Why Paint Rail "Rust"?

Couldn't agree more! Just painted 100+ feet of rail this afternoon. A mix of rail brown, railroad tie brown, and some grimy black. Nothing out here is rusty....you have to have water to create rust, and we all know how much water we get.

 

 

Time to ballast! Where's Dennis Brennan anyway? Probably getting ready for York

These are recent photo of the rails for the Mainline tracks of the Grand Trunk Western Railroad in Michigan.

 

What is this color?

 

 

Rail brown lol

It is most likely Muddy Brown.

 

Rust is closer to orange.

 

Andrew

Do you paint the center rail or leave it black?

We paint the center rail so it all blends in. Tried leaving it black but didn't like the way it looked, stuck out like a sore thumb.

WOW! I don't know what to say? I would bet, you haven't been around here much?

LOS

 

That looks great. Was that done with spray can paint or an air brush?

Even if he hasn't been around the OGR Forums much, that still doesn't mean he is incorrect. Having been "around the real railroads" pretty much all my life, "rusty/red" rail is generally associated with unused or new rail. Rail that has been "in service" and heavily used, such as main line rail, tends to accumulate that brownish color in today's modern world of real railroading. 

 

Back in the "old days" of steam and oil lubricated plain bearing equipped rilling stock, the sides of the rails tended to have a dark "greenish" coating, due to all the journal oil (which was indeed green color) which dripped out of everything.

 

I must admit that some folks that spray, or brush, paint the sides of their train tracks red, sure makes them look toy-like in my opinion.

HW, it was more of a crack on the good life those "guys" have out in the Southwest. I was in AZ for awhile and looked at many cars. Their biggest issue working on cars is getting the dirt off of bolts! Up here, we have to torch almost everything anytime a bolt needs to be removed under our cars. Rust goes after everything.

 It does appear more of a brownish color even to me!

 

John it was airbrushed yesterday. The last of my Floquil track paint. Rail brown, railroad tie brown, and a little grimy black. Thinned with paint thinner and sprayed about 25psi.

LOS:

 

VERY nice looking trackwork.  Looking forward to seeing it ballasted. 

 

Save yourself a few bucks.  Go get some play sand.  Build up the profile and fill in the ties just below the top.  THEN sprinkle on that great looking Brennan's ballast. 

 

There ya have it, your Bohemian money saving tip for the day. 

 

I do this even with my HO projects, and did it on all of my three rail projects.  I was using Woodland Scenics product though.

 

Regards,

Jerry

 

Rust 'weathers' folks, it darkens with age.

Krylon or Rustoleum Camo Brown is the perfect color for rail.

For the modern "diesel" era, I fully agree. Our layout however is modeled in the early 1950s, i.e. big steam, and thus the rails/track is all weathered with a Rustoleum "charcoal green" color. The green journal oil from all those plain bearing freight cars and steam locomotives soaked the rail sides heavily, giving it that greenish tint.

Yep - camo brown, either of the above brands.

 

Not all track is this color - some is "browner", but it will do in most situations (deserts, not as much; more grayish, typically). 

 

But those spray cans of "oxide red" or "rust" - no, no - that's orange.

 

Spray Camo brown; GarGraves:

 

Just did NJ Hi Railers roundhouse tracks with a combination of Krylon red primer and leather brown. Looks nice and grimy like the old NYS&W Little Ferry roundhouse did.

Next comes all the spills..........

Yep, we need to come up with a range of paint colours. Let's start with "Fresh Rust" and "Weathered Rust" 

Do you have a picture of it?  I'm interested....

No, because it all depends on what era the person is effectively trying to model.

Yes.

 

 

Here is another photo showing the color, slightly different light. Notice how the switch was just re-ballasted after the track gang finished their work.

Regards,

Jerry

 

 

gnnpnut and HW,

Thanks, that's what I'm looking for, enjoyed the photos.

Here is another photo showing a slightly different rail treatment.  On this one, rail brown was used, and Paul elected to leave the center rail black. 

 

 

Here is another shot on my engine terminal modules.  I wanted something I could do with minimal effort, so these were simply shot with Floquil grimy black, which is what I do on my HO railroad. 

 

 

 

At the end of the day, I don't think it matters what shade the track / rail is painted, the object is to get rid of the shiny rail.  My object was always to get the viewer to focus on the motive power and equipment, and lose sight of the fact of that pesky center rail in the photo. 

 

Regards,

Jerry

 

I've been on the fence about painting my rails or not.  But seeing these pictures you gentlemen have posted is an inspiration!

 

Here are the tracks on the Norfolk Southern (former PRR) mainline in Duncannon, Pa. that I am using as a reference.  Lots of break dust on the ties too:

 

My layout has Rust Oleum Camo Green on the main track, and Camo Brown on yard tracks and spurs.  Sprayed all three rails and the ties before it was laid, and immediately wiped off the top of the rails.  Grey Brennan's Ballast on the main, and his black ballast on secondary tracks.  It is a pretty good re-creation of transition-era track.

Guys, Nice job detailing the rails. I tired a few colors this week on some test track. Looks ok, not enough black.

Painting the track is the difference between toy trains and model railroading.

Interesting topic. How to make track look more realistic . . .

