Model Railroading > Staining Ties

I am working on my layout which is fairly large. I have decided to hand lay track in the most visible areas for more authenticity, and have some questions. I bought some stain from Lowe's and was wondering the best way to drop the ties into the stain. I went into my old ladies sock drawer and cut up a pair of her pantyhose. I filled up a leg's worth of ties, dipped em into the stain for a few minutes, dumped out to dry and it turned out ok, but not great.

Can anyone share a secret on how they did it? I don't need to get yet another earful from the wife. LOL, I cut up all her pantyhose and she was torqued when she got up for work, she couldn't find any. Ooops.

Thanks in advance.

PS-Yes I know hand laying is a pain, but if done patiently and correctly, it does look real good. I am happy with what I have done so far.

PPS- It just hit me. Could I lay my ties down and then just spray paint the ties? I thought about that, but if a tie ever chipped, the white wood would show through.

Thanks again.

-Dean

Use an old plastic milk container or big soda bottle. If u use the milk container cut off part of the side of the bottle leaving the handle in place for ez handling. use 2 or three different stain colors to simulate different age ties. For "new" ties use dark and let them soak. It is time consuming but results are excellent and long lasting.

I hand laid the track in my yard. I first glued down the ties where I wanted them in a thin coat of Elmer's White Glue. Once they were dry, I then covered the whole area in stain and then wiped off the excess until I was satisfied with the color. Then I lettge whole area dry completely before laying rail so as to not stain my hands and arms! The color I ended up with is a bit darker then Atlas's code 83 which I used for the rest of the layout. I plan on weathering the track and ties before I ballast to complete the look.

Last year I was at a convention in Valley Forge where a number of modelers had really nailed the tie stain color. They used black leather (or boot) dye thinned with alcohol. I tried this a few weeks ago and it does hold promise. I picked up some Tarrago brand #18 black dye and poured a little in an old bowl and then thinned it with alcohol (can't remember how much). I soaked the ties for a few hours and then dumped them on a paper towel to dry. After placing them on the layout it looked like they needed one more color step so I brushed on some Bragdon dark brown weathering chalk. The chalk dusting only took a few seconds and did the trick.

If you go to the progress photos of my site and scroll to November 1 you can see how they turned out: http://www.lancemindheim.com/progress_photos.htm

Lance
Layout Design, Construction and Track Plan Books
http://www.lancemindheim.com/bookstore.htm

I used a two gallon bucket dumped a gallon of stain in the bucket and used a strainer filled with ties, I checked the color of the ties every so often and when I liked what I saw I just drained the excess stain from the strainer and put the ties on a old towel to dry. Good luck!

I handlaid almost my whole layout, the only exceptions being staging and any tracks that were too difficult to easily and regularly eyeball as I laid them, where I'd instead use ME flex. In my case, I put down ME pre-stained ties in white glue, wait for the glue to dry, sand the tops with a sur-form tool to get an even surface, and then just restain the tops. Much easier than staining everything in advance, since you'll probably want to sand and restain the ties once they're in position on the layout anyway due to height variations.

Joe

Lay the ties unstained and glue them to the roadbed. Once the glue is set spray them with your airbrush. No need to thin just pour the stain in your gun and spray 15lbs should be about right. It will stain your ties and give the road bed (Cork, flexbed, homasote) a brown stain to so if you do not get around to ballasting right away or a chunk if ballast comes out later it will not be as noticeable. You can also buy pre-stained ties from CloverHouse.com which saves the mess. They also use multiple stains so you get a much more varied look to the the ties (older weathered to near new in a random assortment). Make sure you thoroughly clean the airbrush and use it a well ventilated area. The pre-stained ties are a much better answer in my opinion.

Yes, use at least two colors or shades of stain. Lay them out on newspaper to dry.

Micromark makes a tie stain. A grey color and brown color. Once the brown dries it looks real. So does the grey. Of course, different combinations of the two will give different effects. So will different numbers of application. The results are nice.

Well, the clear message I got was use multiple stains. Very genius of you guys.. Thank you.

Now for the method, I am tryuing both at different parts of the layout. I appreciate your responses and so does my wife. No more ripped up pantyhose! Hahaha