I’ve been enjoying the Realistic Reliable Track special issue.
I did notice that in one of the photographs in Tony Koester’s article on using CV turnout strips, his turnout strips appear light gray, yet in the other photos, they’re black.
Andy Sperandeo, if you happen to read this, could you confirm whether Tony primed the turnout tie strips before laying his rail?
Also, I’m wondering if in general, it’s best to prime Rail as well as Plastic Ties before painting. I don’t recall reading much about anyone doing that, but I’m wondering if it’s a good idea.
One more question for Andy if you happen to read this - I believe you tend to use pre-weathered rail for your turnouts. How do you get all of the weathering off of the top of the rails? (I’m thinking if I go with the pre-weathered rail, I could skip the priming of the rails for sure).
O.K., I haven’t read that book, so I can’t answer your question re: Tony Koester. But I do know that “pre-weathered” rail is done with a chemical process, so as far as I know, there’s no need to do anything. You could give the rail heads a swipe with a “Bright Boy” if you felt it necessary to clean off the rails.
For non-weathered rail, just paint the stuff - don’t bother with primer. It just adds to the thickness. Lay the track and then weather it with paint. Have fun!
I have been hand laying track for over 20 years. You might try it some time - its fun and the track looks great. If you take your time and pay attention to what you are doing, the results are awesome!
But for your first or second layout … use flex-track and realize that trackwork is one of the most important factors in a reliably running layout. Poor trackwork leads to derailments. Take your time and do a good job and you’ll reap the benefits.
CV ties are black styrene plastic. You can either paint then brown or like Tony, gray. The gray would represent an old stretch of track that has weathered. In real life ties are rarely brown. New ties are coated with a heavy creosote and weather differently than ties that have been down for a while.
You can paint your rails at any time you want. I stay away from preweathered rail due to the fact its hard to solder and real rail is different colored like ties. I use a variety of colors on rails. Rust, roof brown, tuscan red, grimy black and others just to name a few. CV ties are great. I lay them out and paint them with a rattle can of cheap primer brown and overspray with primer gray. When that is dry I brush paint the tie plates and spike detail with rust. Then glue the rails and paint them. Ballast finishes it off just super.