I’m building a HO scale train layout on a 4x8 plywood base, my first try that this. On my upper layout i’m using 2" foam as the base that is glued to plywood and I’ve glued the cork bed to the foam. On the lower elev the track will be on the cork bed that is glued to the plywood base. All the bed is in place and now I’m working on putting the track down. I’m not sure how to hold the track in place. I have track nails. Will the track nail hold the track in place that’s on top of the cork bed that is on the foam?. One last question, Is it a good idea to solder the track connection together? Thanks For any help
[#welcome]! First piece of advice: Dont use track nails, they will stick out and look bad. Most everybody nowadays just uses glue. I get some regular white glue or tack glue, and lay a bead down the centerline. Then I take a tab, label, or some stiff piece of paper, and I smooth the glue down over the entire roadbed. It usually works fine that way! Hope this helped!
Non-Adhesive acrylic latex caulk, thinly spread, is what I and many others use, as Motley suggests. Get the cheapest tube you can find…it’s all good.
You can hold your track elements in place temporarily while the caulk stiffens up, and extract them later. Very important- do place a finger on each rail across from the nail and counter your nail-lifting pressure…I have taken up the tracks when I forgot because the caulk will also stick to the shank of the nail! and bind the nail head to the ties around the hole. BTW, you can drill new holes as you need them mid-tie by using a small pin vise drill or a steadily held Dremel type. Even your big cordless will do if the chuck can take tiny bits near 1/32".
Or, you can do what I do…place soup and soda tins from your pantry on the rails, cans on their sides. Or use stacks of old phone books, hardcover books, and so on. The caulk sets up in 40-60 minutes.
While glue or latex caulk is popular for holding track in place, I prefer track nails like those offered by Atlas. They’ll hold your track in place on the cork and when you ballast the track after you’ve worked out any problems, the nails can be easily removed if their appearance bothers you. The nails allow you to easily adjust the track should any problems show up when you start running trains - simply pull the nail(s), re-align the track as required, then push the nail into its new spot. While it’s unlikely to happen on cork atop foam, you need to take care on cork atop plywood or when laying track directly onto plywood that you don’t push the nails in too far. The underside of the nail heads should just barely touch the top of the tie - pushed in too far, they can bend the tie, pulling the rails out of gauge.
I soldered all of my track together as it was installed, then went back later and cut any required gaps for electrical purposes.
I recall reading somewhere, many years ago, that track will “move” once current has been applied to it. To me this sounds like an old wives’ tale, but I did notice this on my layout after running trains several times. It may have been the application of power, but I suspect more likely that it was expansion/contraction of the soldered rails. The only noticeable changes were in areas of straight track, where very carefully laid flex track developed slight side-to-side “waves”. In most places, simply pushing the appropriate nails left or right re-straightened the track, although there were a couple of areas where the nails needed to be removed and re-positioned.
I experienced no more such changes after the original corrections, and none since having ballasted the track. Operation is derailment free and trouble free electrically, too, with any problems directly due to operator error - mis-aligned turnouts, etc. [D)][swg]