn't. Where power is carried by contact between the end of the points and the stock rail, I've seen folks tape over that area to ensure the points and stock rails remain clean for about half an inch or so. Then I think they hand paint the non-contacting surfaces of the points and the stock rail.

Here's how my turnouts look after painting but before the rail tops are cleaned off:

I plan to weather the track between and to either side of the rails using various chalks, but I haven't started that yet so I don't know how that will come out. But I certainly don't plan to paint each individual tie!

[Track fiddler]

Good morning

Thanks for the advice and help so far  Nice pictures!  I'm still not sure if I have to mask off the continuity points on the turnouts.  They are the new PECO Uni-Frog turnouts.

 

Thanks again

 

 

 

TF

[rrebell]

It is best to paint the track once down, otherwise you need to touch up alot of flex and you will need to depaint any place you want to solder, not to mention other potential problems. Me, I spray paint track once installed with Model Master light earth. I don't paint till ballast time and do a light spray and if some original tie color shows thru that is fine once ballested it will look like a diferent colored tie. The way I do it without makeing a mess is I use sheets of typing paper and T pin it to the cork lightly, around turnouts and rail ends I  make templates to spray. A typical rail end is a rectangle cut out of paper, takes a few seconds. I also tape a fine strip of tape over turnout electrical conections and touchup the missing paint later (you can make your own bottle paint out of spray by using small amount of thinner in a bottle and spraying into it till you get the thickness you want), one small paint bottle will do touchup on a very large layout.

[NVSRR]

 

I start with weathered rail.Which gives it alot of tooth.  evenly and heavily coat with AIM dark rust wash.  Once dry I the go over unevenly with a light rust.  The effect of the combination of the colors and varying intensities really makes the rail appear real. Best part is this method allows for application after ballasting. Also makes turnouts easier to deal with.  gives that rust stain affect on the ballast that appears in places.  My ties are real wood.  four different stains are used. a group of ties stained grey.  a group grey brown, a light brown and dark kona brown.  I use percentage formulas for the different applications.  A percentage of each group depending on what the application is, mainline, siding, branch etc.  once down dab on some light brown or dark brown to add more variation, maybe black for grease staining.   I am working on building tie plate strips for 3d printing. That will also allow for gauging The track should really pop then. 

I dont have many good pics of the track.  If you look between 402 and 400, there is a peak and the rail, You can kinda of see the side of the rail that the gondola is sitting on, and some of the effect on the first two pics. 

Another option in track coloring.   

 

I have seen so many pictures you would sware were real, until you spot the bright shiney rail and black shiney ties.   Any coloring goes a long way.

 

SHane

 

[wp8thsub]

Track fiddler

I also have some small rubber tubing to put over a quarter inch of the rail ends not to get paint on so I can solder the rail joiners later. 

Get the track down, wired, and fine tuned.  Don't even think about painting until it's installed and bulletproof.

 What precautions should I use to paint the turnouts? 

Not much is necessary.  I wedge a scrap piece of stripwood maybe an inch long between the open point and stock rail.  No other precautions are really needed.  By waiting to paint until the track is in, you can ensure the turnout operates properly with no dead spots first.  Troubleshooting turnout electrical issues may be more complicated if you have paint in the way.

Can I use a rattle can for this?

I do most of the time.  Apply light coats and no moving parts should be adversely affected.

Also, what colors have you guys used to hand paint sporadic ties to look like they've been replaced?

I use various tan and gray acrylics to represent ties of differing ages.

DSC03134

by wp8thsub, on Flickr

DSC02366

by wp8thsub, on Flickr

W Lakeview 1

by wp8thsub, on Flickr

A dark brown like raw umber can be used for newer ties, or you can weather the older ones and let the base color represent the replacements.

[gmpullman]

wp8thsub

Get the track down, wired, and fine tuned.  Don't even think about painting until it's installed and bulletproof.

+1   

   —Worked for me.

Cheers, Ed

[snjroy]

I painted my ties about two years ago and I will be ballasting soon, so this thread is very timely for me. I noticed that after two years, a few ties have accumulated scratches, and I will need to repaint some segments. Has anyone attempted to apply a varnish to protect the paint, with a brush I assume?

Simon

[NVSRR]

I have never come across that idea Of a clear coat  Would that work?

shane

 

[Track fiddler]

Good morning

Thanks for all the good advice here.  I appreciate you guys sharing all your track painting experience.

I enjoyed all the photos illustrating some great ideas.  I'm definitely going to take the advice of painting the track after it's laid now.  It just makes too much sense

 

Thanks for sharing your knowledge here

 

 

 

TF

 

 

[doctorwayne]

wp8thsub

...Get the track down, wired, and fine tuned. Don't even think about painting until it's installed and bulletproof.....

gmpullman

wp8thsub Get the track down, wired, and fine tuned. Don't even think about painting until it's installed and bulletproof. +1 —Worked for me. Cheers, Ed

I agree with Rob and Ed.

