Weathering track

[Zumo2567]

For my layout i want to weather the track as shiny new track never looks that real.

 

Now the technique i was planning to use was to first spray the whole track in rusty brown colour.

Then apply some black paint using the dry brush method across the centre of the sleepers.

Then paint the chairs/spikes that hold the track to the sleeper in a rust colour.

 

Now the problem i have is that I'm not really sure what colour to use exactly.

If anyone has got some numbers of paints they could recommend that would be appreciated (or even a better method for weathering track)

[arran]

For my layout i want to weather the track as shiny new track never looks that real.

 

Now the technique i was planning to use was to first spray the whole track in rusty brown colour.

Then apply some black paint using the dry brush method across the centre of the sleepers.

Then paint the chairs/spikes that hold the track to the sleeper in a rust colour.

 

Now the problem i have is that I'm not really sure what colour to use exactly.

If anyone has got some numbers of paints they could recommend that would be appreciated (or even a better method for weathering track)

HI All

 

If its wooden sleepers I would use the Phoenix dirty track colour, for the sleepers and the rail, for what i can see they all go the same colour.

I hate the red rusty rail and chair look as every thing tones down to around the same shade in the end.

 

Regards Arran

[Karhedron]

Starting with a coat of Railmatch Sleeper Grime or Pheonix Dirty Track is a good starting point. The main aim is to get rid of the plastic sleepers and shiny rail sides. This alone will be a huge improvement. How far you wish to go after that depends on the subject you are modelling, the scale you are modelling and the track you are using.

 

A good example is the common practice of painting rail sides a different colour or painting the chairs in rust.

 

On a busy stretch of line, everything tends to get mucked up with a fairly uniform colour which is a mix of oil, brake dust and soot (steam age only for the last one). Different colour rail sides tend to be a feature of more lightly used lines. Also painting different parts of the trackwork different colours can highlight innaccuracies. For example, different colour railside will draw attention to the overscale height if you are using Peco code 100.

 

Sleeper chairs also tend to get dirtied with the same mix as everything else and I have never seen pictures where they are a distinctive colour. Even worse is the common practice of splodging a dollop of rust-colour over the chair and surrounding area which creates an orange blob spreading onto the sleepers.

 

Unless you are using finescale track or modelling a particularly distinctive bit of colouration, my general feeling is that less can be more when weathering track. Paint the track a generic dirt colour and then apply some further dirty washes once the ballast is down to bring it all togther.

[trisonic]

I find the best thing to do is go out and take some photos of the real thing. It's amazing what you find; where I lived in the UK (on a very busy mainline) there was still a siding with original bullhead rail.

 

Best, Pete.

[grahame]

I'm another who agrees on simply using one overall wash of track colour. If you paint the rail sides a different (and therefore contrast) colour it tends to draw attention to it and just emphasisis the overscale height of it. And in photographs just looks like two garish bright orange ribbons billowing down the track.

 

As already mentioned everything tends to weather down to one mucky tone and the rails of regularly used track are not simply 'rusty' but contaminated with dirt, brake dust, oil, ballast dust, grease, ash and muck. Only newly laid track and ballast and unused track tends to have obvious contrast colours. If you realy must paint the rails sides and chairs (and sleepers) then select a colour that is very close to the rest of the track bed colour and not that ghastly bright 'rust' colour often used.

 

However, the best advise is to go out and look at real track and use that as your template, pallette and inspiration. But bear in mind you'll need to tone things down and use 'scale' colouring on your model track

 

G.

[Tim Hale]

 

I can wholeheartedly recommend this series of tutorials- easy to follow and the outcome is realistic.

 

DesA

[noiseboy72]

I think what is often missed is that main line track will be a totally different colour to suburban metals particularly around stations and junctions, due to the amount of brake dust and other err.. Muck that builds up !

 

I model London Underground set around a station and junction, so have tried to show the mixture of oil tripping from the Westinghouse brake, large amounts of brake dust and general debris from an intensive service. If I was modelling fast, main lines or little used branches, my colour choice would be different.

[Zumo2567]

Thanks guys.

 

Looks like I'll just be spraying the track in one colour and perhaps adding oil marks where trains would sit whilst waiting at the station.

 

Should i be spraying the track before or after the ballast goes down. As clean ballast doesn't look that realistic either.

[mirreles31]

Thanks guys.

 

Looks like I'll just be spraying the track in one colour and perhaps adding oil marks where trains would sit whilst waiting at the station.

 

Should i be spraying the track before or after the ballast goes down. As clean ballast doesn't look that realistic either.

 

 

Hi, I always spray my track with Railmatch sleeper grime after laying & wiring but before ballasting, sleepers and rail are usually a different shade to the solid parts of the track. Colouring the ballast can be done whilst ballasting. I mixed my ballast with black powder paint in varying degrees which coloured the grains when the dilute PVA was applied. Choose your own colouring (mine was black cos it's in a goods/loco yard).

If not a light wafting of your chosen colour thro' an airbrush will give you weathered ballast, but still I find it best to to have the main colour as a base. Experiment and you will find the way that suits you and most important enjoy it! Cheers Phil.

[Zumo2567]

Went a brought some of the railmatch sleeper grime as some of you recommend and it looks good on the piece of track i tried it out on.

 

one problem i can see though is that it gets into the fishplate and i can see it stopping the flow of electricity.

 

How do i get round that? is it a case of spraying it when it is all connected together?

[Pete Harvey]

Here are some pictures of layouts I have weathered and ballasted the track.

 

These four are of Dudley Road, Peco code 100.

