Ballasting and painting track

[doctorwayne]

In my opinion, there are a couple of reasons to not spray paint track, although you're right about it being fast, Gus.
My main objection is that any over-spray (and there's always some) ends up as dust - dust which will continue to haunt your efforts to keep your track, and even the room, clean. The only time I've ever cleaned my track is after ballasting or applying scenery nearby. Spraying is also difficult if you have some otherwise finished areas near the track, necessitating removal or masking. It would also, I'm guessing, be difficult to paint the normally-unseen side of the rails of an around-the-room layout - if it were me doing the painting, I'd need to wear protective clothing. Why paint something which you can't normally see, you ask? Well, digital cameras make it easy to place the camera on the layout and take photos from what are otherwise impossible viewing angles - angles which often reveal things normally unseen.
Brush painting is an activity that can be done any time a few spare minutes present themselves: got 10 minutes before suppertime? Ample time to paint a few feet of track, re-cap the paint and rinse out the brush. Even painting a large layout in this manner gets it done without allowing it to become tedious. I was surprised, actually, to find how relaxing this type of activity can be, as it involves almost no mental input. Also, you're more likely to quit when you've "had enough", since clean-up is so simple. If you've gone to the trouble to fire-up your airbrush, not to mention masking where required, the tendency is to "make the session worthwhile". Then, even airbrushing becomes tedious.
I currently have about 190' of mainline in service, counting staging where the rail is not painted. So that's about 175', plus passing sidings and industrial spurs: at a guess, about 275' of track in total, with both sides of both rails painted. It was neither tedious, nor did it take an inordinate amount of time to complete.

Of course, like most stuff in our hobby, there are few absolutely right or wrong ways to manage this task, merely recommendations and choices.

Here are some views from "the wrong side of the tracks":










Wayne