 

Rust color, after about two weeks, begins to approximate a dusty brown, at least in California.  My outer loop is steel, and it does rust some.

Sandblast it, take it outside and leave it there for a few weeks, bring it inside and sand the tops.

 

Works just like the real thing.

Not with Atlas solid nickel silver rail, it doesn't.

As Hot Water says.  Also NOT with MTH ScaleTrax or GarGraves SS.

 

Ron

This is correct.  On the PRR mainline, those "charcoal green" rails even had a distinctive oily smell.

 

Looks nice but for me it would be a box of paint pens, I would be to lazy for any other method.

Taking the "easy way out" is exactly why I spray painted all the track, prior to laying ANY ballast/scenery! I simply can NOT imagine bending over all that track using "paint pens".

Nice work here fellas - We used a mix of brown and dark grey at different mixes around the layout and achieves a nice look I thought. Catching the center blade with the overspray helped it to blend in better too.

Running a paint pen down the side of the rails sounds easy to me. IF I were to paint it would have been before the track was laid. Whatever suits you works for me.

Hindsight is 20-20 as they say. I regret not taking care of this when we first started laying track on the club layout 12 years ago. Unfortunately, given that it is 80% fully sceniced, the paint pens may be our only option.

 

I'm at the very early stages of a new home layout and this will be done at the start. I'm still undecided about spray can vs airbrush having never used an airbrush before.

 

Keep the comments and especially the pictures coming. Enjoying this thread

We tried the paint pens but didnt like the results. Not full coverage compared to spraying, and when you have 400-500' total feet of track.....the pens just aint the right tool.

The timing of this post matches my interest. I was researching how I'd do it to get the look I wanted. I have two RRs to weather the track on. The G scale stainless outside will probably require more effort. I've learned that spraying it will help the ties last longer against the sun's rays.

 Down stairs, I'm playing with ideas. Here's a quick line-up of my track. The mainline is currently Atlas 2 rail flex laid onto cork. above that is MTH scaletrax. Below is the Micro-engineering weathered rail. I cleaned the top surface of the rails on the bottom version.

 Not the best lighting or angle for the camera. I'm considering if the pre-weathered track is the way to go? Also if I should spray everything else, like the Scaletrax. I like the post of getting rid of the black on the center rail. I bought some brown pens and didn't like the translucent look.

 I'm also looking at changing to Homosote roadbed?

 

I've got 3000 ft to deal with. My back is hurting just thinking about it.

Joe,

 

I've heard ME weathered rail is a real pain to curve. If you have not tried to curve any of it, I would do so before buying a pile of it!

 

As for the black on the center rail, I'd get rid of that by getting rid of the center rail!

 

There are many options for road bed.

 

Simon

1) I swear this stuff does not bend! (in the correct direction)

2) I'm adding a rail on one high line loop. How do I then get rid of that?

      
mine is hurting for you with 3000'

Railroad Tie Brown.

Dave C here on the forum was in exactly the same boat as you are.  The trick is to get an airbrush that will allow you to spray a very thin line, which for me means that my Pasche Model H is not my go-to air brush.  

 

I just bought an Iwata for doing weathering of track and MP&E in HO.  I think that brush, along with a portable air compressor (which I also bought) would be the cat's meow for doing the weathering.  Faster than a paint pen, and I think it would end up better looking. 

 

If you get some overspray on the ballast, no big deal.  Go and look at photos, and there will be an accumulation of brake shoe dust, gearcase leakage from locomotives, and back in the day, journal bearing oil from cars and locos. 

 

I've posted a couple of photos that Dave C posted here years ago, as I've always been impressed by his work.  Nothing short of fantastic, and a great inspiration when I was in three rail.  His techniques work well in two rail, and in smaller scales too.   

 

 

 

 

Dave, if you are reading this, I hope you do not mind my posting these pics.

 

Regards,

Jerry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These 3 storage yard tracks were sprayed with camo brown cans before the track was put down permanently. We fit the track, soldered the feeders to the bottom, pulled the track back out, took it outside to spray it, cleaned the rail head, and put the track back in. It was just easier than my big butt trying to crawl around up there and not kick anything around while trying to airbrush it.

 

 

Depending on what colors one uses for the running rails and how one weathers, I'm not sure I agree that it isn't worthwhile to keep the center rail black. I think the photo of Dave C's very nice work above is a good example of how lighter brown (or grey) colored running rails can visually "pop"  against the darker ties while a blackened center rail then seems less obtrusive. That's the effect I've tried to achieve:

  

 

I painted my rails Floquil rail brown, That looks more like old rust than Floquil rust. On little used spurs I also dust them with chalks. And for yards and terminals I mix rail brown with grimy black, this gives the rails a gritty look. I still have some Floquil paints, but when they're gone I will have to find a substitute.

Here in northeast PA, much of the rail is brownish gray, to a blackish gray. There are blotches and streaks of orange rust. Some of the rust is from the thin flakes that are caused by wear of the top of the rail. New rail sitting in stacks tend to be more of an orange brown, tops and sides. From all the replies, rail aging and oxidation vary in different areas of the country. A good weathering job does make for a more authentic pike, so observing and photographing the rails in the areas one wishes to model is a good place to begin. I just wish I had a layout to weather!

Don