I am about ready to start laying some track. As a base I have used the the blue styrofoam/Dow board. I am wanting to glue the cork roadbed to this and the glue the track and ballast in place.
What is the most reliable, yet cheapest and easiest way of doing this?
I have seen mention of Elmers and water mix. Is this Elmer’s white glue or wood glue? What are the mixture rates?
Also, will this hold up to temperature changes? My layout is in the basement garage and it is not heated except by a space heater when I am down there.
Go with Liquid Nails… they have some foam safe stuff that works great and it is fairly cheap and it has some working time if you need to move the foam or track around a little to get everything lined up.
Many use DAP clear acrylic caulk to hold the cork to the foam and the track to the cork. I tried this method and have had great success. No ballast yet, but I will probably used diluted Elmers or Scenic cement. It is important to use a wetting agent, like a few drops of liquid dish soap to break the surface tension and allow the mixture to flow into the ballast. Stay away from your switch points.
Cheap latex adhesive caulk for the roadbed, glue and water (white glue) and either a couple of drops of dish soap or some rubbing alcohol for the ballast. The detergent or alcohol (I never had any luck with the detergent method - but I have hard water in my area) makes the water ‘wetter’ so it seaps into the ballast and glues it al, not just making a crust on top.
You should have no issues with temperature change, as long as you don;t solder every rail joint. The foam changes very little if at all over any temperature range you can live in so it makes a very stable base The foam also does not change based on humidity. Wide variations on temperateure and humidty can sometimes cause problems on a ‘more traditional’ all wood layout, which is one of the advantages of foam.
I use liquid nails for the roadbed and clear silicone seal for the track. I have a caulk gun of each at track laying time rather than switching cartridges back and forth. The liquid nails seems to have a longer curing time than the silicone which allows for “adjusting” the roadbed.
Use a rather small (1/16" or so) hole at the tip of the silicone since a little goes a long way. I cut the tip so a #6 screw just screws in to seal the tip when not in use. Just run a bead down the center line of the roadbed and squegee on with a plastic putty knife - a little goes a long way.
I use a 50-50 water/alcohol mix as the wetting agent. I mix my white glue 1:3 or 1:4 with water to set the ballast in place. I’ve always been leery of dish soap on the rails.
Save yourself some effort, just use one product for it all, DAP latex adesive caulk or the one I use, Polyseamseal brand latex adhesive caulk. Same thing for both roadbed and track, couldn’t be easier. The price is the same for clear and white so I just buy clear, even though for under the roadbed who cares? When it’s clear - it’s fully set up. I usually keep things pinned overnight but the last track I put down I pulled the pins after an hour and it stayed in place just fine - I was in a hurry to get pictures of the finished product so as soon as the caulk was clear I pulled the pins out.