For those who did not use a foam base, did you predrill holes in to the plywood for the tacks or just hammer them in? Also, I seen somewhere, someone mention to just buy 1/2" #19 tacks at the hardware big box store. I found no such animal at the local Menards. Is there a generic nail/tack that is basically the same as the Atlas track nails?
I keep an assortment of track spikes and multiple lengths of very small brads at hand. Normally just using HO track spikes. Have simply used a jewelers hammer and a flat nosed punch for many years. No pre-drilling. Careful taps. No big swings at the nail.
I don't know if Atlas has changed the material or size of their nails but I seem to be bending more of them these days than I used to. Lately, when I use nails I have been predrilling the holes with a drill bit smaller than the nail so it will hold tight, but since I glue my track in place I use plastic pushpins to hold the track until the adheasive sets up. I also now use small screws that I purchased from trainaidsa.com that have a phillips head. They hold good but you still have to drill a pilot hole.
I have always used Atlas track nails, no pre-drilling. As Boxcab sez, careful taps with a small tack or jeweler's hammer. I also use a nailset when making the last few taps. Menard's website shows 1/2" brads here: http://www.menards.com/main/p-2235824-c-8757.htm but you can see in the pictures the nailhead is sort of a barrel shape, not the rounded convex shape of the Atlas track nail. I would think a brad like this would be more noticable. You could get 1/2" flat head nails but the heads on those nails is pretty large - again, more noticeable I would think. My 2 cents... George V.
TRACK NAILS???? What for? Never used them. When you are hammering the nail in, you have a good chance of driving the nail in TOO DEEP and causing the track to change gauge. Attach your track to the roadbed using ACRYLIC LATEX CAULK. Easy to do and you don't take the chance of warping the track.
I'll give you my reason. In spite of my best thoughts and plans I usually find something to change! Sometimes a track switch to move, or a siding or something, and the track nails (and brads in the cork roadbed) make changes easy. Last year I did try latex caulk on a section of track and found that: 1) For me, the setup time was longer than I wanted to deal with, either using temporary nails, pushpins or weights. 2) The track really didn't adhere to the cork roadbed that well and pulled loosed in a couple of spots. I re-did the section using track nails. Regarding the possibility of setting the nail too deep - yep, that can happen. A small pry bar and needle nose pliers can fix it. Another reason I like track nails is to fix the alignment. A tangent might get a bit off in spite of using a straightedge or a curve may be a little off. A few taps sideways on the nailheads with nailset puts it in alignment. After the scenery is done I doublecheck the alignment before ballasting. But, it's just my method that works for me and as we all know, ask 100 MRR-ers how they do things and get 100 answers! George V.
