Track weathering during the steam age

[JLK2707]

Hello, I am just wondering what colours I would need to use for model train track that is going to be weathered during the ages of BR steam. I know that the colours I would need to use would be a uniformed mixture of oil, brake dust and soot, but what colours could I use for these?

Please help me.

[Bufferstop]

I use acrylic poster paints for track weathering, mainly because it can be removed from rails with a vigorous rub. I know they fade but I don't mind having to go over it again after a couple of years.
This is how I proceed aiming for the less well maintained look of a heritage line. I start with a polythene lid and a couple of brushes that have seen better days. I put blobs of black, dark and light brown on the lid and mix them around but not too thoroughly, streaks and blobs of unmixed colour are good. Then it's apply paint fairly randomly to the rails and around the fixings. Don't worry about getting it on the top surface of the rails a Peco track rubber will see it off. Try not to get too much on the faces of the point blades, clean them up with a slip of ^00 wet and dry folded in two and pinched between the blade and stock rail with the point thrown against it. Then drop a blob in the centre of the sleepers and drag it out along the track trying not to get too much on the brush at once so that it feathers out to nothing in places.
Practise on the end of a siding or even put some old track on a piece of board, ballast it and use it as a trial. I find it one of the enjoyable jobs, fairly mindless!

[End2end]

I used RAILMATCH Sleeper Grime paint on my track but you've intrigued me Bufferstop. Could we have a close up picture please?
Thanks
End2end

[Dad-1]

The colours you use can vary, this can be influenced by the ballast colour you're using.
Tracks also weather in different ways depending on the locomotives that ply their
trade along the line.
An example is that a branch where inside cylinder locomotives are the usual traffic
you won't have as much grime outside the rails and what's there would tend to be
more from rusty & dirty water deposits and brakes.
My usual is matt black Humbrol enamel which is painted down the track centre and then
increasingly thinned and washed towards the rails using just clear white spirit. Matt 29
dark earth is used in lighter applications outside the rails with sometimes some matt black

Very much a try it and see job.



Geoff T.

[JLK2707]

Here's just some examples

IMG_0640.JPG (45.31 KiB) Viewed 3896 times

IMG_0646.JPG (47.15 KiB) Viewed 3896 times

of track weathering during the BR steam era:

[Dad-1]

So you have good examples, just get on and do it.
The advantage as I see it with Humbrol enamels is that on well laid and very well
stuck down ballast you can wash out with white spirit to spread a dark film almost
anywhere you want to. It usually dries lighter than expected and you can always go
over it again, particularly where locomotives stand where the oil & muck deposits
are really thick.
In your second picture note the two different colour ballasts, the outer clean as is often
the case in sidings where wagons rule the roost ! The frequently used running line
shows a definite lengthwise lining of dirt & oils, but note how little is outside the rails.
The first picture, obviously with old mature ballast, on a very busy route has dirt and
staining outside the rails.
It's up to you to experiment to visually match what you have in your minds-eye and
pictures like these. It does need matching to what your models traffic flow would
produce, excessive weathering on a single branch line just wouldn't look right.

Geoff T.

[JLK2707]

Thanks, but can you please just tell me what colours I would need to do this, as I am planning on using both weathering powders and paint.

[Dad-1]

Here is where there are always problems because you mention weathering powders, but
I don't use them. As in so many modelmaking endeavors there will be more than one way
to achieve similar results.
As I said in my earlier posting I use Humbrol Matt Black 33 and Dark Earth 29. They are the
colours I use. Plus perhaps a little Satin, or even gloss black where locomotives stand as
the grease & oil is so thick it's shiny !!
If you doubt your method or skill make up a short section of track on some scrap wood, fully
ballast a section of track fixed to it and experiment. Remember that the first step is always
the most difficult, it may prove to be easier than you feared.

Geoff T.

[Dad-1]

Another section of lightly weathered track.
As is my usual method we have black used in the centre and 29 outside the rails.
As these colours are being washed in they also stain the track sides that had
previously been painted Humbrol 113



You will have to bit the bullet sooner or later, but best to have a throw away test
piece.

Geoff T.

[JLK2707]

Thanks, but I am just looking for examples of what colours to use if I were modelling heavily weathered track.

[Bigmet]

You need a matt very dark grey for the soot and ash.

You need matt rust colour for the brake dust, because that's what it is.

The local soil or rock colour, along with the ballast stone used will add colour tones, that's a case of decide what you like.

I think application is more important than the actual colours. Think about how the weathering arives, both dropping down in the foor fout between the rails and just outside, and blowing around to settle 'everywhere'. Sloshing it on really dilute in many many layers (I usually use a half inch brush for the stuff that drops and a wallpapering paste brush for the sloshing around) works for me, and I think this is because how it builds up in reality is a little at a time over several years.

As others have already suggested, you just have to set up a test length of track and have a go. Go on, you know you want to...

[Bufferstop]

I used RAILMATCH Sleeper Grime paint on my track but you've intrigued me Bufferstop. Could we have a close up picture please?
Thanks
End2end

Some patches are getting to need sprucing up so I'll take some pictures of the process. The stretch along the front of the yard is a strong candidate.

[End2end]

Some patches are getting to need sprucing up so I'll take some pictures of the process. The stretch along the front of the yard is a strong candidate.

Thanks Bufferstop. I look forward to seeing it.
Thanks
End2end

[JLK2707]

Cool. I might just have to show you some examples of how I have done my weathering.

[JLK2707]

Where do I put the soot and brake dust on the tracks?