Can relate

I have adopted a similar process.  I read as much as I can about a subject, do it, make lots of mistakes (I mean learning experiences), then go back and reread the instructions, realize why the author said do it the way he wrote, try again.

As a kid I was building a plastic model.  I usually just went by the drawings, but on the last page of the instructions, there was a notice that said - "When all else fails - read the instructions".  Now why would I remember that after these 50 odd years.

I don't have advise as I have not tried painting rails yet.  However, I think I will soon be at that stage, so I am glad for your discoveries and eager to see what responses you get.

A Quality Brush and Steady Hand

I simply use a quality pointed brush sized for the code of rail in play. It doesn't have to be the most expensive but should be of good quality natural or synthetic hairs, and able to hold its shape. Paint of choice was Floquil but now use Tamiya. 

My wood ties go through several steps of physical distressing with a razor saw and other tools. Then a multi-coat staining process that starts with a wash of Minwax stain, followed by wash coats of water or solvent based paints applied wet-into-wet, or drybrushed. Depending on the desired end result, weathering powders or ordinary pastel chalk dust is applied and rubbed in with an older brush for a dead flat dusty look.

Mike Cougill

Art's way....

I plan to use Arthur Houston's method as shown here:

http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/17089

What I do

I typically spray the track, even if handlaid.  In tight areas I use an airbrush, but tend to use a spray can in  yards or anywhere overspray won't be a concern.  Once the base coat is applied, I'll weather ties with acrylics, using dry-brushing and/or washes.  Keeping the paint from going on too heavily prevents turnouts from sticking.  I find it's easier to control paint around turnouts by spraying rather than brushing.

This stretch has been painted with the airbrush, and the secondary tracks received dry-brushed acrylic on top of that.  Note that there's minimal paint except where I want it.

The same location looked like this after ballasting and further weathering added over the ballast.  There's more dry-brushing involved, along with some powdered chalks.

This yard was handled the same way.  I use wood ties to fill in around rail joiners, and spraying paint helps to minimize any differences in color or texture between plastic and wood. Spraying can also overcome the tendency of wood ties to stay too light or uneven.   I mask the points by wedging pieces of strip wood in place, and I mask ground throws with tape.  

Metal that doesn't represent wear surfaces (e.g. tops of guard rails and frog wing rails) gets touched up with rail color to eliminate shine.  It also helps to disguise the ungainly frog castings on these Atlas turnouts.

No they don't.  The result is usually translucent if done without some kind of base coat.  Pens can be effective if you have a primer and are relying on them for some color variation only, as opposed to needing coverage.  

I highly recommend Rob's way

I highly recommend Rob's way of painting track. I used a coat of Rustoleum Camouflage Earth Brown for a base. I did wear a respirator while spraying as the paint has quite a odor to it.  Drybrushing various colors of craft paints depending on track conditions before and after ballasting can bring out the details in the track. I used a grayish brown for the mainline and a darker grey for a grungy yard look. I then hand brush Rail brown on the rails and spikes for a rusty look.

Before:

After:

Tom

"I typically spray the track,

"I typically spray the track, even if handlaid.  In tight areas I use an airbrush, but tend to use a spray can in  yards or anywhere overspray won't be a concern.  Once the base coat is applied, I'll weather ties with acrylics, using dry-brushing and/or washes.  Keeping the paint from going on too heavily prevents turnouts from sticking.  I find it's easier to control paint around turnouts by spraying rather than brushing.'

   I  too have found that acrylic paint goes on plastic and metal better with an airbrush, less paint is needed to get full coverage, one thin coat with an airbrush versus multiple or heavy coats with a brush. When I was modeling in O  and S scales I painted the track with hardware store spray cans but for HO or smaller scales  I think it's worth firing up the airbrush for the much better control it offers........DaveB

Reading ...

Well, Tim Warris wrote a very comprehensive article in the MRH 3rd quarter 2009 issue:

https://forum.mrhmag.com/magazine-feedback-was-ezines-891776

The article is focused on turnouts, but is applicable to other parts of trackwork as well. The article also includes a step-by-step slideshow (in a PDF you could download). In addition, Tim shows how he stores his modeling paints for easy access and lon life.

On the MRH Theater there was a video from the Big-E Amherst show clinic given by Iwata-Medea on airbrushing that included track; however the video was hosted on blip.tv and is no longer available.

If you search the YouTube site for Iwata airbrush, you may find a video. Of course, this is only good if you have or wish to use an airbrush.

Air Brushing

OK, I fired up the Paasche tonight and gave everything a coat of grimy black, thinned about 1:3. I found it's rather tricky to fire the brush straight down. Maybe there's a special bottle I neglected to buy. (It would be hard to convince my wife of that, she thinks I've bought two of everything in the store.)

I like the way it knocked all of the shine off the excess solder. I'll know tomorrow how badly I've gummed up the points. 

Next, rail painting. I don't have a very steady hand, so I'll probably stay with the micro brushes.

pqe

Doing the rails

For painting the sides of the rail - in the video taken at the Big-E Amherst 2010 of the Iwata clinic, I recall that Leslie Eaton has the airbrush held so that the path of the paint is perpendicular to the side of the rail - something I can imagine being difficult to do on rail already mounted on the layout.

Joey Ricard posted a video too.

http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/17183

You might find this useful.  I plan to paint all my flex track outside before laying it down on the layout.

