Any suggestions on gluing together a double layer of cork roadbed? Does normal wood glue work or should I use a solvent based adhesive? Obviously I want the layers to bond and not delaminate or bubble down the road. (no pun intended) Just curious if anyone has ever done this in the past and what the proper adhesive is to use.
My reason for installing a double layer of cork roadbed is to have a more prototypical rail height on the mainlines.
Elmer’s white glue or yellow wood glue can be used for this. Weight the cork down until the glue dries.
Have you thought about putting N scale cork on top of HO scale cork? This would raise the roadbed, and might be easier to accomplish than two layers of HO cork.
I have gotten used to using laytex adhesive caulk for just about everything. Foam to wood, foam to foam, Roadbed to whatever, track to whatever. I even used this caulk for a joint where my masonite fascia comes together at a wierd angle and under some stress. I let it set overnight with some odd clamping and, man, it is well joined.
A couple of nice things about caulk over many other adhesives:
Using caulk for your double layered cork should work just fine. All you need is a thin layer so lay a small bead of caulk and spread it out with a putty knife. Caulk is tacky immediately so it will hold a lot of things in place without additional pins - yet you can still slide or reposition if needed for a reasonable length of time.
Good luck,
-John
Are you positive about the “more prototypical rail height” statement? Seems to me that HO cork is still a little thick for prototypical height, and two layers would be way too thick. If you must though, try 1/8’ inch luan plywood on top of the subroadbed and below the cork. I personally use N scale cork for my HO 1955 era applications.
Also, buy a standing HO figure from Prieser or another good manufacturer. Stand the figure next to your proposed roadbed. Make certain the height is correct. It may be $$$ well-spent.
A a professional rail, I can state that most, if not all ballast lines I have seen are not the 4 feet or better that 2 cork thicknesses will yield, but a maintenance person over on the Trains forum could probably give better info on that subject.
Railroad Engineering practices call for a minimum of 24 inches depth, and may be slightly greater depending on tie spacing and loads to be carried. See “ballast” under Wikipedia" and also type in to your browser “track construction” or “ballast depth”. See also 49CFR Part 213, I believe.
In any event, I use Titebond III (waterproof) for securement. Adhesive caulk is good too, if you need to make changes or alterations. Caulk would probably be best for gluing two layers together.
I used carpenter’s (yellow) glue and it worked just fine. I used pushpins to hold it down until the glue sedt. I did it because I had some cork roadbed that was thinner than the Midwest I normally use.
Enjoy
Paul
Thanks for the input, I ended up using Titebond to bond the cork sheets & roadbed to my plywood. I decided not to laminate 2 layers of cork for the mainlines, I didn’t want to to spend the extra time needed and take the risk of having issues with it later.
Now I’m debating whether to use adhesive to lay my track or just spike it down.
Good morning,
Believe it or not I took formal classes in bonding objects together with adhesives. I recommend gluing a small sample of materials together; allow standing overnight then attempt to take the materials apart.
2 years ago my train layout was a victim of the “Ohio Storms” that flooded my basement and I had to tear out my layout. I used Elmer’s wood glue (water resistant) to secure the layers of foam, secure the cork to the plywood surface of the bench work, and to secure the track to the cork. During tear down I could not break the bond between the Styrofoam layers or the bench work same was true with the cork and the bench work. The track and the cork were nailed down and glued using Elmer’s Wood glue. I had to use a razor to pull the track up.
I hope everyone had a good Easter.
Lee
Woodland Scenics’ Foam Tack Glue has worked well for me in just this use. It spreads easily and thus far has proven quite durable. I wanted a more elevated ROW and a double layer of cork roadbed was 1) on hand and 2) the right height.
I sometimes do not split the roadbed because the bevel angle at the edges is not really prototypical, as a prior poster points out. (The problem then is that the seam between the two pieces is NOT your center line any more). When I use it in normal fashion I also adjust the angle of the edge by building up latest caulk and spreading the ballast on that different (slighter) angle.
I recall that there are craft store adhesives that are similar if not identical to W.S. Foam Tack Glue (and cheaper) but the beauty of Woodland Scenics is that my hobby shop carries it – and I’ll be there anyway lol.
Dave Nelson
I put n-scale cork on top of ho cork to help give me more of the profile I want.
I had been using liquid nails for projects and that worked fine but it made removing the cork later more difficult. I tried latex caulk on the little staging yard, errr… track…, last night. So far it seems oK. Because it does not have as much initial adhesion as the liquid nails I had to pin the cork more carefully. The cork felt a little damp and not as flat after I put it down but it has subsequently dried out ok. I was able to sand the HO cork fine after I put that on plywood… so I am optimistic about the latex.
My hope is that next time I have to rip up some of the roadbed it will peel away more easily and not require so much chipping and sanding. I will know tonight if it met my expectation.
I had the latex lying around from when I did my track work but I had trouble using it with the tight curves on my small layout. I used CA instead with the track so I did not have to lift the flex after fitting to apply the adhesive… this had resulted in my losing the alignment of the track ends without fail every time. I will try it again with my turnouts at least on my next layout.
Chris