Learning by mistakes-I think

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Davidfd85

Davidfd85

Member
Well I'm far enough along on my first layout to start putting in ballast, scenery and buildings. It is looking alright but I think and know I've made some mistakes along the way.
First thing I'm seeing is with the foam board, there is a thin layer of plastic over it. I painted it with a brown base color but because I didn't remove the plastic film if it gets rubbed or wet the paint is peeling up. Spreading glue down for grass and dirt I have noticed it beads up. I am going to start removing the film by sections as I move on I hope this works. Should I have removed the film from the start?
The second thing is my fault, when I nailed the track down to the roadbed I used small finish nails and the heads stick up to high, I'm changing them out with small flat head box nails as I go now. I read someplace that after the ballast is glued down that the nails can be removed and the glue and ballast will hold it is place, is this correct?
I'm sure as I go along I will make more mistakes and learn from them and ask more questions.

Thanks.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Yes, removing the film is your best bet.
Atlas offers nails for securing their track. Item #2540 which is a 2oz bag. I use them on my layout and they work very well. They are blackened and blend in pretty well with the ties. If you are using sectional track, then the glue and ballast should be adequate to hold the track in place, but if you are using flex track on your curves then you should use something a little stronger than the white glue or leave the nails in place
 
Thanks Blue, I have and tried the Atlas nails but they were to short and wouldn't go through the roadbed and foam to the plywood, they kept lifting out on me so I went with longer nails. I am using flex track so I will keep swapping them out.

Thanks
 
Ah yes. makes sense. I have plywood as my subroadbed so I forget they wont work as well on foam. I have seen silicone used to adhere the track with long pins to hold it in place until the silicone sets then remove the pins.
 
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