Sleeper Colour

Hi from OZ, Just wondering if anyone out there can recommend a suitable colour to paint sleepers to give them that seasoned wood colour, before I do the rails. Thanks

44211.
Reply to
44211
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"44211" wrote

Railmatch do a paint called *sleeper grime*. It's available in both jars and aerosols.

John.

Reply to
John Turner

LNER Sleepers were teak that's probably the best wood finish to aim for ... does that help? GWR Chocolate and Cream, Midland Red, BR blood,custard and dirt, blue and dirt, green and dirt, chocolate and cream and dirt or just dirt ...

Oh ... that's not what you were after was it :-)

Reply to
Chris Wilson

If you want to do them in one hit, mix black, 25% white, 5-10% rust (red oxide) and a touch of some other colour to suit your preference and prototype location. Station areas tend to be blacker, mainlines tanner, yards rotted leaf yuckier.

Model colours should be lighter than you imagine, hence the percentage of white. Brushing can give the slightly grained appearance of older sleepers.

Reply to
Gregory Procter

Assuming we are talking about the UK The sleepers were pressure treated with creosote, so they would start out dark grey. On lines with diesel traffic the area between the rails accumulated black staining, there seems to have been little of this black staining outside the rails. As the rust is shaken off the rails and brakes a patina of brownish rust settles all over the ballast and sleepers, this seems to have spread outside the rails more than the oil stains I took photographs of the line through my local station over a period of a few years following a complete track renewal and ballast replacement, if I can find them I'll put them up. The wooden sleepers were distinctly black at the start, the ballast and concrete sleepers were almost white. Within a year the track between the rails was rather dark grey (sleepers and ballast), at trhe end of two years the area between the rails was a rather even very dark grey almost black

HTH

Mike

Reply to
Mike

Thanks to all who assisted. I am in the process of planning my next UK layout, so need some good info. Down here we are mainly concrete now. Cheers all,

Reply to
44211

Don't take my previous TIC comment to heart, one serious tip, another poster has suggested his paint mix formula which strikes me as being a very good mix, one thing you might try as a variation is using very pale green instead of white on track that is representing a lightly used or "near end of life" section.

Reply to
Chris Wilson

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