Painting & Weathering Track

[BCR 570]

As I am about to start laying down my visible track permamently,, I have been experimenting with how to paint and weather it to resemble what I have seen on the Dawson Creek Subdivision.  This is a 61 mile branch line in the northeast corner of British Columbia which in my era (1977) saw light traffic and low maintenance.  The ties have a bleached appearance to them.  Most model railway track I have seen is painted much darker, which may be fine for main lines with heavy traffic and more frequent tie change out.  Here is a photo from 2009 on the Dawson Sub:




I experimented with a mewthod outlined by Lance Mindheim in a Kalmbach publication, using a sequence of Light Grey and Burnt Umber for the ties and Rail Borwn and Rust for the rails.  To my eye the ties have come out a bit brown for what I need:




I do think that starting with Light Grey is the way to go, but I may need to find a different brown colour for what I want to reproduce.

In case it makes a difference, my track is Fast Tracks Code 40 with PC board and wood ties.  Due to the double deck shelf arrangement of the layout, I believe that it will be much easier to paint and weather most of the track prior to installation.

I am new to this aspect of the hobby so any thoughts or suggestions are most welcome,


Tim

[mark dance]

As an experiment, have you tried distressing the painted ties with a bit of sandpaper Tim to see what the result looks like? 

I use a wooden skewer to remove glued ballast from the top of painted plastic ties (Peco code 55) and it exposes the wooden "grain" in the ties though this grain is likely more pronounced than that of the natural wood ties you are using, and certainly more so than your PCB ties.  Just a thought...

md

[Sokramiketes]

Most model railway track I have seen is painted much darker, which may be fine for main lines with heavy traffic and more frequent tie change out. 

Model railway track almost always looks better the darker it is.  Now, most of the issues I've seen with lighter track fall under the too orange category, but a dark roof brown will always look good. 

I'll be interested to see how your tests go.  If you can pull off the sunbleached look on the ties then just make sure the rail is dark so as not to call attention to itself in photos.

[mmagliaro]

Looking at that stretch of real track, and the darker gray you are looking for, I suggest NeoLube (which you can buy
from Micro-Mark, among other places).
It is just an alcohol/graphite fluid, so you can just brush it on.  It is conductive, so be careful around any switch or other gaps.
But it's watery thin, so you will not likely create any shorts with it.

You can paint a LOT of rail very quickly and easily with it.  And because it's more of a "wash" than a paint, the finish isn't perfectly uniform ... another plus for doing rails.  It won't really stain plastic ties, but it sure will stain wooden ones or ballast, so be careful to just run a small brush along the side of the rail. 

I always liked the result and will be using it again on my new layout.

Here's how it looks after it's applied:

[pennsyfan1361]

Could the NeoLube be applied first before the track was ballasted? And would alcohol and glue mess up the NeoLube ?

Looking at that stretch of real track, and the darker gray you are looking for, I suggest NeoLube (which you can buy
from Micro-Mark, among other places).
It is just an alcohol/graphite fluid, so you can just brush it on.  It is conductive, so be careful around any switch or other gaps.
But it's watery thin, so you will not likely create any shorts with it.

You can paint a LOT of rail very quickly and easily with it.  And because it's more of a "wash" than a paint, the finish isn't perfectly uniform ... another plus for doing rails.  It won't really stain plastic ties, but it sure will stain wooden ones or ballast, so be careful to just run a small brush along the side of the rail. 

I always liked the result and will be using it again on my new layout.

Here's how it looks after it's applied:

[BCR 570]

As an experiment, have you tried distressing the painted ties with a bit of sandpaper Tim to see what the result looks like? 

Mark:

I just tried your idea on some painted ties and the result is actually quite promising, but sanding ties on assembled track is not really feasible.  What the experiment tells me, however, is that a thinner wash of the Burnt Umber might be more appropriate.  Thank you for the suggestion.


Max:

I do have some of hte Neolube #2 but have yet to try it.  I am not too worried about the rails as Rail Brown works quite well.  it is the look of the ties I am most eager to capture.

