How does one paint and weather track? Ive seen people use brown spraypaint but how does that effect connectivity of the track between joiners?
You spray a light coat, then wipe the railtops with a paper towel wrapped around a block of wood before it dries. So don’t get too far ahead with painting until you get the drying paint wiped off of what’s already done.
I’ve never had a problem with rail joiners, but I also ensure that every piece of rail has a soldered feeder connection. If you’re depending on rail joiners to conduct electricity, you should try to get out of that habit unless everything has a soldered connection, either by feeder or via soldering the joiner to another rail connected through a soldered connection.
When painting, I apply a piece of masking tape over the switch points and bridle.
The short spray cans of model paint are especially handy for this, as it allows you to get down and closeup when painting rail.
Theres only a few railjoiners on the layout, maybe 6? The other joiners are the atlas terminal joiners. But my layout is only 8’x2’ so Ill go home tonight and solder all my connections
If a rail has a soldered feeder, then there’s no need to solder the rail joiner. In some cases, for short bits of rail, it’s often easier to solder the joiner instead of adding a feeder.
Probably not a big deal on a 4x8, but on larger layouts you do not want all the rail joiners soldered. Some need to stay loose with a bit of a gap between rails to accommodate heat expansion of the rail
Theres only 5 peices of track on my layout and 2 peco switches, I have the terminal joiners on every peice of track and thats it. Can you paint the feeders? or mask them off
If you need feeders, definitely paint them so that they’re less (or not at all) noticeable.
I solder all rail joints except those with a gap for section isolation, and always fill the gaps with a piece of ABS plastic. Because my layout is in a relatively constant environment, I’ve never had an issue with heat expansion of the rails. I wouldn’t be surprised if the abundance of curves also helps to mitigate rail expansion.
For painting rail, I prefer to use a 1/2" chisel-shaped brush, which eliminates the need for any masking. I used Pollyscale paints for most of the rail, differing the colour depending on its locale. The wide brush reduces the need to constantly dip into the bottle for re-loading, and the narrow profile of the bristles ensures that most of the paint goes on the rail, along with the spikes and tieplates. I usually do 12’ or 15’ of rail at a time, then go back and wipe the rail tops with a dry rag, as the paint will be dry-to-the-touch, but not yet hardened.
I found the process to be very relaxing, with no overspray anywhere, and no noise at all, nor any fumes stinking-up the whole house
I always paint both sides of both rails, as you never know when you might wish to place your camera on-layout, and, if you have an around-the-room, as do I, take photos looking towards the aisle or along the track from the side which you can’t otherwise view.
Here are a few scenes not available when viewed from the aisle…
My layout is all flex track. I brush painted all the rail with Floquil (sob) rail brown. It killed the bright nickel silver gloss from the rail and made the rail look smaller. I obtained a fine stash of code 100 nickel silver flex track. After painting, it could have been code 83. I did not do anything to weather the brown plastic tie strip. After ballasting, it looks very decent.
Rail joiners are a potential point of failure of electricity, if you paint, weather, ballast, or do nothing at all.
I like to spray the track and the rails with a Rustoleum brown, and paint individual ties a lighter shade of brown, a blacker shade and a gray.
Soldering all the rail, did not work out for my first layout. I had kinks. Maybe that was because of the quality of the wood in my benchwork.
I paint my rails and then paint each tie individually.
It is really not much work, and no special skills are required.
-Kevin
I rattle can mine and you don’t need to cover it well, any light coverings tend to add a more weathered look. Later I go back and do any touchup paint and do any individual tie paint I want.
Do you paint over connections or mask them off?
how do you paint turnouts? just like normal rail? do I need to worry about where I paint?
I paint over the track joiners and feeder wires. I do not rely on track joiners for electrical contact. I also solder feeders to each rail section.
I just paint them like normal track.
NOTE: I use old style solid frog Shinohara turnouts, and I use auxiliary switches on the turnout motor for routing power to the frog, points, and attached rails. No electrical contact is actually needed in the turnout itself.
If you use a turnout that requires contact from the point rails to the stock rails for electrcial connection, you will need to be more careful.
-Kevin
Some brush paint their track. That may be fine but if you have a lot of track, it can be more time consuming. If you use a rattle can of Rustoleum camoflauge brown, you can put a light coat and cover a lot of track quickly. Then you can come back and weather as needed.
Rob Spangler reported using a utility knife blade dragging it backwards alont the rail top to clean off the dried paint. If found that worked very well.
Mask sensitive area’s like turnout parts that you don’t want paint to get into.
On a PECO insulfrog, what areas would I want to avoid? I’m in no means an expert on the subject and just want to have a good understanding before I ruin a hard to find turnout
It is, admittedly, somewhat time-consuming.
However, it’s much more efficient than rattlecan painting, or even airbrush application, as it’s needed only on the rails. I have over 300’ of mainline, not counting the double-tracked areas through all of the towns, nor any of the many industrial tracks and locomotive facilities.
I also don’t paint rail (or bother with ballast) in any of the five staging yards, as they’re considered to be “elsewhere”.
I would think it to be difficult to spray-paint the normally unseen side of the rails on an around-the-room or shelf-type layout, without also painting oneself at the same time.
While that may not be a consideration for many modellers, it’s surprising what interesting views can be had when you place a camera on the layout, to take pictures of scenes viewable only with a camera facing towards the aisle.
Perhaps surprisingly to many, brush-painting rail is a very relaxing endeavour, and can be done at any time, even if you have only five or ten minutes before suppertime or time to go to work: cap the paint bottle, clean the brush (about 10 seconds total) and you’re done for that session. When you return the next time, no fighting to get a spray can working again, or having to start a noisy compressor for use of an airbrush, when everyone else in the house is trying to sleep.
I’ve used, I think, only two bottles of Pollyscale paint to do the entire layout - no paint odour, no overspray, no noise, and no gummed-up turnouts.
To each their own.
Wayne
I suggest you mask the points and throwbar. You can hand paint around there later (don’t paint the point contact spot). Plus, paint very lightly at the ties where the point rails move back and forth. I did not pay attention to that and had some sticky point movement that I had to then address.
I used Rustoleum Camoflage #1918 earth brown rattle can paint. I had seen some advice to paint the rails one color, from the side, and then pait the ties a different color, from above. I just used a single color. After spraying a section, I quickly ran a piece of 1x2 across the railheads to pick up the paint before it dried. If doing today, I would use my airbrush, for much less paint, overspray and fumes.
I brush paint with various mixes of brown (charcoal being the main base color). I don’t like the fumes and the mess of a rattle can. Paint can cause problems on turnouts if applied without discrimination. I use a finer-point brush for them, being extra careful not to get paint on the moving parts. Our club is plagued with sticky turnouts caused by thick paint and ballast applied all over them. For the sake of reliable operations, I prefer turnouts that look a bit bare over nice turnouts that stick and cause derailments!
Simon
I mask over the moving parts and paint them later with decanted rattlecan paint and some thinner mixed in to make bottle paint. Forgot to add that I wipe down the rail tops right away and brightboy them after the paint dries.
I like Rob Spanglers results. He rattle can spray paints the rails and the ties.
Really that kind of goes without saying.
Yep.
I really like Rob Spanglers Western Pacific layout and his results, which speak very highly of his work. He recommended Rustoleum Camo brown to generally paint the track, and then goes back an does some brush painting to weather and highlight. It looks great. Peace.