Reply to "Paint Rails or Not Paint Rails - A Question"

@Dave Koehler posted:

Here is a novel idea! Why not just go to a rail yard, branch or main line and see what real track looks like!!!!!!!!!

It should depend on the era one is attempting to model. For layouts modeling the late stem era, i.e. prior to 1960, most of the freight equipment had oil lubricated plain bearing journals. Thus, the main line rails tended to be sort of "oil soaked" over time, and had an olive green tint to the sides.

If one os attempting to model the current "modern era", the rail sides tend to be a lighter dry coating of dust/grime from the freight equipment (all equipped with non-metallic composition brake shoes).