Painting Rails


F

f1_indy2000

Guest
Ok I'm doing this the hard way, but I have no choice. I have done some of my scenery and leaves me at the point where i have to brush paint my rails. I was talking to my local hobby guy and he said I could have spray painted them with Florquil rail brown, but since I had started scenery he suggested using Florquil railbrown and brush it. I am fine with that, but it seems to be a long process. I do a couple of inches and then wipe the top of and then once i get a foot I use the bright boy to make sure no paint is on top of the track. I have two questions here.
1, Should I paint the inside of the rails? I'm wondering if its worth it since this is a chore and my wife ask me why I even doing it. I said for realism, she just shook her head and went back upstairs, HA But I do worry about that and if I do paint the insides will I have a grime issue?

2, My yards, should I paint them rust? The hobby guy said the Maillines are rail brown and rails that aren't uses that often are rusty. I'm a little confused on that one only because my yard traffic is usually slow.

3, Once I get this completed I plan on painting the ties grimy black? Whatever color I need I invision that process will go faster than painting the rail.
Thanks for suggestions
 
I really like that rail painting tool and the price is reasonable. You can get fine point paint pens at craft stores that will do the same thing but not as slick as that rail painter.

Only paint the side of the rail you can see. If you can see both sides of the rail then yes, you should paint the rail webs. If you can only see one side, just paint that side. No point in painting something no one can see.

The hobby guy was selling you a bill of goods. Mainline track can be anything from oxide red to almost black to a pure rust color. Yard trackage tends to be more rusty than mainline tracks but, at three feet, you can't really tell the difference. I paint all my tracks with Floquil Rust with a few drops of Rail Brown. It looks good enough.

I wouldn't use paint at all on the ties. Assuming the ballast is already in place, I'd use black chalk down the centerline between the rails to create a black, greasy steak that gets left by all the crud dropped by engines on the tracks. On the outside of the tracks, I'd use a dark gray on the ballast and ties. Most ties tend to weather to a gray color and the ballast takes on a gray cast because of all the dust and dirt thrown up by passing trains. The only ties I'd paint would be yard tracks, which almost always have weathered to gray. Use some light and some dark gray paint and alternate the colors between the ties in no particular order. If you want to simulate replacement ties, paint a few black. It should come out looking good.
 
For mainlines, I prefer railroad tie brown. If you look at a modern Class I mainline, the ties are generally newer and thus a darker brown, as are the rails. For sidings, a combo of rust/rail brown for the rails and a grayer brown for the ties. For yards, it could vary either way.
 
Thanks for all the sugestions. I painted all the mainline. While do I wish I had that tool. That would have made things go faster. Thanks again.
 
I found a 3 pen set made by Floquil. It has Rail Brown, Rust and Rail Tie Brown. It really made painting rails easy. I don't have the package anymore, so I don't have the stock #.
 
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