Rail Brown? Seems Olive Green to Me

[C855B]

I've not painted my track on previous layouts, so the venerable Floquil "Rail Brown" was sort of lost on me, I never paid attention. Now that I'm getting serious about it this time, I started looking into "Rail Brown", obviously matches in other paints as well as the Micro-Mark "Rail Brown". To my eyes, it's not brown at all, but an olive color with gray mixed in. I painted a bit of test track this evening with the Micro-Mark paint after doubting the color, and I'm still not convinced. Just to further extend the benefit of the doubt, I mixed some black in to gray it down, and it's still greenish.

I'm perplexed. Other than the polish on top, obviously, rail always looked dark brown to me, maybe with a hint of grimy gray or rust red. I checked back through my own railfanning pictures with rail both in sun and shade, and it's various shades of brown.

This green stuff is not working for me, and certainly doesn't look like any rail I'm familiar with. Anybody know or have any conjectures about the origin of this odd hue?

[peteski]

Now that you mentioned it, Floquil Rail Brown does seem to have a slightly greenish hue. I never really questioned it.  It has been that color as long as I remember. As to why, I don't know. Probably someone sometime thought that was a good color for weathered, dirty, slightly oily rail?

[AKNscale]

For some reason Scalecoat tie brown is the same way with a little green in it.

[Chris333]

It doesn't look olive compared to olive drab paint. I like it because it makes the rail look dirty. Sometimes I add a little Rust to it to turn it redder.

[Chris333]

Here is straight rail brown on the main and with some rust on the near siding.


This shows why I would paint the rails after ballasting. So the ballast dust doesn't get everywhere.

[DKS]

Real rail comes in a rainbow of colors. I compared Floquil Rail Brown directly with variuos track, and I found a nearly exact match on the old Reading Line in West Trenton, N.J., so I took that as a sign that Floquil got it right--at least under certain circumstances. You can use many of their colors for rail and it would still be right: Rust, Tie Brown, Roof Brown, Tuscan Red, and so on. My favorite trick is to start with Tie Brown for rails and ties, then hit random ties with a light grey wash and others with an India Ink wash to given them variation, then run a rust-colored wash along the rails here and there.

My suspicion is that rail might be slightly olive because of a mixture of rust, dirt and lubricants from the wheels; some heavily-used rail borders on black. Rail that isn't used as much is more ruddy, and disused rail varies from medium rust to dark ruddy brown; I'll often use primer colors for this.

I also like to brush on some powdered chalk around the rails for track that's not maintained as often as usual--the ballast often becomes stained from rust washing off of the rail.



I use more ruddy hues for yard trackage.



Seldom used or disused track could be almost any color.



 

[jpwisc]

I’ve always used PollyScale Roof Brown, it is a little more brown than Rail brown. I’m down to my last bottle. When it runs out, I’ll switch over to Model Master Roof Brown #4884.
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[C855B]

... I found a nearly exact match on the old Reading Line in West Trenton, N.J., so I took that as a sign that Floquil got it right--at least under certain circumstances. ...

Local soil may be a factor, chemistry of the specific rail another. Again, I had never noticed anything like it, so at least I'm not completely crazy.

I had worked out a combination a while back with locally-available Vallejo colors that looked right for my region, German Camouflage Dark Brown for the rails and Chocolate Brown for the ties, but wasn't real confident in the tie color. I'll try that again for maintained mainline ties, and probably go lighter and more towards gray on the ties for "lesser" track.

Speaking of Vallejo, it looked good on the initial test and seemed to survive handling well since the test section has been knocking around on my bench for several months. The Micro-Mark paint I tried last night didn't want to consistently stick to the rail, leaving shiny patches. I guess you get what you pay for.

... This shows why I would paint the rails after ballasting. So the ballast dust doesn't get everywhere. ...

Isn't this what Tomix vacuum cars are for? 

[thomasjmdavis]

On the original question on color- a lot of colors look much different under different lighting.  In the days when Floquil formulated its original colors, they may have adjusted the hue for the much lower color temp (2400K) of common incandescent light fixtures of the 1950s- a greenish paint will look more "brown" under incandescent light than under florescent, most LED, or sunlight.  It was also likely formulated originally for use on brass rail (and assuming a fair amount of thinning) the orange brass color bleeding through may have made it look more brown than it does nowadays over nickel silver rail.

The most realistic rail brown is likely to be 2 or 3 light spray coats of different colors, none of which is necessarily labeled "rail brown"- with the last one being "mud" or "dust" and perhaps some "oxide" on lightly used or poorly maintained rails. And some oil black down the middle of the ties. It's not like there were crews out touching up "Dupont Dulux Rail Brown #7" once a week on anyone's mainline.

[nuno81291]

I had some rail brown I used from the bottle brushed as well as a paint pen I believe. I liked them but would go over with pastels of various tones depending on the feel of main versus industrial etc. After using the bottle I went over to the flat camo spray bombs and have never looked back. I am intrigued by various techniques such as spraying white and using inks oils and pastels to bring color to the ties like Mindheim is doing now. I may do a few test pieces for my new layout before I get to painting track.

Here you see a base of camo brown spray bomb, with various pastels used to color as well as a few dry brushed colors like “mud” and “grime” acrylics.

[John]

I like the cammo colors as well ...   dark brown and OD

[Chris333]

The track peeking out of the corner was painted with tan camo spray and then heavy ink washes. The rails were painted rail brown after.


This On30 track was done the same way.

[coosvalley]

Add me to the list of those who like Camo Brown for trackwork, with rusty highlights added with chalks,,

[Big Train]

Since the demise of Floquil's Rail Brown I've been using Micro Mark #2900 Rail Brown and find the colour works for me.

Here is a photo of Micro Mark #2900 applied to the rails of our corner module. The module is next to a window so the colour you're seeing is how it appears in sunlight.



My only concern with this paint is the lack of adhesion and find it scratches off the rails too easily it seems during the ballasting process.

Recently, I've discovered paint from a company called Mission Models:

https://www.missionmodelsus.com

It's becoming very popular with Armour modellers and recently aircraft modellers because of the paint's unique qualities such as extended airbrush application time before "tip-dry" when used as instructed. And the ability to paint fine lines without a lot of overspray.

I've settled on Mission Models MMP008 Khakibrun RAL 7008 for painting rails and will randomly add several drops of MMP033 NATO Brown when refilling the colour cup



Their future plans include developing range of Railway colours. But based on my limited experience with Mission Model paint so far, I'm a convert.

Hope this helps
Terry

[peteski]

Thanks Terry!  Is the Mission Model paint also a water-based acrylic enamel (like MicroLux paint)? Or is it organic-solvent-based like the old Floquil?