There are all kinds of tips and tricks to painted track. I can understand it being more difficult after it is in place.  I have seen guys use a note card as a block while using an airbrush to paint the rails.  The note card is placed behind the rail. The paint is sprayed in the direction of the card.  I have seen some finish their tie weathering and rails only to place tape between the rails and at the outside edges.  All that is showing is the rail, the tie plates and spike heads.  They lay down a light mist of rust paint to give the rust colored appearance usually found down the both sides of both rails.

Den

Tim Warris PDF not available

The links in MRH Issue 3 for the slide show no longer work.

http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/assets/media/mrh3-std/Track-Painting-Slideshow-FL.php
http://vps880.inmotionhosting.com/~modelt5/assets/media/mrh3-std/TrackPaintingSlides.pdf

The embedded version of the issue includes the slide show.

@Bill B (correction) - and MORE

Hmmm! Two days ago, I just opened my local standard (non-imbedded) copy and clicked on the slide show object and was directed to the PDF. Today it does not open. It appears to be a temporary service problem. I have a copy of the PDF to share. Contact me via my profile contact tab, if you wish for me to send you a copy.

Correction: My copy of the PDF has a problem also.

More:

I went to the Tim Warris Fast Tracks web site to see if he had posted the slide show or similar media. I di find that he has a video on YouTube that he uploaded in the same time frame as the slide show publishing (June 2009).

I have had poor results trying............

..........painting the rails prior to installation.  I find I get little nicks and chips from spiking, rail joiners and soldering that are shiny and look worse than unpainted rail!!  Touching them up is a PITA.  I have the best luck painting them after all the work is done just prior to ballasting.

Peter

Air brush worked well

Now for the rails. What colors do you use?

Here are some samples I have around:

Image is a bit dark, because I wanted to use layout lighting. Colors are Right to Left: 

• Craft store walnut
• Tamiya brown
• Model master leather
• Model Master rust
• Tamiya NATO brown
• Tamiya hull red

The walnut looks a bit like new rail to me, but does not stand out much from the ties. The others seem kind of bright, except for hull red. Guess I'll have to do some mixing.

pqe

I'd go with the Walnut

But's that just me going after a well used mainline look .  I started with a similar color:

Then I used some "old dark rust" colored chalk on the rails and a "dark earth" on the ties, then ballasted.  The glue softened and muted the chalk colors.  After ballasting, I went back and touched up areas with "brighter rust", "dark rust" chalk powder on the rails and ran another run of the "dark earth" down the middle of the gauge.  

Andrew

More to the picture

Here is the entire photo:

    [attach:fileid=160732_14_1+7KAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC]

Thanks Bill

I do these on a Mac, so I don't always know how they appear to other people.

Andrew, is that a good dose of graphite on the rail tops?

pqe

Joe Fugate's Technique

Use techniques from Joe's article in a Model Railroader special issue on track side detail some years back.  

Mainline rails get a "rail brown" color.  I alternate tie colors using a grimy black and a railroad tie brown color.  

Colors for passing sidings, spurs, etc.., vary depending on factors such as use, maintenance, etc...  For example a seldom used industry spur may get a grey wash on the ties to get an "old wood" affect.  

Final step I use is brushing a mixture of powder tempera paint and plaster of Paris along the center of the track.  Heavily used track gets a mixture equal to a charcoal color.  Less used track gets a mixture equal to a brown/tan. 

Once the mixture has been applied I will spray the area with water.  

The tempera paint technique gives you the look of grunge, oil, and dirt that accumulates over time.

My final step is to create "spill" and trash affects in random areas along the track.  Some examples would include discarded or broken wood pallets, potash, grain, sand, oil, etc...

@Pelsea

There is some graphite, but its mostly its surface dust and crud (my programming track is only a few feet long, so not a lot of rail traffic on it)

Andrew

Here is the entire photo:

In that light I'd say the hull color looks best but it might be too red in bright layout lighting?  I'd suggest a short trip up to Roaring Camp to check out the narrow gauge rail as it's probably as close to standard gauge steam era conditions as you'll find around here?  Mainline rail often looks dark gray or charcoal color due to the frequent use and maintenance. Tehachapi rail looks lighter gray from all the sand applied to it. The branch line here is looking pretty rust brown these days but at least it survives the calls of the bike herd to rip it up :> ) ..DaveB

a short trip up to Roaring Camp

Always a welcome chore. I was up there last month when the chiggen came by. I took some pictures, but didn't pay enough attention to the track. Here's a souvenir:

 (Image lightened to show undercarrage.)

pqe

Tim's slides - Good news/Bad news + Sample

Well, the link in the magazine file is correct, but the server does not respond. The good news, however, is that the PDF of the slide show I had does work - I just needed to be patient while the slides were cached. There are 48 slides and you may benefit from viewing them. I can share the PDF with you - just contact me via my profile contact tab (can't upload a PDF to a reply/comment).

(Added via edit)

Here is a sample of one of the 48 slides from Tim:

Each slide has a good picture of progress in painting along with an instructive caption.

real rail

I didn't get up to Roaring camp, but here's a photo from July that shows some track.

 This is not far from the walnut color.

I did get to the grocery store, which is next to some seldom used track.

  This is close to the water, so there's a lot of salt in the air. This isn't far from the hull red, which is supposed to represent rust below the water line, I guess. I like that sticker on the  tie that makes it look like the painter missed the end

Of course there's this piece of rail from DaveB's back yard:

Also close to walnut.

pqe

"Of course there's this piece

"Of course there's this piece of rail from DaveB's back yard:"

    Here's a wider angle view of the 44 tonner at the end of the line. Note the date on the rail, 1876, so it was bicentennial rail :> ) ..DaveB