There seem to be alot of ideas here all of which will work. The club I was in used minwax walnut stain. We just poured some in a baggie added ties closed and shook. Lifted them out by hand on to newspaper and let dry. The baggies sealed so that you dont stain yourself and the surrounding area. I used latex gloves so I did not stain me.
Have fun its messy.
Dave
The problem with any pre staining of the ties is that once they are glue down, they need to be sanded. Even the best milled scale lumber will not lay flat enough to have perfectly laid rail. Irregularities of the roadbed and just the spreading of the glue is enough to cause this.
Why bother prestaining if they need to be sanded only to stain again. My club lays the ties on 1/4" clear pine roadbed and these ties glued to such a smooth surface need sanding to even them out.
You will also get a better bond on bare wood than any that has been sealed not allowing any bond penetration into the wood.
They do, and people’s preferenecs are driven by how they were taught and works for them, not necessarily because they’ve tried other techniques. So pick any one of 'em and start staining.
Hi SpaceMouse
Well ties sleepers eventualy bleach grey in the sun.
so take one jar of cheap malt vinegar add some steel wool leave to brew for a few weeks.
Then stain test tie to make sure it goes grey some woods don’t go grey with this treatment
If test worked stain the lot and then clean and re stain then use.
regards John Busby
And dont try to drink it after eather…
That is correct, you have to sand the tops of the ties after gluing them down in order to make the tops really flat and all the same height. Doing so will seriously lighten/remove completely the stain on the tops. You will want to restain them.
However, IMHO, it is still worth staining the entire tie before gluing it in place. Glued down, it is very hard to work the stain in all around the tie, on the ends, on the sides without “holidays” (white spots where the stain didn’t go). Glue spots on the ties are hard to avoid and the glue will prevent the stain from soaking in all the way, leaving light spots.
As far as stain goes, they used to sell a special model railroad tie stain, although it’s been years since I’ve seen any. From Minwax Special Walnut or Dark Walnut are the darkest stains available. Minwax is a penetrating resin finish that soaks into the wood carrying the color with it and then hardens. The other wood stains tend to be merely brown paint with a lot of paint thinner in it. Minwax does a better job IMHO. New ties (say less than 10 years old) are very dark, close to black. They weather out to gray and finally a driftwood gray, about like telephone poles do.
After sanding them smooth, touch up those bare spots with either a wash of india ink and alcohol or Weather-It. You will have different but subtle shades of brown and weathered gray blended together which looks very realistic
Laying the bare unpainted ties first and then sanding for smoothness, stain or paint, then a light sand to touch up is really the way to go. Any glue residue left on the base of the ties will be covered with ballast. Plus the paint or stain on your ties and base will make ballasting much easier without any “holiday” or see through spots.
I was going to use wood until I realized that I would never get the tie plate detail that really stands out using a good plastic tie base like Central Valley. They have a newer product than this older one that I used here that has spike heads molded on that are pressed over the rail base and look incredibly realistic.
I used Harold Minkwitz’s suggestion for painting plastic to look like wood and it came out like this.
I first painted the tie strips a coat of Kilz2 White Latex Primer, yes house paint. Then I painted the ties with Black Rit Liquid Fabric Dye right out of the bottle. I slopped it on and then used the same brush to pick up any pooled liquid and over stroked a few spots, but I did nothing else but paint the tie plates straight Model Master Rust. Which was the wrong thing to do, but it was toned down with a little black wash later after the pictures were taken.
With lighter ballast. I like the cinders best.
I know that most people don’t get this close to their track, so the “Three foot rule” applies very well to this suggestion from Harold.
I realized that I should have painted the rail in place as he suggests because, depending on where you are modeling most all of it blends into a grey/black. Rail sides and tie plates should be almost th
… and with latex gloves!
That should be interesting to explain to the local LEOs! [:O]
Serious post…
Can these methods for colouring ties be used for bridge and trestle timbers?
TIA
Absolutely!
I simply use testors rubber to simulate new creosote… but when I can I get the real thing! I have friends who work at tie plants and they give me creosoted wood rejects and I just cut them to tie size… very tedious, but worth it. I coat them however with a clear coat so that they dont smell as strongly. Brush on liquid gloss coat here and there for wet creosote.