To Paint or not Paint Trackwork

[Guest]

Having spent a lot of time designing my layout, I am now in the process of starting to lay the track, and need to make a decision whether to paint the track before laying the ballast, and in particular the sides of the rails.  Popular opinion appears to be that both sleepers and rails should be painted, but I have observed that many of the layouts featured in modelling magazines have ballasted trackwork , but do not appear to have painted rail sides, and I wondered what people's advice might be. My main issue is with points and not compromising electrical continuity, are there any tricks to avoid getting paint on the switch blade pivot points and where the blades make contact with the rails?

[ikcdab]

Have a look at prototype track. The sides of the rail are not clean! 

The track does need painting, if only to take away the plastic look.

I'd paint the track first, then ballast, then weather it all in.

As for keeping paint off the critical areas, just cover those bits with bluetac first.

[LNER4479]

No brainer, in terms of a realistic appearance.

 

In terms of point blade cleanliness, I wedge a piece of folded card in the gap whilst I'm painting to prevent paint getting in  (I spray my track).

[Pete the Elaner]

As ikcdab said, look at the real railway.

I see many layouts which have obviously copied other layouts along with their mistakes (& I am sure all layouts have mistakes).

Seeing rails with shiny sides is something I see very often. Panting the rails may be tedious but it makes a huge difference. I have never seen a real rail which is not rusty, even when it is brand new & not yet installed. It is not a bright orange rust like some rust colours. It is more brown than that.

I took a look at the WCML, just south of Milton Keynes station a couple of days ago as I ran past. All 4 lines looked different. One looked well weathered, another looked quite recently laid & the other 2 were in between. None we so weathered to have a uniform colour across rails, sleepers & ballast. This makes sense because pairs of running lines are often replaced at different times, so it would not be at all wrong to weather one line heavily & the other lightly on a layout.

 

I prefer to weather the track in the same sequence as it weathers.

Rail is always rusty, so I paint it first. I prefer brush painting it. I don't worry about getting any paint on chairs or baseplates because much of these is also steel & the rust gets washed onto them by rain.

Sleepers & ballast start off clean.

Michael Portillo's railway journey TV series is a great place to see railways from the air. Most have a helicopter shot at some point, giving a similar angle from where we view our layouts. You will see that the brown line of brake dust appears from between the rails first, but you will need an airbrush to show this nicely before a wider 2nd pass to tone down the area around.

[Jeff Smith]

Track colour is a popular colour in several paint ranges.  Old track tends to basically be all the same colour, rail sides, chairs and sleepers, so paint it all track colour - theres nothing worse than track with the rail and chairs picked out in bright rust colour......time consuming and unrealistic!  Old ballast tends to be close to track colour too so choose a fine buff ballast and after laying and hardening treat the whole lot to a wash of track colour.

[9C85]

 

I don't pretend to be an expert but I happened to take this photo last night because I liked the look of it.

It's a grimy yard layout so maybe a bit uniform for some people's liking. 

IIRC the painting sequence was as follows:

 

1. Spray the running lines with a coat of Railmatch Sleeper Grime from a rattle can ( mask off the internal faces of the point blades first).

2 Ballast the track

3 Go down the outer edge of each rail on a line approximately on the edge of the sleepers with Sleeper Grime again, but from an airbrush, with varying levels of application.

4 With the airbrush again, apply a trail of Railmatch Roof Dirt down the centre of each track, again in varying doses.

5 Add more Roof Dirt, Black and Oil Colours  around pointwork and where locos stand (mine is a diesel layout so no coal or ash deposits remain)

6 When dry, give the tops of the rails a good clean, avoiding check rails if possible. 

 

As I mentioned above, not everyone's preferred approach, and it could go a lot further, but I did my 15ft x 1.5ft visible area in about 4 evenings and it made such a difference to the atmosphere of the layout.

 

EDIT: I should add that I found out about both using the rattle can pre-ballasting and the airbrush post-ballasting on YouTube.  The latter was found on the Everard Junction channel. 

Edited February 26, 2021 by 9C85
Credit where it's due

[MrWolf]

I'm at the same stage with my layout. I have used proprietary track because I have a number of antiquated models that I like to run alongside the more accurate examples. The problem is that nothing looks more"train set" than shiny nickel rails and plastic sleepers. 

This will stand out even worse when in the midst of scratch built buildings and lightly weathered trains. By which time, it will be too late to change it, short of brush painting several thousand sleepers!

 

 

Edited February 25, 2021 by MrWolf
Stupid autocorrect

[Guest]

Thanks for the replies Gentlemen, I think you have convinced me to paint the sides of the rails as well as the sleepers. Unfortunately, I don't do airbrushing so it will have to be laborious paint brush, with extra care to avoid points contact areas. I haven't layed any track yet, and felt that if I was going to paint, some areas will be easier to paint some of  the rails before laying, as they will be difficult to reach once layed, hence the advance queries.

[russ p]

6 hours ago, 9C85 said:

 

I don't pretend to be an expert but I happened to take this photo last night because I liked the look of it.

It's a grimy yard layout so maybe a bit uniform for some people's liking. 

IIRC the painting sequence was as follows:

 

1. Spray the running lines with a coat of Railmatch Sleeper Grime from a rattle can ( mask off the internal faces of the point blades first).

2 Ballast the track

3 Go down the outer edge of each rail on a line approximately on the edge of the sleepers with Sleeper Grime again, but from an airbrush, with varying levels of application.