[timwatson]

I use a lichen color craft paint. This is code 40 ME flextrack. So you might try a little light grey powder on them randomly or a wash of light grey powder or diluted light grey craft paint.

I think you can get the look you want (like in your picture).

[BCR 570]

P.S.  Max:

When applying the Neolube, what do you use to remove it from the tops of the rails?

Thanks for the tip - I had forgot I had it.  I remember getting it after a thread on hte Atlas forum - perhaps it was yours.


Tim

[mmagliaro]

P.S.  Max:

When applying the Neolube, what do you use to remove it from the tops of the rails?

Thanks for the tip - I had forgot I had it.  I remember getting it after a thread on hte Atlas forum - perhaps it was yours.


Tim

In reply to two questions:
1. Yes, you could use it before ballasting the track, however, since it really is an alcohol wash, I think that the water and glue
used during ballasting would probably wash some of it off the sides of the rails, so you'd have to do it again anyway.

2. When I get some on the top, to be honest, I just wipe my finger over it before it dries and it comes right off.  But once in a while,  some does get on there and dries.   Some rubbing with a paper towel will get it off.  If it's really stubborn, 800 grit sandpaper will polish it off without making the top of the rail rough.

Neolube is "pretty" durable, but it's not like paint or chemical blackening.  So it works pretty well on the sides of rails and on
steam rods and details.  But for surfaces that have to stand up to repeated handling and friction (like wheel treads or flanges, or the tops of rails), it will eventually wear off.

[GaryHinshaw]

For the base coat on the ties, I think good ol' Rail Tie Brown (or maybe thinned raw umber) would be more appropriate than burnt umber, which has quite a lot of red/orange in it.  I would follow with an irregular overcoat of light grey, as in Tim Watson's example.  Neolube for the rails is probably good.  I like ME's pre-weathered rail too, but some find it too dark (and you have to clean the base before soldering).  Can you pre-weather the wood ties before assembly?  That would be much easier.  Looking forward to the progress shots!

-Gary

P.S. You know Tim, someone of your caliber should really be using  scale tie plates and joint bars....     

[timwatson]

You may have good results with Blacken-it instead of neo lube as well. I think the gun glueing you can get at wal-mart may work good. I know MC Furijawa did that on his small logging railroad and it turned out really nice.

[BCR 570]

For the base coat on the ties, I think good ol' Rail Tie Brown (or maybe thinned raw umber) would be more appropriate than burnt umber, which has quite a lot of red/orange in it.  I would follow with an irregular overcoat of light grey, as in Tim Watson's example.  Neolube for the rails is probably good.  I like ME's pre-weathered rail too, but some find it too dark (and you have to clean the base before soldering).  Can you pre-weather the wood ties before assembly?  That would be much easier.  Looking forward to the progress shots!

-Gary

P.S. You know Tim, someone of your caliber should really be using  scale tie plates and joint bars....     

Gary:

Thank you for the additional colour suggestions - I might try those.  Now that you mention it, it is the red and orange in hte burnt umber which does not look right compared to the prototype photoraph.  The track sections for the main line are already assembled so I am painting and weathering assembled track.

I did experiment with the etched joint bars and tie plates.  I gave up on the tie plates after encountering too many problems with adhesion and alignment, but I do plan to try the joint bars.


Thank you,

Tim

[BCR 570]

2. When I get some on the top, to be honest, I just wipe my finger over it before it dries and it comes right off.  But once in a while,  some does get on there and dries.   Some rubbing with a paper towel will get it off.  If it's really stubborn, 800 grit sandpaper will polish it off without making the top of the rail rough.

Thanks Max - I will give the Neolube a try on my next test piece of track.  Now to go out and find a brush small enough for painting Code 40 rail . . .

Tim

[wazzou]

Is the source for your joint bars, the Proto87 website?

[mmagliaro]

Thanks Max - I will give the Neolube a try on my next test piece of track.  Now to go out and find a brush small enough for painting Code 40 rail . . .

Tim

Ha ha... yes...  I just use a very thin artist brush.    It's not as hard as it seems.  The web of the rail tends to hold the brush head right in it,
so I find I can whip right along the side of the rail without going off course and running neolube all over the place.