Track Weathering

 Its now mid August and the process to get all the newly installed track weathered has been completed. I found it a bit tedious as the track was installed back in June and its seems like it has taken me a long time to get this done. I guess due to the fact that I only spent a couple of hours per week on it for the last month and a half is the reason. Summer is definitely not model railroad season for me! I used the same techniques for weathering the track as I used back when I built the layout and it had On30 track initially - after the track was painted and installed, (and here's the scary part) I used suede colored craft paint to paint every tie. Next comes "painting" the rail (again) with a color made as a slurry of Rust colored weathering power and 70% rubbing alcohol. This was applied to both sides of the rail and to the tie plates as well - at this point ( see picture below) you will look at the track and think to yourself  "What the hell have I done!!!" but bear with me. After that, go back with the suede craft paint and a square tipped brush and touch up the ties, especially around the tie plates. Let this dry for a day or 2 before proceeding.

Once the paint dries and the track looks terrible, the next step happens which really is the transforming piece of the weathering process. Take a soft brush ( use one that you don't mind destroying - as after this you probably wont use it again) and apply a liberal dusting of soot black weathering powder over the entire track. Then you want to use a sprayer that can produce a very fine mist and mist down the track with 70% alcohol and watch what happens!!!.  The weathering aspect is then complete.

Next the track can be ballasted using a normal method that I described on my blog entry back on 22 Jan titled "Sharing". As a final touch, I spray the track and ballast with a India Ink/ alcohol mix. Be sure and give your track rail heads a good cleaning afterwards to get anything off the railheads to ensure good electrical conductivity for your locos. As mentioned all these steps add up to a time consuming process, but I am happy with the way my track looks afterwards. Our track is a model too and it deserves to not have a toy like shiny appearance that distracts viewers of our model railroads. Till next time...

Track after seude painted ties and rust colored rails

Track after dusted with black weathering powder and misted with alcohol

Final appearance of ballasted track