Painting "rust" on rail

[Marshall D Abrams]

Some time back there was a thread on painting the sides of rail to
simulate rust. This note is a follow-up describing my experience.

One recommended product was DecoColor paint marker, available at craft
stores like Michaels. It is an instant dry paint with a Xylene
solvent. The packing is very much like a Magic Marker. To get it off
the top of the rails and the ties, I had to use paint thinner on a
rag. The color is not too convincing. I decided not to use it.

Instead, I decided to paint with water-soluble acrylic paint. This is
also much more economical, costing about a dollar for 2 oz. The color
is named brown iron oxide (sometime only one of the first two words is
used). Different brands have slightly different colors. I prefer Delta
Ceramcoat. I used a piece of corrugated cardboard to clean up the
excess paint. Using the flat surface on the rail tops, I could clean
both rails, even if the paint had dried. I used the edge to clean up
the pain from the times. On flextrack I slid the cardboard along the
ties just outside the simulated spikes and tie plates.

One caution, don't use paint where it will get into the pivot points
of turnouts. In addition to gumming up the joint so that it may no
swivel, it may also insulate the point rails. On some of my Atlas
turnouts, I had to solder jumpers from the point rails to the pivot
point to get them electricity.

I did learn! Around the pivot points I used permanent markers. I found
a brown in Sharpie fine point permanent markers. These will color the
rail. Its not a very good rust color, but there isn't a large area
where it has to be used. I did the turnouts first with Sharpie, then
came back the next day with acrylic.

[Bill]

Thanks for sharing your experiences, Marshall. Painted rail is one of
the things that create a much nicer and more realistic model railroad.

Bill
Bill's Railroad Empire
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[Charles Callaghan]

I tried to paint my track using a brush only on the rail. After seeing the
article about perfect track every time in MRR several months ago I decided
to spray the rail ties and all and what a difference. He mixed three
different colors. The rail looks very realistic now and the whole assembly
seems to look much more in scale than just painting the rail. I coated the
top of the rail with some 3:1 oil and it wiped off very easily.
--
Chuck Callaghan
cj...@virginia.edu

"Marshall D Abrams" <Marshal...@alumni.CarnegieMellon.edu> wrote in
message news:apd4j0hoj349h1psm...@4ax.com...

[STEAM GENE]

I coated the
top of the rail with some 3:1 oil and it wiped off very easily.

With two people, you can have a sprayer followed at once by a wiper. Works
just as well, if not better, and saves oil. <g>
Gene
ABV61-1043.001.HCB
<A HREF="http://www.tckworld.com/opfoot">http://www.tckworld.com/opfoot</A>
Find "Skinny Dipping and Other Stories"
On the web at www.publishamerica.com or
www.military-brats.com
and look for "Into Joy From Sadness" soon.

[JCunington]

>With two people, you can have a sprayer followed at once by a wiper

I found the slowest part of the process was oiling the rails. I sprayed my rail
webs with the fine-point airbrush. It was faster and used a LOT less paint.
Then I sprayed down on them with a dark brown El Cheapo spray paint. From there
I can do the detail work in place.

A hint: if you know which sections of track are going to be placed along the
wall, you only need to paint one side of the rails.

Jay

"I don't like to leave the house much anymore because our country is
overpopulated with wild and out-of-control extreme right-wingers. There ought
to be a hunting season on them." - Columnist Bill Janz, Milwaukee
Journal-Sentinel, 8/29/04