 

 

 

 

 

These four are of A 7mm Layout I finished for a friend.

 

 

 

 

 

And the last six are of Peters Street, Peco code 100.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you have any questions please ask?

 

Pete

[James]

for what i can see they all go the same colour.

There is a subtle difference; if you pre-painted rails a bright rust colour and the built up the colour you mention in light mists you'd then get a nice variation on the rails without it standing out.

[Metr0Land]

I normally mix my own ballast. Rails were then painted with Joe's Model Trains Rusty Rails colours (from Bromsgrove Models). Brown Rust first, then over-painted with Dark Brown. I also painted sleepers with the dark brown colour.

 

1st pic shows front tracks with both coats, rear tracks just rust. 2nd pic shows a more complete composition - disused tracks are a couple of coats of rust colour to add some age/patina.

[mirreles31]

Went a brought some of the railmatch sleeper grime as some of you recommend and it looks good on the piece of track i tried it out on.

 

one problem i can see though is that it gets into the fishplate and i can see it stopping the flow of electricity.

 

How do i get round that? is it a case of spraying it when it is all connected together?

 

 

Hi, I have a feeling that if you spray with the rail is connected you should be ok, to be sure though the best thing to do if you can solder (it's not hard) is to drop a thin wire from the end of one rail through the baseboard and back up to the adjacent rail soldering both ends. This ensures electrical continuity. Best thing to do is connect a couple of lengths of track together and spray them then check for current flow. Hope this is of help. Phil.

[darren01]

Hi

On my layout ,Torrington, i used RAF Brown No.29 from the Humbul paints for the rails, looks spot on to me.

Darren

[fastmover2]

Quite agree with the comments about the rust red railsides. I am modelling a steam era loco shed. Anybody have any suggestions for track weathering colours? i am thinking, after reading the above, about going with the Sleeper Grime airbrushed on method and then overspraying with black and other noisome mucky colours. Also being lazy spraying overall seems a better bet!

 

Anybody got any suggestions other than the above?

[amdaley]

Went a brought some of the railmatch sleeper grime as some of you recommend and it looks good on the piece of track i tried it out on.

 

one problem i can see though is that it gets into the fishplate and i can see it stopping the flow of electricity.

 

How do i get round that? is it a case of spraying it when it is all connected together?

 

You should fit droppers at regular intervals on your track. Its not a good idea to depend on rail joiners for electrical continuity as eventually they may fail because of dirt or corrosion.

[Will Vale]

I think one-size-fits all advice for weathering isn't a great idea - rusty rails are often wrong, but they're sometimes right, and it helps to look at prototype pictures to get an idea for what you need on your layout. For mine, the situation is fairly new ballast with moderate traffic levels, so I did a lot of weathering of track and ballast together using acrylic washes to get the track colour to fade out away from the rails and keep some clean ballast there. The method was suggested by eldavo (of 2010 challenge fame) and allows you to get a lot of control.

 

 

I sprayed the rail and sleepers with Tamiya Nato Brown (or possibly Red Brown, they're quite close) from a rattle can and cleaned the rail tops shortly after installing. Later, everything had a thin wash of browny-black to get some depth. Then I ballasted.

 

After ballasting, i drybrushed the sleepers one at a time with GW Adeptus Battlegrey and painted the rail sides Vallejo Brown Leather. Then went back and touched in various chips and glossy spots caused by ballasting with Klear with a mix of the same brown and grey. The chairs then got touched in with Brown Leather, and the sleepers had a very light drybrush of GW Dheneb Stone. After that I went back and drybrushed the chairs with GW Calthan Brown, which is a bit redder. I haven't worried too much about getting all the sleepers exactly the same colour, but I went back over it a day later to dull down some overbright highlights.

 

Final colouring was very thinned washes, mostly of Brown Leather, applied to the ballast, rail and sleeper at the same time.

 

It sounds like a lot of work - and I suppose it is, but most of the steps are fairly pleasant. It would have been a lot easier if I'd coloured the track completely before ballasting. I did some experiments with MIG weathering powders on another stretch and that worked OK as well, but paint sticks better. I found it very difficult to get the sleepers grey enough having started with red-brown, and I think if I did it again I'd go for a less saturated colour. It does provide a useful base to work on but it feels like you're fighting against it sometimes!

 

 

For ends of sidings where there's more rust on the prototyppe (no traffic) I like GW Calthan Brown for the rail sides, tops and fittings. GW Devlan Mud is great for grease around point blades and the lubricators, and I like to apply graphite to the slide chairs for the same reason.

 

 

I still want to do some work on this, but I think it looks OK so far.

I can't get Railmatch paints easily where I am, but the Vallejo Brown Leather is a good track colour if you're in that situation. I use it on wagon underframes too so that all my brake dust is consistent

 

Cheers,

 

Will

[Mikkel]

I still want to do some work on this, but I think it looks OK so far.

I can't get Railmatch paints easily where I am, but the Vallejo Brown Leather is a good track colour if you're in that situation. I use it on wagon underframes too so that all my brake dust is consistent

"Looks OK?" Will, it looks absolutely stunning to me!

 

I can vouch for the Vallejo colours for track painting and weathering, including the Brown Leather that Will mentions. One problem I find with picking out the sides of rails with eg rusty colours is that it can make them appear visually too heigh - this is of course especially a problem if you're using code 100. I've tried to get around this by leaving the rail sides a non-descript dark brown and then picking out other parts of the track (chairs, sleepers, ballast) with dry-brushing and washes.

[Poindexter]

Cheers for that step by step Will. Much appreciated.

 

Guy