Not counting double track, industrial sidings and staging yards, I have around 300' of mainline track, all of it painted (both sides of both rails, even though it's an around-the-room layout) using a brush.

While the back-sides of the rails aren't normally viewable, they are very noticeable when I take photos with the camera on-layout, and facing the aisle.

The advantage of brush-painting is that there's no overspray (as you'd get with an airbrush and even moreso with a spray  can) so no need for masking anything.  No paint residue on lineside structures and no stinking-up the whole house, either.
I used Pollyscale paint and a half-inch chisle-type brush - less need to reload it, and better control over the paint.

Originally, I seldom bothered painting ties, but later, when I started using Central Valley tie strips, I found it easy to do, especially before the rail was installed.
The brush painting allows you to do the work at your own speed and time...got 15 minutes before suppertime?...you could easily get 15' of rail painted on both sides.  Rinse out the brush, cap the paint, then come back later if you feel like doing more.  There's no struggling with a recalcitrant spray can that has dried paint clogging the nozzle, either.

I actually found the brush-painting to be a very relaxing pastime, and with no complaints from SWMBO about stinky paints, either.

Ballasting track is equally easy and just as satisfying, too...in my opinion, those two operations are best bang for your buck that you'll ever find in model railroading.

Wayne

[Track fiddler]

Good morning

Thanks for stopping by Wayne.  Great to see you and your beautiful photographs again.  Looks like outside pictures taken down by the tracks

I've wondered about painting by hand with a brush.  The results sure look admirable to me

Thanks for all the great advice here as well my friend

 

 

 

TF

[doctorwayne]

Track fiddler

Thanks for all the great advice here as well my friendWink

And thank you, TF, for your kind comments.

Wayne

[CNCharlie]

I agree with Wayne on the brush painting but TF is in N scale which means a very small brush, very steady hands and good eyesight.

I used ME weathered rail when I built my N scale door layout. They sell a solution to do the turnouts.  It can be brushed on. I still have most of a bottle of the stuff. It works on chemical reaction and doesn't gum up things.

Floquil used to make markers for rail colouring that have a chisel head. I used them on my HO layout and they worked great. 

CN Charlie

 

 

[HO-Velo]

Hi TF,

I painted the track for my small HO switching layout before installation, but the Micro Engineering track holds shape after forming and pre-fitting.  Airbrushing the track away from the layout provided good paint coverage and no worries about errant overspray and fumes.  Fast Tracks turnout ties were pre-painted and rails were brush painted at the workbench.

Touch-up was minimal after laying the track, mostly at pre-planned feeder locations and rail ends.  Later on acrylic craft paint washes of various colors were brush applied to most of the ties.  

Happy track work and regards, Peter

[dstarr]

I painted all the track on my layout with a brush.  I just did the rails, in rail brown or rust or something.  It covered the bright shiny new nickel silver look and made the rail look smaller.  I laid Code 100 cause Norm Proctor at AVRA gave me an armful of it.  After painting, the rail looks like it could be Code 70. 

  I think ties should not be the same color as the rail.  So I do not spray paint my track.  Real wood ties start off life creosoted almost black.  They weather out to lighter and lighter shades of brown, eventually going driftwood gray.  Bad ties get replaced with new ties, which gives the occasional dark brown new tie in a run of really old and weathered ties.

[doctorwayne]

CNCharlie

I agree with Wayne on the brush painting but TF is in N scale which means a very small brush, very steady hands and good eyesight.

Yeah, I had forgotten that, although I don't think that the brush would need to be much smaller, as chisel-type brushes are wide, but not overly thick.  I generally painted 10' or 20' of track, then used a dry rag to wipe the top of the rails clean before the paint had time to "cure" in-place.  If the paint gets on the ties, it's usually only on the tieplates, so not necessarily incorrect in appearance...

...although much of my rail painting is not in rust-like colours...

Wayne

[HO-Velo]

dstarr

Real wood ties start off life creosoted almost black.  They weather out to lighter and lighter shades of brown, eventually going driftwood gray.  Bad ties get replaced with new ties, which gives the occasional dark brown new tie in a run of really old and weathered ties.

Your description seems to fit the photo I snapped of Union Pacific (formerly S.P.) trackage at Crockett, Ca. in 2011.  Tracks at left are mainline, track to right is siding near C&H Sugar refinery.  The siding shows a lot less maintenance than the mainline.   

In retrospect I think the base color of my track should have been painted a lighter shade of brown, seems better working from light to dark with washes. 

Regards, Peter

  

[doctorwayne]

Some more photos of real track, for those looking for options for painting their track.  Some of the photos are of the same tracks, taken at  intervals of up to several years...

...some street running track...

 

Wayne