LION uses NAILS… foold you, you thought that I would say caulk.
Nails work good on a fiber base such as used by LION… holds good, easy to remove and realign tracks.
Him tried nails on pink foam boards. Works good if sliding you want to prevent, but lifting up is a problem. LION nails directly to foam, and then runs a bead of Elmer’s glue down the center line, paying particular attention to covering the nail heads.
Ballast? LION uses CAT LITTER, him gluse it not. Makes it easy to move tracks.
Use caulk and ballast with matt medium over cork. If you want to reuse a turnout that is installed that way, all you do is slide a puddy knife under the cork so you can remove it, then remove the caulk and ballast by soaking it in a bucket of water. I thought I would have to buy all new turnouts when I moved but was able to save 90% of them (had a few curved that were too fragile).
I don’t caulk down the turnouts, I do make sure the track is really secure where it meets the turnout at all connection points though.
I paint under the turnout, ballast grey, and then after installation, I take a paintbrush and carefully paint some glue in between the ties and then sprinkle just a few grains of ballast between each tie. Looks great and when the T/O is taken up there is nothing stuck to it.[C):-)]
Similar to what Paul wrote above. Micro Engineering makes great track nails. Did anyone else find that ballasting the track keeps it from rising up? Curious if the OP should go that route instead?
Interestingly, how flat the track is depends on the shipping method(s). One place I bought track had it bound to 1x2’s. That kept the track from being uneven. MB Klein bound the track together. They told me that connecting it to 1x2s increasing shipping charges big time.
Once you have your roadbed in place, you can solder several lengths of flex track together, then use nails to install it. This is especially useful on curves, and there’s no need to add weight to keep it in place, as with caulk or glue. If you get called away or need to take a break, no clean-up is necessary, and you can return to the job at any time. If you need to realign the track or make adjustments, pull the nails, do what’s necessary, then re-install the nails. They can be removed after ballasting, if their appearance bothers you.
Use regular blunt-nosed pliers to install the nails, not a hammer: grip the nail with the pliers to insert it into the hole in the tie, and push it into position to start it into the cork or plywood, then release the grip, close the pliers, and use the side of them to push the nail home, applying as much force as is necessary, directly above the nail, with your free hand.
Nails aren’t a great choice on foam, but will work temporarily (as will “T” pins) if you plan to add ballast (using diluted white glue or matte medium) before running trains. I discovered this when helping a friend, who opted for extruded foam as the surface of the layout, with Woodland Scenics soft foam roadbed. I didn’t at all care for working with the latter, but the process has weathered the test of time.
Where I used the Central Valley tie strips, they were cemented together using solvent-type cement. I then drew a centreline for the cork roadbed (or for the track, where it was to be layed directly atop the plywood) and applied contact cement to both mating surfaces, using a 1" brush.
After the cement had dried for the specified time, I placed some waxed paper atop the cork or plywood, then positioned the moulded-on indicators on the ties over the centreline, pressing down firmly while withdrawing the waxed paper.
Turnouts were installed next, using a combination of contact cement and nails
Nails or spikes didn’t sound appealing? The sure work well for me and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to lift track to re-lay it and it was so much easier pulling out the nails or spikes than having to pry the track up from the adhesive, and risk damaging it.
To me, adhesives and glue seem too permanent too quick. I’d rather get the track down solid but have my options left open until I am satisfied with the geometry and arrangement.
I definitely guess I’ll stick with nails and spikes after all. YMMV
Nails. That allows you to easily make changes. Once ballasted, you can remove the nails if you don’t like the looks of them. They don’t bother me. I just paint the nail heads to blend in with the ties.
Okay, on the subtopic of making changes, we’re talking about taking up both the track and the roadbed, and not just the track from the roadbed? Doing the latter would be a problem, no?
So for the track nail folks, do you use one nail through both the track and the roadbed or do you first nail down the roadbed to the subroadbed, then the track to the roadbed? So you would need to take up both nails to realign something.
My experience with caulk is that you just pry up the roadbed and the caulked track comes with it and move the whole thing a bit.
I don’t know if either way is a real problem or an advantage, just want to be clear as to what’s being talked about.
The only way that makes any sense is to lay the cork first, which I lay on the center-line I draw, and fasten it down with nails. The go back and lay the track on top. Of course if you need to remove it to relay or to salvage, reverse the order. (naturally if everything is fixed with ballast, thats a different story - but nails, IMO, give you the best options if you are at that stage and need to remove for any reason)
I use Atlas track nails to attach my cork as well as the track. I learned that technique from old Atlas books years ago and it works just fine. I put nails every 3 inches on the straight sections and about every 2 inches on curve sections. When it came time to break the layout down and I had not ballasted it yet, I took needle nose pliers and pulled out the nails and recovered all of the cork.
Here are photo’s of the cork going in with nails, and later recovering it when the layout was torn down - I salvaged everything for re-use due to the no-adhesive methods and no mess either, no water to soak glue. No caulk to have to scrape off the bottom of track or cork to clean it up, nothing.
On the original portion of my layout, I put down the cork using yellow carpenter’s glue, temporarily holding the cork in place with partially-driven 2 1/2" nails (I had a 50lb. box of them left over after building my house). The nails were all removed the next day, and after sanding the cork, track was added, using nails to hold it in place. I’ve not needed to move any of the track that’s on cork, but have removed some turnouts forming a crossover between parallel main lines, and managed to scrape away the excess cork between the two lines.
On the upper level of the layout, all of the cork was put down using contact cement, working to pre-drawn centrelines.
However, after adding an interchange, I discovered that its tracks, leading to a staging yard in another room, were too close to the existing main line, leaving insufficient room to add a view-block for much of the interchange’s track.
I couldn’t relocate the interchange tracks, as it would have created unsuitably tight curves through the room’s wall, so instead, I altered the too-close mainline’s curve to create the needed space.
Here’s an over-all view showing the proximity of the curved main (between the temporarily-placed station and the hole-in-the-wall) with the interchange tracks at right, with the loco and short train on it…
As you can see, none of the track involved had yet been ballasted.
The track throughout the mainline curve is all Atlas flex, soldered at all rail joints and held in place with nails. I used a cut-off disc to cut the rails of the main, just beyond the turnout which is under the caboose of the train in the foreground, above. The nails from that point, right through the curve, were all pulled, and I then manually re-aligned the curve to see what looked best and would still fun
