Weather or not weather Uni-Tracks and how?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

My new layout is coming along nicely and I think I did a pretty good job second time around. The only problem is that in order to speed up the planning and construction, I have opted for ready-made tracks again but this time using the Kato Unitrack. The new layout looks good and I even re-ballasted over the original roadbeds with good result. Now the only thing that’s sort of looked out of place is the shiny rails. However, I am a bit reluctant to airbrush because of the roadbed in place and using a paint brush would literally take ages…

So what would you do? Leave it or how would you weather ready-made sectional tracks?

2

Personally I wouldn’t use Kato Unitrak, but if you must, check out John Sing’s website. He has a great method for weathering it to the point that it almost looks good[;)]

Lee

3

Very good find.

I dont know about the taking ages part, Im thinking a mix of aclyrics (Water based) and shot with airbrush with a immediate rub off of the rails or removal of protective tape over the rails.

Maybe metal darkener will work on the rails, I will have to explore this subject a bit further.

4

We used Unitrack on our Black River Junction project layout, and saw a big improvement in realism when we spread Kato ballast along the edges of the track and airbrushed some dark brown (or maybe it was dark gray) between the rails.

The series is in the January - April 2007 issue of MR. Call 1-800-533-6644 to order the issues or order online here: http://kalmbachcatalog.stores.yahoo.net/model-railroading-model-railroader-magazine-back-issues.html

We didn’t paint the rails, but if you want to, here are two tips: 1) put a short length of flexible tubing over the end of your airbrush to confine the spray to a narrower cone, and 2) use Tamiya acrylics, which wipe off with Windex even after they’re dry.

Thanks for reading MR,

Terry

5

Or you could try this product to paint the rails:

www.joesmodeltrains.com

6

Thanks for all the help guys, I also just realised that I have Floquil Enamel markers sitting in my toolbox and it had a fine chisel point and I tested it on a piece of track and seems to work great!!!

Thanks Terry for the advice as well, I shall brush up on that article again and I will use your advice on other weathering as well and I ballasted the tracks using the article adice as well and it looked great!

7

Nice tip on the Tamiya paints, Terry…never thought about using that brand before.

Iceman, There was a post in the last days about “I hate to ballast”, with some good info regarding weathering Unitrack.

8

I don’t think that Uni-Track looks realistic at all. In any scale. But I know its the best of those snap together tracks and have bunch in N scale, though I don’t actually use it on my layout. I understand you can carefully ballast over it and it will look fine.

9

Unitrack is not bad, it needs a bit of weathering and attention. It will be a challenge to turn it from a Class 1 roadbed to a yard track or siding.

10

I used a bit of N scale Unitrack to replace a section of flextrack inside my tunnel.

I had to paint and ballast it where it poked out of the portal about an inch.

Just to paint, ballast, and weather a few inches of Unitrack to match the rest of my layout took longer than to paint, ballast, and weather several feet of flextrack. Why? You end up having to lay a one-rock-thick layer of ballast between the ties. Any more and you’ll cover the tie tops.

I’ve heard from several N scale Unitrack ballasters and they say the trickiest part is ballasting the turnouts. The switch motors are internal, and they don’t take kindly to water and glue. If any gets in the machine, you’re done.

But, I’ll say this. Unitrack is very reliable and easy to use.