Weathering the rails...well I screwed up and....

 John, by painting before. Are you talking spray cans outside ? Then installing the track. I made the same mistake. Weathered structures, cars and engines with shiny Gargraves already ballasted. When I started 30 years ago. You just didn't see it on a 3 rail layout. No way was I going to hand paint all the rails. I had to as they just looked to out of place in my weathered world. I decided to use an airbrush. Never masked anything. Anything you can reach and use a hand brush you can do with an airbrush. Just be careful where the hose is laying as you move along. Try to paint just the rails. Even hit the centerrail. Overspray will hit the ballast but it tends to just dirty it up and it will look natural.

 As far as paints. I started using Poly S.  No longer available. I switched over to Microlux from Micro Mark. I paint the railsides Rail Brown and shoot some Grimy Black straight down. You can buy it in large bottles and it covers very well. Just keep some rags that can be wrapped around a wooden block handy to remove the paint of the rail tops. I use on flammable CRC Brakleen for this. Goes faster than you think. Especially fast if you have a helper following behind cleaning the rails as you paint. Remember. You only need to paint what you can view. Any tracks on shelf type bench work only really need paint on one side. I have one more area to do. Right in the middle and both sides have to be done. Not an easy reach but it will have to be done soon. Starting to act my age and a project like this is only going to get tougher if I keep putting it off.

 John, enjoyed your layout and views in  OGR  GMRR Adventures. Next time you view it. My layouts the one with nothing shiny other than that one mentioned area.

John Like stated above use an airbrush and paint aiming at the rails, if it gets on the ties and ballast it will look right! The old ballast, ties, and plates all have the same color within a foot of the rails. Take a look at real track and you will see. And don't forget to do the center rail.

John, I've tried hand painting rails with a brush. What a pain! As Clem said, the airbrush is the way to go. The fact that you've ballasted does complicate things. It means that you can't just blast away, you have to be more focused.

I didn't paint my rail before I laid my track, but I knew I couldn't ballast until I did. I use a cheap Badger airbrush with diluted latex wall paint, and paint the rails and ties.

These first two are of newly painted rail.

These next two are of ballasting.

John, I hand painted all of my rails and there are quite a few. Never buying an airbrush, I just tediously did them by hand, though I did paint them prior to laying track. I used very inexpensive acrylic paint made by Americana that you can get at Michaels or JoAnns. I used a small stiff brush. The outer rails were painted using "Light Cinnamon" and the inner rail I painted black if they were not already black. Here are a few pictures.

Be sure to clean off all the oils left from the die-drawing process used to form the rail.  Otherwise the paint might not stick in spots making a not-so-neat finished product. We used 99% isopropal with q-tips.  PIA but worth it.

Its not to late to airbrush your rails. Have you seen Rich Battista's layout, The Black Diamond Railway? He airbrushed his track pretty much after the entire layout was done. Not hard at all, not too messy, not very expensive.

John, I've been using  Woodland Scenics Track Painter "Rusty Rail" #TT4581 from Advantage Hobby in Champaign, IL 61826. They cost $6.56 each plus shipping. I've doing the tracks at the NJ Hirailers Club which is Gargraves and Ross with good results. Goes a long way. Easy to use nothing to cover up from overspray and dries fast. 

Why not try an oxidizing agent? They use them all the time to give an "antique" look to metals and such.

Painting? Clean it. It doesn't really matter what it is.

I knew a guy that reproduced snapshot photos 1:1 by airbrush for fun. Use airdryers, change filters. Buy a decent brush...even a bristle brush. Brush types hold and deliver different paints differently by contact and flex; fine, "naturals" for thinner paints, and thicker for thicker paints. More layers at the hilt hold paint stronger; so thicker is better for watery paints and inks (for house painting thats less drips). Id want a good natural long bristle for striping, fan and duster to highlight, short stiff to soften, and a green black grime wash.

The fastest is airbrush it. But the funnest for me, and time consuming, is doing things by brush. If I was doing a large layout I would bite the bullet and reach for an airbrush or mico cup gun. Grandfather had a ½ pint size that would have great for you Elliot.

Hire a hot rod pinstriper?

Rail rust is really quite brown, kind of like how Cor Ten steel rust. I used a pre-mixed rail brown color produced by Joe's Model Trains. I spoke about this process at length in the first pages of my on-going saga about building the Pennsylvania and Pacific RR. It's one the first pages so you don't have to read very far into the treatise. There's a picture of N-S mainline track in Louisville that shows this clearly.

https://ogrforum.com/...ga-of-the-pandampprr

To summarize, Joe's includes a bottle with a little foam roller. It didn't work. Furthermore, the rail is not metalurgically clean. I used alcohol to clean it as best I could and then airbrushed the paint. It's thin enough to airbrush directly. It's the only practical way I found to paint a lot of glued down rail. It's very fragile paint, so even when dry it rubs off easily so handle the rail with care. 

I'd go brown/ black/ green. The color varies by age, era, region and industries too.  Some track up North seems brighter orange than it once was. Runs in shade have moss build ups and plants in dust deposits here and there. Rails near us were once more black and raw than rust because of oil storage tank slop being spred about a mile+. Center ballast was black with a shine, crossing it you needed to wipe your feet asap or risk a slip or trashed carpet.

I've been super busy!  First time I have read the thread I started.  Got to get going!  Will reply soon!  Thanks to all of you!!!

PS:  Track in place complete with scenery--inside.  No way to move.

This track was painted with rattle can Rust-Oleum Camo Green (main tracks) and Camo Brown (yard tracks and spurs), before being laid - ties and all.  I use different ballast on the yard and spur tracks, containing black cinders, while the mains are ballasted with Brennan's rock ballast.

You can still paint the rails with an airbrush.  If you look at track from above (say, on a bridge above the track) and the ballast has any age on it, you will see that it is not evenly colored from edge to edge.  In the era when there were oil-lubricated journals, it was even more pronounced.  So, you don't have to worry about hitting some ballast next to the rail.

Personally, I avoided bright rust colors, because rail oxidizes to a grey/brown color, and, in the transition era that the High Plains Division is set in, oil from journals made the rails look like Camo Green.  Trust me, the name is deceptive. It's a camouflage color, which could appear green if sprayed on a real vehicle, but looks to be weathered grey on O gauge rails.

I GREATLY appreciate all the responses!  The area I model, Marias Pass, the rails are almost black.  Of course, the "black" fades in and out at various places.  I have only been thinking about hand-brushing the rails, but I may give the air brush a shot.  I've never used one, but Connie has just now.  I think I'll try it with a brush and an air brush and compare.  Some other folks have suggested "paint pens."  I think I'll try that as well to see which we prefer.