Weathering trackwork

Hello!
I would like to weather my trackwork in an inexpensive but realistic way. Just found a method that utilizes Rust-Oleum flat brown paint sprayed onto trackwork, with the tops of the rails being wiped clean before drying sets in. Then ballast is applied. Looks pretty good to me, but one question I have; how do I go about using this method around switches without fouling them up? Thanks for any feedback you can give me on this, as well as any other techniques you might recommend. Cheers!

 

Keep in mind I haven't laid stick of track yet, so this might be a stupid idea.....

Spray the rustoleum paint onto a clean surface ( paper/ect. you would hold the can just 2" from the surface so it would puddle up ), then use a detail brush to carefully paint the side of the rails on your switches ( using the puddle of paint ). And remember, you only have to paint what you can see.

And instead of doing all the wiping of the tie's, couldn't you use painters blue tape to cover the tie's first?

Also, I have heard of using a paint marker, a lot less clean up.

 

After I get my track all laid, the electrical feeders soldered on and I test it thoroughly and it runs flawlessly, I spray it with Krylon Camo Ultra Flat Black, let it dry for less than 10 minutes, then use a flexible Bright Boy to clean off the top while the paint is sorta soft and not yet hard-cured.

Then, I take a can of Krylon Camo Ultra Flat Brown, and lightly spray my flex from directly over the top, which coats the ties and a little overspray gets on the sides of the rails...then before ten minutes is up, I Bright Boy the tops of the rails again.

I then mix up some browns, both lighter and darker, or greener or grayer than the Camo Brown and touch up several ties to give them a color variation, with some looking like new replacements and others like they need replacement.

Since I hand-lay my turnouts, the closure points are "hot" so I don't have to do anything to mask them off. But, on my friend Nate's layout, his code 80 trackwork has Peco turnouts, which switch the power to his sidings and spurs through their closure points and the contact they make with the adjacent stock rails. I just put a piece of masking tape over the closure points then remove it after I'm done with the spray paint. I then brush paint the insides of the closure point toes with the same paint, leaving the rails bright for about 3/4" where the points toes touch the adjacent stock rails.

As for gumming up the turnouts, I don't spray so much paint that this happens. I do light coats, and it works very well for me.

After I ballast my track and the ballast is socked down solidly and any stray pieces that have stuck to the rails have been removed and the spots all touched up, I use my airbrush to apply a reddish, rusty hue to the center of the track...to both ties and ballast, fading it out to nothing at the tie ends. This represents the reddish weed killer that U.P. uses on the stretch of track I'm modeling.

GTEL Turbine at Echo Curve on my layout:


Hope this assists you.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

 

Really nice, Bob. I look forward to trying your technique soon. I am in the "test it thoroughly and it runs flawlessly" phase and resisting the urge to jump ahead and ballast some track.

 

Hahaha! I know what you mean. Laying track, and having it look real is a process, with distinct steps. I tested my technique using scrap pieces of track laid on a 2' piece of 1 X 6 before applying any of it to my layout.

The trick is to make sure that you're not applying too much paint. Several light coats are the real answer, especially when spraying the brown from directly overhead.

If you have difficulty mastering the light application of the brown color, dry-brushing brown using a 1" stiff, square-tipped brush will give you the same effect.

One more step for realistic looking track is ballast color and size. I use "real rock" ballast from either Arizona Rock and Minerals, or Highball. I went out on the UP mainline and the old Park City Branch, took photos and gathered up half a dozen pieces of ballast from each of the two locations. I measured the average diameter of the ballast stones, which came out to 3.5", then bought a screen that had .022" holes in it from what used to be Small Parts to "grade" my commercial N-scale ballast. I also bought one that had smaller holes in it to let the dust and smaller particles pass through. Surprisingly a lot of the N-scale ballast was too big, and a lot was dust. The .022" screen attached to a wooden box I made for it, filtered out the big stuff and the smaller screen captured the right sized ballast stones, letting smaller particles and most of the dust go through.

I also mixed up a custom color, because I discovered the "gray" ballast that I was modeling was really composed of gray, black, brown and white stones in a certain ratio which I came up with through trial and error.

Getting rid of the dust and smaller particles makes the ballast rocks "stand out" rather than looking like concrete as many people think N-scale ballast has a tendency to look like. They're correct, but that's ballast that has a lot of dust in it. Remove the dust, and it looks exponentially better.

Anyway, have fun! I love trackwork!

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

 

Gordon, it may be a tad too much if N scale. But if you are in HO as I, I find that whole nail biting fear of fouling, ruining, gumming up the switches with spray paint to be untrue. Think about it. It's regular track with 2 rails which need to shift position. I must have given up that fear some 14-16 switches ago. They're just not that fragile. If you want, you can dab grease or petroleum jelly on the hinges ( which I never did either). Then spray them same as any other track. I use the 'rust' Rust-oleum "primer",shake it well and spray from maybe 9-12" away. Not full blast. Kind of sweep up and down track and switch. Let it dry. Now spray "Camouflage" which re-browns the ties leaving rust less intrusive. Let it dry. Now take the squared end of a chop stick and run it along rail heads. You want to get a groove started in it so it rides the rail. The groove gets better and better and you walk along guite swiftly. Push it forward then back while advancing along the line. Rail gets shiny again and switches are A OK. Maybe a tad locked. They work loose in 2 seconds if even that. Try one by itself and you'll see it's no longer a nail biter. And track now has a realistic tone to it... Not perfect. But way closer to a weathered look. Mark

 

I roll up a small piece of blue painters tape and place it in between where the points would contact the outside rails. After painting, I remove the tape and clean up the top of the rails. JMS

 

John, honest, I've sprayed 12-13 switches with no masking or even petroleum jelly. Nary a one was ruined, frozen shut, throw rod stuck. Even the points move right away after paint dries. Most are Atlas Custom-line and some curved Shinos, code 83. It's not as if we're spraying the works in a Swiss watch. Most guys go back with small paint brushes and thick acrylics in pre-masked areas anyway. The thin mist from the spray covers everything real quick. When switch is still wet, yes, it does look scary. When it drys in a few minutes it's basically finished. Bright Boy the rail tops and frogs. Looks and works great...

 

I use blue painters tape over the points and spray the rest with air brush or rattle can. Paint pens work well for significantly rusty rail in sidings. Just try some of these techniques and then combine what works best for you. Also try new ideas. You never know what might be better.

 

I'm also going to be weathering some track, mostly Shinohara turnouts. I'm going to cut strips of tape and cover ties, yet expose tie plate detail.

I like the method of flat back first, I'm going to experiment with some old Code 100 sections before direct application to the layout.

I have Rustoleum Camo extra flat brown that appears to be a nice dark rust color, ill probably shoot that over black immediately.

Sent from my LG-P930 using Tapatalk 2

 

I don't bother with turnouts, no more than with rails: I paint everything, including rail threads. I let dry. When everything is dry, I remove the paint on rail threads using a rail eraser (example, from Roco). I do the same on turnouts. Provided you use power-routing (electrofrog) turnouts with bent points, not hinged, you won't have any loose contact.

Dom

Edit: sorry, maybe the question wasn't referring to what's written above. In this case disregard.