Non-Weathered or Pre-Weathered

[tetters]

Non-Weathered or Pre-Weathered Track. That is the question.

As I gear-up to begin the destruction and sub-sequent rebirth of my layout, I was wondering if anyone here has had any experience with pre-weathered track? If anyone can alert me to potential pit falls, if any, on the use or pre-weathered track?

For the record when I do begin to re lay my track work I've decided to go with flex track this time around. I still plan on using my hand laid turnouts, its just this time around in the event I want or have to move the layout I don't want to worry about damaging the delicate track work. Plus it will be a big time saver and allow me to get back up and running quickly.

Thoughts or suggestions are appreciated.

[jglfan]

With the pre-weathered rail, you need to polish off the weathering where you will solder feeds, and at rail joiners. I also have found electrical pickup to be not as good as the non- weathered rail, till you clean the railhead. If you solder a feed to every rail, you won't need to worry about cleaning the weathering off at the rail joiners. I've never found it to be too much trouble to paint the sides of rail, so I went back to using non-weathered rail. At my last visit to my lhs, I saw Floquil paint markers. There was a three pack, with roof brown (my preferred base color for railsides) weathered black and aged concrete. So I bought it to try. The tip is a chisel type tip and I found it to be pretty convieniet for painting the railsides. Here is a photo of rail with just the paint pen used. I had to make it pretty small to post it.

[eightyeightfan1]

I don't touch the rails.
I did try a section of track by painting it rail brown, but didn't like the looks of it.
Plus, and this is just personal opinion, the work it took cleamimg the tops of the rails, seems like it wasn't really worth it.

[tetters]

I don't touch the rails.
I did try a section of track by painting it rail brown, but didn't like the looks of it.
Plus, and this is just personal opinion, the work it took cleamimg the tops of the rails, seems like it wasn't really worth it.

I can understand your frustration. However, if you can get your hands on a set of Floquil Paint Pens they make painting the rails a snap. I picked up a set at a train show recently, that came with three colours. Rust, Rail Brown, Rail Tie Brown. They work great and I must have painted roughly 50 feet of rail so far. In my very humble opinion painted rail looks great when compared next to unpainted rail.

[jglfan]

Gee, I feel a bit like the invisable man, I posted to answer the question about potential problems with weathered rail, and mentioned Floquils paint pens. 88fan then posted about not liking to paint rails, to each his own but he did not say anything about the pre-weathered rail. Then Tetters replied to 88fan about the Floquil pens but said nothing about the pre-weathered rail either. Is this how Patrick Swayzee (sp?) felt in the movie Ghost?

[MLW]

I weather the tracks on my layout. It works for me.
I give one light coat of paint, ballast the track and then weather
everything (Ties and rails). One section at a time with a fine paint brush.




Your result may vary


Cheers

[iis612]

I have never used the pre-weathered rail, but I have a freind who did his entire layout with it. He said that if he were to do it all over again, he would definately go with the standard non-weathered rail.

BTW: The photo examples of the weathered rail looks great. I can't wait to get to that point.

Matt

[tetters]

Gee, I feel a bit like the invisable man, I posted to answer the question about potential problems with weathered rail, and mentioned Floquils paint pens. 88fan then posted about not liking to paint rails, to each his own but he did not say anything about the pre-weathered rail. Then Tetters replied to 88fan about the Floquil pens but said nothing about the pre-weathered rail either. Is this how Patrick Swayzee (sp?) felt in the movie Ghost?

I didn't overlook your post. I do appreciate the feedback.

[RailCop]

Try the Floquil Paint pens. I have a set and they work great. The more coats you apply the richer the color. And you don't get paint all over the top of the rail. So far I'm pleased with the results.

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KT

[pgandw]

I have never used the ME weathered rail myself so far. The following points are second hand reports:

- the weathering does conduct, but not as well as unweathered rail. When I painted my rails, I found that just cleaning the inside corner of the rail head was sufficient. The top of the rail head is not where wheel-to-rail contact normally takes place. If the wheel treads are tapered (almost all RP25 wheels are) and there is a fillet between flange and tread (RP25 practice), the contact is at the inside rail corner and a point on tread or fillet. I assume the same would be true for polishing the weathering material - the inside corner is all that matters. The weathered rail is probably good enough for DC, but not for DCC. For DCC, I assume you will have to polish or clean the inside corner.

- the weathering (or paint, if you pre-paint rails like I do) needs to be polished or removed at every point you are going to solder.

- the weathering color may or may not suit you, depending on how much rust color you want and the prototype you model. The ME weathering solution creates a dark brown, greasy looking color.

In the past, I brush painted/slathered the rails with Testor's before hand laying. I wiped the one railhead corner before it fully dried. I want to give the Floquil pens a try the next time.

just my thoughts, your choices
Fred W
Chief Engineer, fireman, wiper, and jack of all trades for the...
Picture Gorge and Western Railway - None more picturesque!
Port Orford & Elk River Railway & Navigation Co - home of the tall cedars

[MLW]

I re-read this topic again, and something that I miss is the "pre-weathered rail" .
I did not know that was available.

Having said that, I prefer to do my own "rail weathering", but I can see how this
(pre-weathered rail) would save time and permit uniformity.

When I weathered the rails I do clean/remove the paint that is on top of it with a Q-tip or something
similar when the paint is still wet. I use a dry rag when the paint is dry . I have not
experience any lost of contact (electricity) between the loco and the weathered rail after cleaning
in that fashion. I did not know about cleaning the inside of the rails and since I did not know about it,
and never experience problems this has never been an issue.

Nevertheless this can be helpful in problem diagnosis I am glad to know about it.

Once the top of the rail is clean I do not polished the rails or anything
of that flavor therafter. Simply normal running of trains which is, in my opinion, the best way to
keep the tracks clean. My layout is DCC.

I do all the sodering and ballast beforehand. Weathering is last. I use a mix of
paint , all acryllic for ease of cleaning.

Your milleage may vary




.

[Drew]

I've used pre-weathered rail, (& like someone already mentioned, you have to polish off the weathering before soldeering the rail joints) but I really prefer doing my own weathering...(track is a model too...it HAS to be weathered IMHO)
I always prime the track with a dark Floquil color; either engine black, roof brown, rail brown, grimy black, whatever I have on hand is the determining factor...
(While the prime coat is still wet, I take a cloth & some dio-sol, & clean the rail heads)
When that's dry, I'll go back over everything with some dark brown & black acrylics applied lightly with a brush...
Last but not least, clean the rails with a brite boy

[eightyeightfan1]

88fan then posted about not liking to paint rails, to each his own but he did not say anything about the pre-weathered rail. Then Tetters replied to 88fan about the Floquil pens but said nothing about the pre-weathered rail either.

Question?. Who makes the "pre-weathered" rail? I don't think I've ever seen any?
I have seen the paint pens. Just not from Floquil. I don't think my LHS carries either the pre-weathered rail or the pens.

[Drew]

Micro-Engineering makes both weathered rail for handlaying, & weathered flextrack & turnouts...
They weather the products with their own weathering solution (commercially available) which is a blackening solution that works particularly well on nickle silver.

[nkp_174]

I've not used weathered rail, but I was under the impression that it is difficult to solder with weathered rail...so I wouldn't use it on hand laid turnouts.