4 With the airbrush again, apply a trail of Railmatch Roof Dirt down the centre of each track, again in varying doses.

5 Add more Roof Dirt, Black and Oil Colours  around pointwork and where locos stand (mine is a diesel layout so no coal or ash deposits remain)

6 When dry, give the tops of the rails a good clean, avoiding check rails if possible. 

 

As I mentioned above, not everyone's preferred approach, and it could go a lot further, but I did my 15ft x 1.5ft visible area in about 4 evenings and it made such a difference to the atmosphere of the layout.

 

 

Thats exactly how I do it , and though quite messy doesn't really take too long at all 

[MrWolf]

If I had thought about it properly, I would have bought a rattle can of Railmatchs' sleeper grime and painted everything first, just wiping the rail tops. As a consequence I have just spent an hour clearing everything off the layout for painting!

[lezz01]

Woodlands scenics do a thing called tidy track painter have a look at it see what you think. I've never used it but I might give the weathered tie one a go just to see what it's like as I'm building my own track.

Regards Lez.

[9C85]

12 minutes ago, David Schweizer said:

Thanks for the replies Gentlemen, I think you have convinced me to paint the sides of the rails as well as the sleepers. Unfortunately, I don't do airbrushing so it will have to be laborious paint brush, with extra care to avoid points contact areas. I haven't layed any track yet, and felt that if I was going to paint, some areas will be easier to paint some of  the rails before laying, as they will be difficult to reach once layed, hence the advance queries.

I used the track weathering as my first dabble with airbrushing.  Not as critical as painting rolling stock. 

[phil-b259]

7 hours ago, Pete the Elaner said:

Rail is always rusty

 

Actually its only new, unused rail that is rusty looking!

 

Once the rail is installed (or even new rail that has been dumped on the track ready for re-railing later) it quickly gets covered in what might best be termed grime - dust and other particles combined with spray in wet weather and the slipstream of passing trains means it rapidly develops a muddy brown hue that needs a good scrubbing with wire brushes to shift. Only the rail tops escape by virtue of the wheels passing over them and displacing most of said gunk by the polishing action .

 

Of course if you get a period without trains then that narrow band will start to go rusty...

[lezz01]

AK-Interactive do paint sets specifically for track weathering as well which is another thing to consider.

Not only that but have different sets for different parts of a layout too. They also do water soluble weathering pencils as well. You've gotta love AK-interactive that have multiple products for every kind of modeler.

Regards Lez. 

[njee20]

52 minutes ago, David Schweizer said:

Thanks for the replies Gentlemen, I think you have convinced me to paint the sides of the rails as well as the sleepers. Unfortunately, I don't do airbrushing so it will have to be laborious paint brush, with extra care to avoid points contact areas. I haven't layed any track yet, and felt that if I was going to paint, some areas will be easier to paint some of  the rails before laying, as they will be difficult to reach once layed, hence the advance queries.

Be aware that on flex track the rail will move as you curve it, potentially exposing unpainted bits. 

[Guest]

20 minutes ago, njee20 said:

Be aware that on flex track the rail will move as you curve it, potentially exposing unpainted bits. 

 

Yes thanks for that. My main concern is the points which are a bit too fiddley to paint in situ across 30" of layout board, but they won't move much after being laid.

[kipford]

Brighton East was painted in the following way. Rails sleepers airbrushed colour(s) of choice. Rail heads cleaned to limit paint build up. The sides of the rails were then painted using the Rusty Rails tool. Worked very well. Link below shows them. Also you can find youtube videos on using it.

 

Rusty Rails Painter

[russ p]

2 hours ago, lezz01 said:

Woodlands scenics do a thing called tidy track painter have a look at it see what you think. I've never used it but I might give the weathered tie one a go just to see what it's like as I'm building my own track.

Regards Lez.

 

I brought these when they first came out and they changed my opinion of WS products as at the rime thought that they were all great.  These pens were awful 

[eagleeyemark]

[MrWolf]

Excellent, I'm stealing that!

[MrWolf]

H'yes.

 

It's pronounced "Ears" don'tcha know...

[PaulaDoesTrains]

18 hours ago, russ p said:

 

I brought these when they first came out and they changed my opinion of WS products as at the rime thought that they were all great.  These pens were awful 

 

I used one on my little layout (5 foot six by 1 foot) and although I eventually got a decent result I had to go over it several times. Not a product I'd ever use again.

[young37215]

My advice is painting the rail is the single most action you can take to improve track realism. Whilst an air brush makes the task easier, it is not dfficult to use a combination of spray cans and brushed on paint. In your shoes I would:

• Spray paint as much of the track, both rails and sleepers, in situ before ballasting using enamel rattle cans of sleeper grime or equivalent colour of your choice. Dont worry about paint getting on the railhead, it will clean up easily once the paint is dry. 
• Hand painting is back breaking and sole destroying so spray as much as possible. Enamel paint is smelly and potentially dangerous but superior in adhering to rail. Use a mask to protect yourself when spraying paint. 
• Touch up areas where required using a brush
• For tonal shades you can touch up rails or sleepers using different colours as you see fit
• clean the railhead using a rubber or similar tool and vacum the debris away once the paint has all dried

My experience is that it does not take that long and the transformation you will see makes the return on your time and expense well worth the investment.

 

Good luck