mounting track?

[Joe]

Ok I am going to purchase a 4 foot by 8 foot board of styrafoam for foundation. My questions are:

1) How to I attach it to the plywood base?

2) Should I still use cork? If so how do I put that down?

Thanks.
-Joe

 

[BigRailNut]

I would suggest Liquid Nails to attach the foam to the plywood. Maybe use the same for the corks. I used good old Elmers white glue...

 

[Joe]

Ok so
liquid nails to attach foam...
and elmers glue to attach cork?

 

[joem5127]

I used Liquid Nails (the foam safe kind) to attach the foam to the plywood and Elmer's carpenter glue to attach the cork to the foam. I also glued my track down with the Elmer's glue, just don't get any under the turn outs.

 

[pcarrell]

I'm a big fan of latex caulk. I use it for virtually everything (track to roadbed (I use rope caulk for roadbed - it's nice and quiet and works REAL well.....cheap too!), roadbed to suroadbed, foam to plywood, everything). Get the cheap stuff and make sure it doesn't attack foam. Use a putty knife to spread it real thin (you don't want it coming up between the ties) and then grab a few old MRR magazines and set them on top. Now go have a nice relaxing dinner and when you come back a lot of times the caulk is holding well enough to make a test run. Once you're satisfied, set the mags back and come back in the morning. By that time you can run trains to your hearts content. It goes pretty quick once you get the hang of it. I laid a 4 track staging yard (15' long) and a reverse loop in about 30-40 minutes.

I tried liquid nails and didn't like it because once it dries if you want to make a change you destroy the track and the surrounding scenery in the process of removal. Also, liquid nails dries hard, so it amplifies sound. Caulk doesn't dry hard so I think the sound level is better.

Whith latex caulk all you do is slip a putty knife between the rails and the roadbed (or roadbed / subroadbed or hatever) and gently pry up. The rails come up undamaged and completely reusable. Almost my entire staging yard on the layout I'm building now is made of reused rail.

 

[UP2CSX]

Ditto with Phillip on the caulk. It's cheaper, more flexible, cleans up easier, holds about as well as Liquid Nails, has no odor, and it's removeable should you need to change things. No downside that I can see.

 

[pcarrell]

No downside that I can see.

Well, there is a downside.

You can only get it at WalMart, your neighbors garage from leftover projects, Meijer, Home Depot, Lowes, Ace Hardware, the corner grocery store, Kroger, the local drug store, Save-On, Piggly Wiggly (I think), probably your own garage, your friends house, or virtually any retail outlet on the planet that carries any kind of home improvement products.

Provided that you can find one of those near you, you're home free!