If the track is to be unused (as in abandoned siding), that should work.
Many people use some sort of mixture of Floquil Rail Brown and other colors to paint the rail, then clean the railheads as soon as the paint dries (before it hardens too much).
If you want a chemical solution, Micro Engineering sells rail weathering solution which will weather the track. This tis the same stuff they use to weather the weathered track they sell.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I used Floquil Rail Brown paint on my N scale track:
Thank you (and Peter) for your answer. I am familiar with most of the other ways to "rust" and weather track, at least in theory. We recently had a discussion in a German model railroad group where the subject came up and some people thought that Rust-all might look too rough. I don't really think that should be a problem. However, I am pretty sure that using Rust-all might be too much trouble compared to other ways of weathering track.
Rust-All is too rough unless it's a VERY abandoned track lol The chemical weathering that Micro Engineering , as someone else , suggested . looks great. Someone else sells a chemical weathing agent that I have used but I can't recall the name for sure.. I think it's called A- West Weather-It ? I used some of it a couple years ago on some sawmill castings and they looked real good.
I've seen very little painted track that looked decent , so I wouldn't go that route. It can be done but it's a lot of work and requires a number of colors airbrushed to give it the... varigated ?...... look thats needed.
in article snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, Ken Day at snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote on 6/9/06 7:26 PM:
There is a product named "Blacken It" by A-West. It is electrically conductive and work on CLEAN rail and other metals. You must degrease metal first, otherwise you get bubbles where the solution did not contact and thus didn't blacken the metal. I've not used it extensively on rail, but have used it on metal guard rails on turnouts (used n scale track pieces on HO turnouts from Pilz Elite code 83 to replace the plastic guard rails). They look great.
Note that Blacken It will also coat the top of the rail, and since it is a chemical process, not a paint, it just can't be wiped off. I've used a Bright Boy to take some off of various pieces; I don't know if Flitz Metal Polish (also a chemical, but not poisenous process) to remove the black.
Test first pointer to the product page on Walthers:
IIRC, both A-West Blacken-it and Micro Engeneering Rail Weathering Liquid use similar chemistry. I think it is Selenium Dioxide in an acid/alcohol solution.
So, either one should do the trick.
But to add to the Rust-all comments, all the applications I've seen show a fresh, virgin rust. Rails aren't really that color. The mud, grime and oil from the passing trains make the rail color much darker, dirty brown color. Not quite Floquil Rail Brown, but close.
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