Realistic look...

Slathered On?

James, I like your track.  For clarification though, by your description of slathering on the wash, I presume you're just kind of rapidly sloshing a bunch of wash onto the ties with a brush with no real effort at an even coat?

How opaque (or not) is the wash?  Is the paint itself just a cheap, craft store type of acrylic paint, or something else?

As usual, enjoying your photos.

-Jack

Slosh is Key

Hi Jack,

Absolutely correct. I use a cheap foam brush to literally slosh the wash on. You want as uneven a coat as possible to bring out the details in the ties. If it's too even it'll cover the base grey, eliminating its effectiveness.

The wash is roughly the equivalent of weak coffee or tea. I can always add another coat if needed. The Burnt Umber was whatever cheap, acrylic paint I can find at Michael's or Hobby Lobby.

James

Paint before laying?

What do you think about doing the painting process, everything but the rail sides with the pen, in sort of mass production off the layout prior to laying in place?

Dick Sipp

Great Lakes Central

current day

Better Control

Hi Dick,

No problem painting before laying. I would think you would have better control of the application as well as prevent overspray.

I laid and wired my track before any scenic elements were added to make sure I was happy with my plan as written. I've been operating for almost a year now and have made three significant adjustments to track locations. That probably would have been complicated if I had painted the track prior to laying it... but your mileage may vary.

James

Are you BATMAN

AWESOME, JUST THE BEST

Track

James,

Nice job on the track- it really looks good. And the new banner link under your signature is a nice touch- very well done!

Tom Patterson

Signature

Thanks Tom. Coming from you I appreciate that.

Took the photo for this week's WPF thread and decided it worked well for a signature.

James

 Be careful painting before

Be careful painting before laying if you are planning on creating curves in your track. Once it is painted, you will find that it is not so flexible anymore. In addition, when it does flex, you will be left with exposed unpainted rail under the spikes.

Power routing switches and rail painting

James,

The painting looks beautiful and really makes the track blend into the scenery. I want to share my "experiences about club members and rail painting. Three years ago I was asked to help rewire a local club for DCC after the "previous" members ripped out all wiring with no documentation for what went where.. The club was inoperable for 3 years. After 9 months a member and I finally got the club back into operation and thing were fine for the first open house. After that, things started going "wrong". Members complained that trains would "die" when going through switches (most had no frog wiring) . After several were replaced, and jumpers installed to accommodate those with the ability to power frogs it seemed like the problem was fixed. Not too long after the replacements and jumper work, the problem started all over again and the cause only became evident when I noticed one of the club members doing "scenery". He was painting rails and when he came to the switches, he never bothered to protect the small metal plates that conducted power from the points to the frogs or even the phosphor bronze contacts under the point rails (shinohara / walthers/ peco). Once the paint dried on the electrical contacts, there was no way to remove it and the switches had o be replaced once more. The problem will not reoccur, he vanished mysteriously and we swear it was an alien abduction.

Always protect electrical contact points when painting switches. Even those with frog power will fail if paint bridges contact points. Nick Kulp

Watching Paint Dry

James

I also will have a small shelf layout and  will hand lay the track work. I am planning to us Gray but I will

first stain  the ties in different shades of black to show the ageing of the creosotet. I would then add the Gray.

I would like to have seen a photo looking down on the track rather than the three quarter view

Non-the-less your workmanship is outstanding.

My Regards

Ed Ursem

NP Bloomington,MN Backshop

Re: Watching Paint Dry

Always looking for new ways to do things, particularly in making the track and roadbed look realistic so as to get away from that shiny-silvery look of the rails and the sheen of the plastic ties. 

I've had good success with red-oxide and flat-black spray paints.  Firstly, pin the track and turnouts in place (including soldering them together).  Then remove the pins and slide some newspaper underneath so as to minimize the overspray from the paint cans.  Mask the top of the rails with some masking tape (you may have to slice the tape so that only the top and inside of the rails are covered.  Pay close attention to the closure rails on the turnouts as you may have to stuff paper into the closure rail that's "open".

I then spray the rail and ties with red-oxide primer and let it dry thoroughly.  This gives me that "rusty" look.  However, it's a bit overdone so I now need to tone it down.  I next lightly spray the flat-black paint over the red-oxide (hold the can a fair distance from the rails so that you get the "light spray" effect).  The objective here is to tone down the red-oxide.  Don't try to do this all at one time.  If necessary, do it lightly, let it dry, and then take a look at what it looks like.  Do this in a couple of passes.  

Once the paint has dried, remove the masking tape.  Scrape any paint from unwanted places with a steel bar (Don't use sandpaper!  It will scratch the rails.)  Remove the newspaper and pin/glue the track in place.  You're now ready for ballasting. 

Bob Moore
 

Watching Paint Dry

James, I noticed that the

James,

I noticed that the Box Car in your banner was a nicely weathered Seattle and North Coast 50' Double Door Box car and was wondering where you got it? Is it the Athearn model and did you weather it yourself?

I'm interested as I live in Sequim WA and the Seattle and North Coast used to run from Port Angeles through Sequim to Port Townsend and I have plans to build a HO version of that railroad.

Dai Coley

dcoley@oakleafstudio.com

Impressive!

James.  

What can I say that hasn't been said before.  I've told you several times before how impressed I am with EVERYTHING about your railroad.  Impressive scenery, loco's, rolling stock, details, roads, and on and on.  You simply nailed it!  Plus, it's my kind of railroad as you know.  I love branch lines and small short lines.  Can't beat them for their simplicity and easy laid back operations.

Tom Johnson

Catching Up

My apologies for taking so long to respond to the questions here. We've been traveling and got stranded due to several of our flights getting cancelled over the holidays. It's good to be home. Let me see if I can answer them.

First and foremost my thanks again to MRH for making this their reader tip. One of these days I need get working on my article submission.

@Jeff Patterson: I've run into that problem when painting before laying as well. It wasn't an issue this time since I laid track before painting, but I was always able to touch up any missed spots.

@cornwall9: Nick I've used Atlas, Peco and now ME switches over the years and haven't run into issues with paint and conductivity. However as I mentioned I clean my track after every layer so maybe I'm lucky. An ounce of prevention...

@nprybiged: As requested, a sightly out of focus overhead shot of my track.

One thing that helps is that I use decomposited granite as my ballast, which adds its own layer of weathering when it's applied.

@Dai Coley: It is an Athearn model that I weathered. I still need to restencil the boxcar for the IATR, since they ran a lot of car loads over the Grimes Line in my era. I've got 4 more to do, still in their factory paint, as well.

@INRAIL: As always, thank you Tom. I'm honored by your comments.

James

Not to hi-jack your thread but...

No exposed contact points - use MEK with your barge/pliobond

If Switches (Turnouts) are used on layouts, nowadays it is normal practice to always wire the points to the stock rails, unless you have conductive hinges, and, in most situations, power the frog. But frog power should be from contacts that are external to the turnout and not just rubbing pads on the rails or tie plates.

Also, on topic, using an aggressive solvent (MEK) with barge or pliobond, to get a 50:50 liquid for fixing the rails down, easily eats through the small amount of paint in the rail groove of pre-painted CV ties, and makes a very quick, strong bond.