Painting rail

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I see mention of painting rail to make it more realistic. What’s a good color to paint it? Does it make code 100 look smaller?

2

Rail tie brown is good and even rust mix on sidings.

It doesn’t make it look smaller but it definitely looks better.

3

I use roof brown.

And yes, I think it makes it look smaller because the paint hides a lot of the shiny side.

4

Rails rust and run their stains onto the ties, tie plates, and adjacent ballast. So, if you paint your rails to look naturally that way, the size of the rails should be lost a bit more than if it were unpainted N/S.

Crandell

5

Rail would look smaller as reflections (shiny stuff) always looks larger, it is an optical illusion, in fact when I paint mine, I just use a rattle can of some earth brown color in flat, and paint ties and all, then go back over and stain it all with an ink wash and then finish with a bit of rustall on the rails before I ballast.

6

Do you spray them after they are mounted to the roadbed?

  • Bob
7

I used Floquil “Rust” 'cause that’s what I had. I would have used “Rail Brown” if it had been in the paint box. It only took an evening to brush paint all the rail on the layout. Prototype rail varies from a light tan to nearly black, so take your pick.

The paint does make the rail look smaller. Right out of the box, the rail is shiny bright silver color. The light and bright jumps out and catches the eye. After painting, the rail blends in better and hence looks smaller. I would judge painted Code 100 rail looks about the same as bright-and-shiny Code 83 rail.

8

I paint my rail in a 3 step process using the “Camouflage” colors from Walmart. Since I use Atlas flextrack for my layout, it looks better if you paint it AFTER it’s in place. If you paint it before installing, the shiny spots will show once you shape it. Farrellaa, I think this answers your question.

  • First, I paint the whole section of track the camouflage tan.

  • Once it’s dry, I mask the ties, then paint the rails with the camouflage dark brown. It’s very close to roof brown.

  • When the track is completely dry (24-48 hours), I brush the ties with a small brass wire brush. This breaks up the uniformity of the ties.

Note: If you paint the track in place, make sure you do it BEFORE ballasting.

9

This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot since starting my new layout.

Looking at hundreds of pictures, it appears to me that rails (at least on the heavily trafficed mainlines I’m modeling) are not “brown”. They look more like a dark greyish green - a color close to “Grimy Black” and, at present, that is what I plan to paint my rail.

But that’s just me… Your mileage may vary!

-George

10

Sometimes I see the same thing. Around these parts, with only the odd weekly small train and a dialy RDC, the rails are very much deep rusty brown.

Poly Scale’s “Railroad Tie Brown” is really a greyish, greenish, brownish colour that may be quite a bit like what you described above, George. My own tracks are like this, with Floquil Rust on the siding:

Crandell

11

Yeppers!

That’s pretty much what I’m seeing, Crandell. You’ve nailed it! Railroad Tie Brown, eh? I’ll give it a try!

-George

12

Yes, I just mask the surrounding area before I get to the ground cover in most cases! I run cork under the track so I have a wide space to mount the painters tape to.

13

thanks for the detailed process, unfortunately about 30% of my track is ballasted already. I used the ballast and white glue to hold the flex track in place; then I tried the gray caulk and never looked back. The rest of my track is just caulked in place without the ballast. I will give this method a try. I have been using the Floquil paint pens but they run out fast and don’t really cover as well as a spray can would.

thanks again,

  • Bob (farrellaa)
14

After experimenting with just about every color already mentioned in this thread, I finally found one that I think looks best (at least in my eyes) That color is Apple Barrel’s Burnt Umber. As far as making your rails look smaller? I believe it does. If you don’t believe me, try putting a piece of track that has been painted next to one that hasn’t, and see the difference for yourself.