More Progress

Lately, I've taken the opportunity to write several articles for the various magazines and so far one, and I hope more, will be published.  In the meantime I have been making some small progress on the railroad.

The Cheat River Grade backdrop has been painted a sky blue while I decide on a photo backdrop for this location.  I've also spray and brush painted the rails on the grade as you can see from the following photos.

I spray painted the entire flex track, rails and all , with Floquil Rail Tie Brown to kill the unnatural chocolate-brown color of the Atlas O flex track..  The rail tie brown has good adhesion to the nickle silver rails and prepares then for the next step.  After a couple of days for through drying, I went back and brush painted the rail using the technique that I have described previously in this blog see Weathering Track.

I think that the rail looks great with its tops painted in this realistic rust color, but the trains will not run on it in this condition.  Rather than sand the tops of the rails clean as I have done in the past, I wrapped a towel around a piece of 2x3 and wetted it with a product called "Goof Off".  Goof Off is a remover for dried-on paint.  I then rubbed the tops of the rail with this pad to remove the paint from the tops of the rail. 

The advantage of this technique over sanding is less dust and the rail is not scored by the sandpaper, thereby keeping it smoother and less likely to pick up dirt.