I'm about to glue down my track, but my atlas intructions tell me to nail down my tracks? I'm still leaning on glueing since it's a easier. Is that the only reason to glue and not nail?
The answer is "yes" as far as I'm concerned. I run a bead of glue, lay the track and then as soon as it is "set" enough to let go of, or move vices from, I tack it down. My N layout was on foam so I was able to use long straight pins as nails...easy peasy
Nailing track down is the "old way." It goes back to when most track was hand-laid, (on wood or homasote roadbed) before commercial flex-track was available. Over the years, gluing has become much more popular, especially on foam where nails don't hold. Gluing has the advantage of holding the track much more securely in all areas, instead of just where you've put nails. Having done both I think you'll be happier with gluing.
I have done both in the past and actually like to "nail" my track down with sewing pins. I use a pin vice to drill holes in the ties on the flat sections and on the outer edges on super-elevated curves. This way I can adjust the track surface to make up for any inconsistancies in the roadbed. Once the balasting job is finished, I remove the pins and the ballast and glue holds it all in place. I've found this works well if I ever have to replace a section of track. Soaking the ballast makes it easy to remove what needs to be replaced.
pga7602: Use glue and common pins to glue your track. The pins will hold the track in position while the glue dries.
I asked this same question a long time ago and I decided to glue everything down. I did have to go back and nail down the ties at the turnouts because the track height and alignment was changing at the gaps. I had lucked out because I had plywood under the cork. I don’t know what I would have done if it was 2” foam. I also had an 11” Radius reverse loop made out of flex which I had to nail down at the edge because of spring tension force of the rails.
I've found this to be the most reliable way to hold track down. Of course this is only 'till the cheap clear silicone caulk dries. Brian
The wine bottle route is great. Glue with pins to hold it in place works great. Also, when you put down the ballast, you will have extra hold-down strength from the ballast /glue mixture.
Glue and whine the tracks into place? One bottle short? Hahaha and still LOL 'ing. I agree with the gluing your track in place. I use any brand of "Gap Filling CYA" cyanoacrylate. The tough part is removing the roadbed and track when it comes time to remodel a section of the layout. There are other adhesives on the market. Some that will allow you to take the track up without damaging the goods.
One works up a powerful thirst building a railroad. Heck, it was after 4 o'clock and the danged caulk was dry enough..:tb-biggrin: :tb-biggrin::tb-biggrin: Brain
My personal preference is contact cement. Depending on what you are working on, choose solvent or latex contact cement. Of course latex for working on foam. A quart can was $10 the last time and it has been through at least two layout builds. Apply it with those cheap, disposable foam brushes to both the roadbed and the track. Keep an old hairdryer handy and go over the glued surfaces with the dryer to acclerate the flashover time of the glue. Don't rush it, once the glue has flashed and turned clear, press the track down as you go and it sticks like double face tape. You can still pry it up and readjust one or two times before it is no longer usable. As Rick, I keep a bottle of medium or thick CA and some kicker handy for those stubborn places that just don't want to stick.
Glue and pin. Thin out the glue to 50-50 with water. It will stay in place and is easier to lift off when rewet and using a putty knife. The below picture might be overkill, but cork to subsurface and afterwards repeat with track
I guess I do both.......I prefer to nail my track down initially. For me there's always a kink here or a gap there, and nothing is more frustrating than getting your track laid and then finding problems you didn't see. Most glue can be "removed" but if you have to pull up track that's been glued you have to clean up the glue residue from both the track and roadbed before it can be relaid. So I nail my track, run it for a while till I'm sure it's working properly, then ballast. The glue from the ballast does a good job of glueing the track down as well as the ballast if you're using cork roadbed. After that, I sometimes pull the nails, sometimes I don't.
Old School versus New School Some of us are still old school in how we build our layouts. As with MrlDave, I prefer the old school method of nailing my track in place before gluing. And I couldn't agree more with the idea of: Seeing how my track work is going to perform before I glue it down. If you go to my albums on RailImages and check out the pictures of my most recent construction. One thing becomes apparent. I use wood as my sub-roadbed, topped off with cork roadbed glued and nailed and then I temporarily nail the track down. The nails will eventually be removed followed by ballast. I tend to err on the side of having permanency when it comes to my track. I pretty much know what I want when I start building. Caution: If you are a newbie and you like to move things around...a lot. I need to warn you: If I need to add a switch later or the track is damaged in a move it does require a dremel cutting tool and chisel to remove it. I have no problem with that but you might. Foam is a excellent sub road bed. If using foam you can accomplish the same thing with mom's sewing pins. I've seen some excellent foam based layouts that operate with little to no problems. Oh, should you visit my RailImages construction albums... yes, you will still see plenty of nails still in place. Give me a chance and they will eventually disappear. My two cents worth. Have fun!
I have not read all the replies yet, but I learnded the hard way NOT to glue down my track. I have changed things so many times and when I first strted I glued down the track, that only makes hard to remove and I ended up with more junk track than I really wanted. So now I just use small nails to hold it in place. Another lesson learned, DO NOT soder your turnout in place, if you want to male a changed later you end up with ruined switches. So now I only soder the flex track, and leave the switches be. The layout I have been building now IS NOT the layout I'll end up with, so I'm not glueing anything down right now. Best not to glue your track down, tell your happy with it, then only let the glue you use to hold the ballest in place also hold the track in place. If you know that some time in the future your be changing your layout or even Moving, you won't end up tossing out a bunch of track.
BarstowRick: First off, I have 2" foam on top of a hollow door, so your idea of using "mom's pins" will work for me. I get your point of verifying before glueing, so I'm going to go with pinning down. Can you please elaborate on "mom's sewing pins"? My "mom's sewing pins" have no heads on it. Just a hole for the thread to go through, so i'm not sure how this would hold down a track and keep it from coming up vertically. Are there special pins? Link or picture would help.
Just when I thought I could build a layout fairly cheaply... Now I have to go out and buy a case of wine to hold down my track. Dang, I thought decoders were gonna cost me an arm and a leg. Also, does it matter what the vintage of the wine is? Do french or Italian wines make for better track?
When I was growing up, they called them macrame pins. You can find them at many hobby stores. You can also get them online at all the hobby vendors... hobby lobby, horizon hobby, etc. Any sewing store. They're also referred to as "T" pins. Here's a link with pictures. Don't buy from this link, though... they're expensive here.. was just the first image I saw in a google search. I got a box of 100 from a hobby shop for 3 bucks. http://www.macramesuperstore.com/craft-cord/Steel-T-Pins__TPINS.aspx EDIT: Here's another link... this pricing is more like what I would expect: http://www.enasco.com/product/2500120
