PAINTING THE EUGENE DEPOT AND YARD TRACK

 A long-deferred task on my railroad has been painting track in the Eugene depot area.  My most recent operating session left the yard in decent shape to be cleared.  Summer weather also provided a great opportunity to leave the basement windows open with fans running for ventilation.  An added incentive is that I have begun working toward providing a platform between the mainline and the WP Siding directly in front of the depot.  I needed to paint the track in this area before placing the platform on a more permanent basis.

 

The first task prior to painting was to remove all of the rolling stock and structures from areas to be painted.  I backed one train all the way around to Oakridge and then pulled each of the classification yard tracks.  My mainline is full of trains from the bridge at Springfield all the way to Oakridge.

 

Eugene Depot and Classification Yard cleared for painting.

 

The next step was to mask the railheads.  My prior track painting efforts did not mask the rail leading to a bit tougher job removing paint.  The key for any track paint project is to remove the paint while wet if possible.  A recent video by Mike Polsgrove (former DCC columnist for Model Railroader Magazine) suggested using bar soap on the railheads.  I decided to give this idea a try.  

 

Railheads masked by rubbing a bar of soap over the rails.  Notice the shards of soap all over the place.

 

As seen in the photo, one issue quickly emerged for the soap I was using.  The rails cut into the soap bar and left shards of soap all over the track.  Further, soap shards embedded under the railheads providing undesirable masking.  My solution was to run a toothpick along the rail sides under the railhead.  This pulled the shreds away from the rail where all of it could be vacuumed away.  

 

I then painted the track using several colors of Rustoleum flat spray paint.  I used the earth tone “camouflage” paint for the main line and associated tracks.  For secondary tracks like the yard and industry spurs, I used a brown “chalked” paint with splotches of flat gray primer.  I began with the industry spurs towards the backdrop.  This was followed by the depot tracks: the Mainline, WP Siding, and the “City Yard” tracks.  I worked in stretches of three to five feet at a time, quickly using a piece of sheet cork to rub the paint off after the paint spray.  This took the majority of the paint off.  The soap masking was fairly successful and made wiping off the paint much easier than prior “dry” efforts.  When I finished the depot and industry tracks, I further cleaned the railheads using a Walthers “Brite Boy”™.  This is one good use for these abrasive pads.

 

Depot tracks painted and railheads cleaned using a piece of sheet cork.

 

With the tracks furthest from the aisle painted, I then turned to the yard tracks.  I chose to use the dark brown “camouflage” paint for the switch ladders, reflecting a higher maintenance standard.  I painted the body tracks brown with the gray splotch overspray.  Once again, I worked in stretches of three to five feet at a time and quickly followed up with the cork pad rail cleaning.

 

Eugene Depot and Classification Yard tracks painted.  The beginning of the passenger platform between tracks in front of the depot is seen as the strip of black styrene.

 

After the paint fumes cleared, I began working each of the switches.  Some switch points hang up on the painted ties requiring some “TLC” with a small file or sanding device.  This process found two switch machines needing replacement due to rough treatment of manual throw rods over the past couple of months.  That effort will be reported upon sometime in the future.