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This may sound like a silly question but can I use folded duct tape (double sized) and tape the tracks onto the wood. I want something that is easy to attach and disassemble. I've found that nailing the tracks to the wood in the end is a pain to take them out.
Track nails will not hold track to foam roadbed...its to spongy, and pushing down to be able to grab the nailhead will most likely leave you with bent rail...
Yea I got that...have you ever experimented with it??? Do you realize that the foam roadbed is alot more spongy then the foam board? How is it gonna hold track nails, especially only being 3/16" thick???
Get nails long enough to go into your benchwork... that's what I did and works great for me. Gives a little extra noise though, the sound travels through the nails into the wood...
I tried double sided carpet tape to hold my track to foam board, and then glued ballast over it. It worked for a few years, but eventually the tape lost its adhesiveness. The track and ballast separated, along with the tape, from the foam board underneath. Until I rip up all the track and ballast and tape, and re lay the track I can't run my trains.
So I'm guessing you'll have the same experience with the duct tape on wood.
Well i just assumed that anyone would realize that the nail would go into the table top. Driving a nail isnt rocket science. The track on my layout is put down that way, and i can assure you that it works just fine.
Im pretty sure that this means he doesnt want to use nails....I dont really understand how you idea of nailing thru roadbed to plywood makes sense to what the OP is saying...
I dont use nails...its to toy like and when I lay track it is permenant and it gets glued down...
This may sound like a silly question but can I use folded duct tape (double sized) and tape the tracks onto the wood. I want something that is easy to attach and disassemble. I've found that nailing the tracks to the wood in the end is a pain to take them out.
I'm sorry, but the entire concept of using duct tape to secure track to the layout table with the goal of making it easily removable sounds like the most illogical approach to this problem I can think of. It would ultimately prove unsatisfactory no matter how it is approached.
HO model railroading is not like setting up Lionels, where one often does anticipate rearranging the trackplan. In scale modeling one is expected to commit his trackplan to paper first and then critique it over and over making improvements until settling on the design that works the best. IF one still has some minor doubts about certain areas when track laying does begin, there are manufacturers that offer self-sticking foam roadbed that will serve as an appropriate method for placing and potentially relocating the trackage.
. In scale modeling one is expected to commit his trackplan to paper first and then critique it over and over making improvements until settling on the design that works the best. IF one still has some minor doubts about certain areas when track laying does begin, there are manufacturers that offer self-sticking foam roadbed that will serve as an appropriate method for placing and potentially relocating the trackage.
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Whille I have no doubt that duct tape isn't going to work well if at all, as T.E. Lawrence once said "there are still a lot of roads to Damascus and it is a beautiful city"
I think the approach that "one is expected to commit..." may be perfectly true for many people, but some people like to watch trains run as soon as possible. I did spend some time, not a lot with a club in Santa Fe and after all the talk over 18 months found that I was only one of three people out of about 18 who actually had track on the table. They were doing something very different than I was doing.
Even now in New Hampshire, half of my layout is on the table with a trestle to no where at the top of the helix. I know the general plan for where it will go and come back but it is in my head, having laid down enough benchwork to allow for flexibility if things got tight. That track will get laid, that yard will get built as will a helix back down but it will happen with my son who doesn't come home often enough anymore to do it in a hurry. For me Damascus will be found on a slow meandering road. It will avoid duct tape but it will still be slow and I don't quite know what it will look like. Sometimes I may miss a turn and have to double back. The Journey is wonderful though and the journey is my pursuit.
or are you gluing the 2 pieces together?