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I thought of this while laying some road bed today.
Suppose you have a layout and the tracks look real nice with all the ballast you put down. Then one day you want to redo or do another layout, can the ballast be removed from the tracks and the tracks salvaged to be used again??? Or what if you want to add a turnout to the existing layout to branch off and expand the current layout, can the track and ballast be easily removed to slip in a turnout???
Trust me when I say that I have plenty of experience in this. As many will vouch for, I have redone just about everything (at least twice) on my layout .
Yes, you can reuse your track without a problem, but as with anything you must be gentle. To loosen the ballast, simply apply water and let it soak for awhile. Then you can pull up the track by sliding a putty knife under it. My next step is to run hot water in the bathtub and let the track pieces soak in soapy water. After an overnight soak, rinse with a garden hose or sprayer. You still may have to use a brush to get some of the ballast loose. There have only been a few feet of track that I haven't been able to use and it was because of being too rough with it. NOTE: Where the track has been soldered, I have found it easier to go ahead and cut it at these joints. It is very hard to get them loose without making a mess of things and also clean enough to accept new joiners.
The roadbed is a different story. WS foam will come up if you used white glue and not much of it. Otherwise, it will tend to tear. I'm not sure about cork, but figure the same.
Cool, I figured it might be able to be done. Not too worried about the roadbed, but the track would be nice to be able to salvage if possible, thanks for the info...
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