Hi Jabez,

If you already have the tools I think an airbrush will be the most economical. Else people are hand painting the rails.

You can use weathering powders but really only for sleepers.

Remember darker colours will hide stuff and lighter colour will highlight them. Seems obvious but many rails have oversized tie plates or rail anchors so a darker grim colour on this lower part will help disguise them better.

Good luck and have fun!

Best Regards
Lasse

I use Humbrol Enamel 113 ”Rust” on my K track rails. I really like the color in combination with the Merkur trackbed, and the rails are pretty well covered with one round only, without any primer. I paint sections of approx. 50 cm rail using a tiny brush, then immediately remove most of the paint from the rail top using fabric. When the paint is dry, I add some ”Strip Magic” liquid on the rail top and after a few minutes, the residual paint is removed using isopropanol and fabric.

It takes some time, but I find it rewarding. The oversized rails and their joiners seems to ”disappear” a bit...



Before


After

Humbrol 113 for the tracks. Airbrushed, as mentioned before. Rails on points are painted with a fine brush.
As I use K-track, I then apply a black/brown wash over tracks and ballast. Very diluted, and sometimes it needs several washes.
I apply a fine black wash in the center of the rails, in an intent to camouflage the punkos a little.
I also add more black wash in front of signals and other places where a locomotive might be spending more time.

I documented most the process with several photos in the "Me and my layout" section of the forum.

BTW: I also bought one of those Woodland Scenic rust-pens. There are 2 kinds. I bought the most brown and less red of them, but the colour was much too bright (red) for me. Also, I found the application method tedious and troublesome; The pen actually contains liquid paint, and the felt-tip does not allow for as fine an application as a brush.
For the poster who raised concern about the life-span of the felt-tip, I can say that it comes with extra tips.

I agree. That is why so many of us use the Humbrol 113. Although it is called "rust", it is exactly the dull brown colour that I remember from my own commuting to/from Copenhagen during my student/university years.