Hi, have put my track temporarily down ad am about to start permanently fixing it. Does anybody have any last minute suggestions before I'm totally committed? Also, does track have to be soldered together - have seen references to this, but not sure if it's a "must do"...... cheers Gary
Track does not have to be soldered....it is not a must do. Allot of people swear by soldeirng track and it certainly does help with electrical connectivity. However, on some layouts, I have seen extensive track creep due to the expansion and contraction of track due to tempature change. Soldered track does not allow for much expanision or contraction where if the track is not soldered, more movement is permitted. My preference is to not solder track (The HO club that I am a member of does not have any soldered track and has been in place for years). But I am a strong beliver in lots of power feeders. Are you gluing the track directly to the foam? Any specific reason you have elected not to use any roadbed? Just wondering
Hi Matt, going to lay direct to foam. My local club said bed was not necessary since this foam (high density) apparently reduces noise as well as road bed. Going to attach track using a thin layer of caulking compound.... cheers Gary
Yep that will work, I was just curious. The only reason roadbed may be "needed" if one want to have the look of well maintained right of way main line track. But, for yard, and branch track, gluing straight to the foam works great. It is all a matter of preference. Yes, the foam base will deaden noise transfer. I like the layout by the way....keep us updated when you can.
Your layout looks great and I'll enjoy seeing its development. In re soldering, I don't and do not see any reason to solder. Trains run quite well in all locations and I seldom have connectivity breaks. I minimize power drops, finding that most track segments between switches end up being quite short anyway and because necessary isolation, frog power, etc. requires a power drop anyway. I have one mainline run that is well over 40' and it has one drop. Careful observation shows that the last 4' or so shows power loss (not much, though.) I will add one drop to that section of track. Not a priority, however. My rule for wiring is to keep the connections to the main bus straightforward, easy to test and easy to see. I can point to a track above the board, see its drop below the board, and see that drop linked to the main bus. If there's a problem, easy to solve. The advantage of my technique is that I can lift track, replan track, and get going again w/o much difficulty. I like changing track runs! Good luck.
That looks fun. kind of a double main version of a familiar book plan. Track glue- I once used liquid nails. A trainboard member advised me not to. I didn't listen. Lots of reasons for white glue as opposed to permanent glues. Namely you can recycle track if you end up scrapping it later. You think everything is ok and then you realize something would be better another way. I tend to find that structures often require track to be be moved. White glue allows for soaking loose the track. Trackwork always seems good till you start doing scenery and then bugs crop up and you need to be able to fiddle with track. Small layouts don't require a lot of wire drops. Ovals of that size, maybe two per loop but you can get away with just one each if you are doing DCC.
thanks for the advice, unfortunately I had already started sticking my track down with caulk...... I did make a mistake or two, and found that taking up a bit of track wasn't too hard. May have to put a few extra power connections in as some of my atlas track joiners were a bit loose and my attempts to tighten them inevitably led to them being destroyed. Have to admit that the Atlas track so far hasn't impressed me much, the turnouts are going to need work as my Kato train seems to derail over a couple of them. The club I've joined uses Peco exclusively on its layout, and I gotta say that it seems much better made than the Atlas. If I were doing it again, I'd pay the extra for the Peco stuff. Should have it all fully laid in a couple of days and will post pics then... cheers Gary
