Track Laying

[NWCanuck]

Just wondering what people use to lay their track and turnouts with. I have a 1" extruded foam base with cork roadbed. Do most people glue the roadbed down and then nail the track down, or do you guys glue everything. I have seen Model Railroader use silicone spread out with a putty knife for the cork roadbed and track.

I was talking to another guy who was saying that if you glue everything down and change your mind or ever want to reuse your track you are SOL. I would think that once you have laid the ballast and glued it down the point is moot. I could see his point especially with the Code 83 turnouts at $22 CDN a piece.

 

[weekendrailroader]

Most of my track is laid onto the good ol' flat wood tabletop, so I just nail everything down, both track and cork roadbed. However, for a section that I'm currently working on (with foam as the base) I'll probably just glue the track and the roadbed down.

 

[hamltnblue]

Actually if you just lay the track on roadbed and ballast with thinned glue you won't have a problem. When the glue dries with the ballast the track will stay down with it. You don't have to glue the track separately. If you have to pull some up for repairs or to change the layout, the glue with ballast pulls off very easy. It doesn't have to be totally clean because you'll probably be ballasting it when you use it on the next layout. If you don't like the option just consider that the ballast, glue and scenery around a 3 foot section of flex track is probably much more expensive than the 5 bucks for the section of track. I know it was in my case.

 

[NWCanuck]

consider that the ballast, glue and scenery around a 3 foot section of flex track is probably much more expensive than the 5 bucks for the section of track. I know it was in my case.

Yeah I guess I never looked at it this way.

 

[Lateral-G]

Just wondering what people use to lay their track and turnouts with. I have a 1" extruded foam base with cork roadbed. Do most people glue the roadbed down and then nail the track down, or do you guys glue everything. I have seen Model Railroader use silicone spread out with a putty knife for the cork roadbed and track.

I was talking to another guy who was saying that if you glue everything down and change your mind or ever want to reuse your track you are SOL. I would think that once you have laid the ballast and glued it down the point is moot. I could see his point especially with the Code 83 turnouts at $22 CDN a piece.

My sub-roadbed is 1/2" ply. On top of that my roadbed is curve-able homabed from California Roadbed which is glued in place with Elmers yellow carpenter glue. I use ME flextrack that is silicone adhered (once the homabed has been prepped and painted AND trains have been run to make sure there are no problems). I use FastTracks turnouts that in turn are silicone adhered once they have been tested, wired and work perfectly.

This method has worked very well for me. No need for spikes.

-G-

 

[UP2CSX]

I use god old latex caulk for track. As has been said, you only need a small amount to hold flex track curves in alignment until you ballast. Once you ballast and use the glue/water mixture, the track will be firmly fixed in place. What I like about the latex caulk is that lifting it with a putty knife will usually make a clean break with the roadbed comared to silicone, which usually rips up pieces of the roadbed along with the track.

 

[Elma & Contour R.R.]

Hi there NW Canuck, regarding your Code 83 turnouts, why would you ever want to glue them down??? In averything that I have read you only nail down the track coming into and out of the turnout, leaving the turnout itself to float on the road bed. That way the movable mechanism doesn't bind. Try it, it works for me.

Elma and Contour R.R. in Manitoba.

 

[Gino]

Nailing or Gluing

I nailed track, but if I had it to do over again I would glue. Too tight and the track gets pulled down, too lose and the alignment doesn't hold, and one sloppy swing of the hammer and the ties are broke or the rail is bent. Silicone seems like it should work well.

 

[quadk]

I glue my roadbed and track both down with Elmers white glue. I have never had a problem when I go back to ballast with it loosening up or moving on me when I wet it down to glue the ballast.
The one thing that is nice about using Elmers glue is if you want to change that track or just tear it up you can wet it all down really good and wait a few minutes. Then just take the end of a putty knife or an old butter knife and stick it under the ties and pop it right up. You can also reuse your track and turnouts this way. After you have it removed clean off the excess ballast and take it to the sink with warm water and clean off the rest of the ballast and glue, good as new then.
I also cut all of my track with a razor saw every scale 39' and bend and twist it before I lay it. This gives that wavy look and makes the engines and cars rock back and forth like you see on non welded rail. When I'm laying the track then I keep running a wobbly wheel boxcar back and forth over the track to make sure it sits level enough so I don't get derailments.

This is a picture of the town of Mountain View on my layout I'm building. You can see what I'm talking about with the rail.

In this picture if you look to the right towards the depot you can see the wavy rail.

 

[Elma & Contour R.R.]

Nice looking layout, I see what you mean about the wavy track.* Now I have a question for you, how the heck do you reach all the way to the back of your layout to doo the scenenicking.* It looks like it is about 4 ft. front to back, my arms arn't that long. Like you my system runs around the outside of a 12 x 14 room with a door on one corner and a closet in another. I would love to have a 4ft. all the way round but I think I am stuck with a dog bone with 4ft each end and 2 ft. in the rest and a 3 ft. 6in. island off the centre. forming an* "E" shape.Regards, Elma & Contour RR. Canada.

 

[Elma & Contour R.R.]

BTW Ken, interesting name for a Railroad, Pilar Valley, I would have thought you would have wanted your tracks to be all level.....

 

[quadk]

Nice looking layout, I see what you mean about the wavy track.* Now I have a question for you, how the heck do you reach all the way to the back of your layout to doo the scenenicking.* It looks like it is about 4 ft. front to back, my arms arn't that long. Like you my system runs around the outside of a 12 x 14 room with a door on one corner and a closet in another. I would love to have a 4ft. all the way round but I think I am stuck with a dog bone with 4ft each end and 2 ft. in the rest and a 3 ft. 6in. island off the centre. forming an* "E" shape.Regards, Elma & Contour RR. Canada.

It's quite a reach. It's about 3' wide at it's widest point straight on. If you reach way to the very back corner it's about 4' good eyes you have. I have long arms, I'm about 6'4" tall so it works pretty good. I have to stand on a stool though as this level is pretty high to have enough room for the second level under it. The second level will work perfect to sit in a rolling office chair.

 

[quadk]

BTW Ken, interesting name for a Railroad, Pilar Valley, I would have thought you would have wanted your tracks to be all level.....

My wife's middle name is Pilar.

I don't think I know what you mean about having all the tracks level. The height of the roadbed they sit on?

 

[jackn2mpu]

What I'm doing on my current HO layout is as follows:
Layout base is 1/2 inch furniture grade plywood on box grid frame.
Midwest cork roadbed held down with hot-melt glue for straight and curves and pre-made cork blocks for turnouts.
I'm using Atlas code 83 which has the holes partially drilled through the back of the ties on the flex track and turnouts. I drill through the holes with a small drill bit, then I place the track on top of the cork roadbed. I then take a Yankee push drill with a diameter smaller than the track nails I use and drill down through the holes in the track through to the wood underlayment beneath. I then secure the track down with the track nails long enough to go through the track/roadbed combo and into the plywood. I use a nailset to just tap the nails down to the tops of the ties so the track isn't distorted. What this does is allow me to make changes if needed to the track and allow me to run trains without having the track wandering all over the place before it gets ballasted. After ballasting I remove the nails before final weathering and the track doesn't move.

One other trick I do is to file a small groove under the turnout throwbar so when I ballast and glue things down the tie bar doesn't sieze up but you still have ballast adhered down.