Rail Painting

Saddletank

New Member
A rail painting question. I have a mainline and sidings. Sidings I have used a nice mixed dull rust effect. What colour for the Mainline, black?

This will be hand painted as is only a small 4x6 layout.

Thanks
 

kitsune

Member
I use the same rust colors, however, it varies from place to place. Many mainlines have a dull grey-brown mix, or a grimy grey-black. A safe bet is to either mix your rust color with some grimy black, or buy some browns that are a bit darker than your rust.
 
Hey Saddle,

I don't know if the two shades of colors are as important as the fact that you ARE making distinction between mainline and siding track. Sidings are often less used, have more weeds etc. Making the different colors will certainly add to the realism.

MY 2 cents....
 

Russ Bellinis

Active Member
All track comes from the manufacturer with the black coating common to steel that you would get at any steel supplier. When the rails are laid, if it is welded rail, they will grind off the ends of the rail to good penetration. If it isn't welded rail they just put it down, spike it and bolt it together. The railroad does not paint the rail when they install it and they never paint it after it is installed. The various shades of brown on old rail is rust. As the rail rusts it will change color, and the amount of rust will result in color variations. The tops of the rail on the mainline will be shiny because the traffic keeps the track polished and rust worn off. On a siding, the rails may be shiny on top if the siding is used a lot, they may be rusty if the siding isn't used much. I don't know of any way to model rust on top of rails without losing electrical continuity. I think the most noticeable difference between mainline track and sidings is ballast. The mainline will be ballasted. Passing sidings on the mainline will be ballasted, but for industrial sidings they usually just put the ties in the dirt and spike rail to them.
 

shaygetz

Active Member
I use Wal-Mart craft paint straight from the bottle in Nutmeg Brown, slopped on then cleaned off the rail tops when dry.

Ooooo, gotta pick that ballast off the rails :eek:ops:
 

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Biased turkey

Active Member
The mainline is generally dark brown and the sidings are rusted.
That's the way I painted my tracks:
I used Floquil railroad tie brown for the mainline and Floquil Rust for the siding. They are solvent paints based.
Some people suggest Roof brown for the mainline and DRGW Depot Brown for the siding. Other use Rail Brown for the main and Roof brown for the sidings.
 
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