I have started a new layout and I have one section that would have a foam base. Its a large flat area for small town. Anyway I have read that you can’t nail down you track after you have the raod bed in place because foam will not hold.
Any way i got to playing around and came up with this. I first drew the track center lines on the Foam. I took my Dremel tool with the router attachment. I bought a 3/8" bit and put it in the dremel tool. My first try was with 1/8" balsa but I think i will move to 1/4" the nails would hold better, but the method is the same… I extended the bit out 1/8" and I also glued a rear guide so it would be easier to stay straight. The hard part is getting started due to the guide. But once started it worked really well. I then glued the balsa into the Groove. Now you will be able to use nails to hold track in place… This took about 3 minutes to do… You can even do this to the woodland scenic risers…
Just use clear caulk. Adhesive caulk works a bit better.
Just put a thin layer down and lay the track. Use form tacks like the woodland scenic ones to hold the track in place while it dries. You can also put the track bed down with the same stuff.
That was an awful lot of work (and probably mess - I used a router bit on my previous layout to cut recesses to mount my Tortoise switch motors fromt he top, and were it not for holdign the nozzle of the shop vac in one hand while using the Dremel with the other, it would have been like a pink snowstorm), when you simply could have used caulk. All my roadbed and track is glued to the foam (my entire layout uses foam board) with cheap caulk. Little mess, no fuss, it’s secure, yet can be easily pried off to make changes. This is my second layout using foam base and caulk. I may make some changes next time, but the fastening will still be caulk.
Yep. This is a classic case of devising a method that is a lot more work than it needs to be. I guess, if there is some reason you just absolutely have to use nails and foam together, than there’s nothing wrong with the OP’s suggestion.
For my time and money, though, I’ll just use latex adhesive caulk. Da. Done.
I’ve had trouble with hot glue, both with those annoying strings getting on everything, and with getting too much glue in one spot. Unlike caulk, it sets too fast to spread well.
Ah… You don’t have to spread it. just leave it in a puddle and set track base into it. The Strings, well that’s another story. if you let them set-dry- harden whatever, they will break off easyly . You’ll get less of them with practice…Mike
I agree, but why router the foam to inlay wood only to place roadbed/ track. If you did this for tunouts as well as radiused track, why not just glue (caulk) down the wood (roadbed) to the foam. This way you can handlay or spike the flex down. Seems to be a lot of work and overkill. But of coarse just caulk it all down- no nails nec.
It comes in a variety of colors and costs only $2/tube at Home Depot or Lowe’s.
I use it on:
foam → foam
foam → cork
cork → cork
cork → track
foam → wood
wood → wood
foam → styrene
styrene → styrene
etc.
All you need is a thin layer. It starts setting up after 45 minutes. Cure time is overnight but I often let it go for 24 hours. In order to ensure that things are flat I generally lay bricks on top.
I’ve been using this stuff for years and it holds VERY well. If you ever decide to change something (e.g. track work), all you need is a stiff, broad putty knife and some gentle prying. The other plus is that there are no nasty smells or chemicals like with the other adhesives.
Actually Odie might be on to something. This could help with sound reduction. From a building perspective I love track on foam but I don’t like the noise. Doing something like this (maybe a litte wider) could help reduce or mute the sound. I’d be curious to hear about the results.
As others have mentioned, I’m becoming more and more fond of adhesive caulk for a variety of uses. It will certainly work fine with the track. My only concern is that on occasion I find I want to change the track route slightly and caulk is a little harder to remove. I still use caulk to attach cork to the foam. For the track itself I prefer a very thin layer of white glue. White glue is surprisingly strong and it doesn’t take much. The advantage of holding the track in place with the white glue is that it’s easy to pop the track up later if you change your mind by dampening the glue. The white glue works well also if you just want a small alignment change, say 1/8" or so. Dampen the glue, re-align the track and pin it in place, and allow the glue to re-harden. If you are 100% certain you will have no alignment changes the caulk is fine. Ultimately, it will be the ballast that provides the ultimate bond.
The caulk easily releases with a putty knife, and is easily removed from the track with a rubber eraser. At least that is the case with the DAP clear that I use.
And…I’ve found that it actually comes up cleaner than glue because glue dries hard but caulk remains flexible. As mentioned before, a broad putty knife and some gentle prying is all you need to lift the track up.
