Has anyone here ever used CVT Ties? Is there anything special or different about installing them? Did you glue the sections together before installing on your layout?
Any help or suggestion would be appreciated.
Thanks.
I thought the CV ties strips to be a good idea when they were first released, and intended to try them when I finally got around to building a partial second level of my layout. In the interim, a friend gave me a couple of packages of the tie strips, along with tie strips for a couple of turnouts and a CV turnout kit. There wasn’t enough for what was needed, but I managed to pick up a lot more of the tie strip at a hobbyshop which was closing.
The tie strip is cemented together before laying it - without rail, it’s extremely flexible.
The tie strip from my friend was the 8’6" mainline ties, and while it looks very realistic, I found it very tedious to affix the rails in the manner shown in the instructions, which suggest using a nailset (sans hammer) to peen-over the moulded-on rail anchors and spike heads, all of which are to-scale. However, I did so on a 12’ long passing siding and was disappointed when a train did the HO scale equivalent of rolling a rail. I’m not sure of the exact cause, as the ties are self-gauging and neither the locomotives nor the train was all that heavy. Anyway, with part of the 12’ length of rail no longer secured to the ties, I pulled it all free (but still soldered to the turnouts at both ends) and used contact cement to re-lay it.
The bargain CV ties from the hobbyshop are actually 9’ ties, but don’t look too out of place, even alongside the more prototypical 8’6" ones. The instructions recommend Barge Cement (contact cement) for affixing the rails, so I used LePage’s Gelled Contact Cement, as it’s less prone to stringiness during application.
I used cork roadbed, cementing it to the plywood which forms the top of this part of the layout using contact cement. I also used it to hold the ties strips and rail in place, too. I used a simple centreline for the roadbed alignment, applying the cement with a cheap 1" paintbrush.
Adding the cemented
I am using the CVT #2002 Branchline ties on my current and previous layout. I bonded code 70 ME weathered rail to them. I use a MEK/Barge cement mix of 50-50.
I solder 2 sections of the rail together for a 6’ total. I glue the tie strips in 9’ sections and do about 54’ of tie strips per session. When I bond the rail to the tie strips I used a wood block to press the rail into the tie strips. I have had in 3 years very little amount of rails popping off the tie strips. When I have it seems I missed applying the glue mix to the tie.
I love the system as the track work flows very nicely and with good light applying the mix to the tie strips is easily done.
Tom
Thanks for the information and tips!
A while back I experimented using latex paint as glue for handlaid wood ties. I works great. Two days after the paint dried, it took a stiff putty knife and a hammer to remove the ties. This was to be used in an area where I wasn’t going to use any roadbed. Besides, I needed to paint the plywood anyway.
This is the area of the layout I’m working on now. The wood ties didn’t work out as I couldn’t get spikes in through the plywood. The CVT ties are plan ‘B’. I ‘glued’ them to the layout with paint. It worked great. Then I installed the rails without any glue. The bend-over spikes did a good job of securing the rail. But there are problems that are my fault. The alignment from the CVT ties doesn’t match up to a double crossover. You can’t see the misalignment very well, but my test car - a piece of plexiglass with trucks mounted on the bottom - derails about one out of every 5-6 time across one connection. You can see the trucks wobble as it goes across the joint. But, the ties are glued down and the rails are attached in the only place they can go.
Before I start rippin’-n-tearin’ I painted the light brown ties a dark brown/almost black and when that was dry, spinkled on some ballast just to see how it would look. It looks like any run of the mill plastic flex track, to me. Nice, but not worth the extra work putting it down compared to flex track. And not very forgiving. Maybe I’m just pissed.