How do you lay track (in my case Nscale) to foam? It can’t be nailed down so how do you make it stay in place? I’m new at this and appreciate any helpful responses. Thanks.
nscaler1280,
Welcome to the forum!
Good question, easy answer: Elmer’s white or wood glue does the trick. [:)]
You can also use a product called LATEX Liquid Nails. It can be readily found at your local home improvement store. (e.g. Home Depot, Lowe’s, etc.) It comes in a tube so that you can apply it just like you would caulk.
WARNING: Be sure to get the LATEX version ONLY! Solvent based products will melt or attack the extruded foam. This is also true when it comes to painting your foam - it needs to be water-based.
Hope that helps…
Tom
[:)] Thank you Tom.
That stuff is mighty strong though. I’m going to experiment on a test piece, but right now my choice is between using latex caulk as outlined in the MR article last year or so, and regular white glue. I fear the white glue might not hold when I go back and use the water-based method of ballasting the track, whereas the caulk will hold.
–Randy
Randy,
Then use the wood glue. It’s water proof. The latex caulk works, too.
Tom
OK…here goes…you are in “N” scale…so why not just use KATO unitrack…it has roadbed already and no need to secure…i use it on my “HO” set.good luck…Tom
I use latex liquid nails for projects also, I just glue down the cork road bed and then use
the small track nails to hold the track in place. Once you ballast the track it’s not going to
move. Trust me.
The Harven
“Mckenzie Valley RR” under construction
Basically any foam-safeadhesives will work (except most double-sided tapes), but I prefer silicone caulk. A little goes a LONG way, it helps deaden sound transferred to the foam, and is a quick way to fill gaps in the roadbed. And it STICKS.
A good alternative is plain old wood glue. I find it better than Liquid Nails, considering how relatively expensive LN is, and how fast you use it up (the same anount of caulk will do 3-4 TIMES as much track as LN)
Well, hopefully by the end of the weekend I will have a full report to post here and on my web site. After visiting some local club open houses on Saturday, we are stopping by Home Depot and picking up an extra sheet of foam to use as a test piece before possibly ruining the actual layout benchwork. I want to test adhesives, curve spacing, and mounting the tortoise switch motors from the top using the method in a link I posted in another thread. After that, the test piece will probably be used to test some scenery methods. I don’t want to waste a whole 2x8 sheet, so i will cut it in half, the spare part will be used to build up scenery on the layout.
–Randy
I noticed that on the Woodland Scenics web site they suggest covering the foam sub-roadbed with plaster cloth before applying the roadbed and track. Anyone know what the advantage to this would be? Is it really necessary?
Also, do you think carpenters glue or silicone caulk will hold their brand of track bed? I see they sell a glue called “foam Tack Glue” that they recommend for this purpose. would that be a waste of money? Will white glue or silicone caulk work just as well.
Has anyone run into problems ballasting their tracks with the track glued down with silicone caulk? I would worry that the ballast would come loose.
Dave,
WS makes a good product. My guess is that their recommendations are more about trying to sell THEIR product. than anything.
Tom
Yeah, I love the WS stuff! And I’m sure you’re right about their recommendations being about trying to sell their product.
I see others above mentioned using latex calk instead of silicone caulk to glue roadbed and track. maybe that would probably alleviate my worries about ballast eventually breaking loose.
So, I guess I was able to answer my own question about the plaster cloth by just giving it some thought. 
Obviously with the WS system you’ve got gaps in their risers and inclines so the cloth would fill that in. As well as give you a little extra room to attach scenery without having to go right up to the roadbed. However, it would seem to me that you’d have to really make sure the plaster cloth was smooth before laying roadbed. Would you maybe have to sand it?
I use paintable latex adhesive chalk to put the WS roadbed down on the plywood sub-roadbed, and to put the track on the WS roadbed. No problems at all with it – dries good and tight within a couple of hours, but still lets you pull things up and reposition them with minimal or no damage. A squeeze tube costs only a couple of bucks at the hardware stores, and one tube did about 1/2 the roadbed on my layout and just about all the track in the yard I’m currently building (using the WS roadbed 5"x24" sheets for that).
Thanks Joe!!! Do you know if it will work just as well, if not better than the WS Foam Tack Glue? Especially on a Plaster Cloth hard Shell?
I’ve tried the Foam Tack Glue as well, and I’ve seen no difference between it and latex chalk. Both hold equally well on plain plywood and on the WS foam roadbed, and the chalk is a lot cheaper. I can’t think of any reason why that wouldn’t also be true on plaster cloth – as long as it’s thoroughly dry, both adhesives pretty much won’t care that it’s plaster and not plywood.
I am currently building up a small layout for testing purposes, I used the extruded foam for the base, I did a mix of cork and the WS foam roadbed and I used the all purpose caulk with silicone as my adheasive. it has worked great so far, and one huge advantace i have found is that if you need to make changes, the roadbed, will pull up from the foam base without damage to either. it is securly down, but if it needs to come up, it can. Also with my mix of foam roadbed and the cork, i am able to hear the difference in sound levels between the two different products. the WS foam roadbed is much quieter, the cork to the base is producing a much louder vibration hum than the WS, so after this layout is finished and i go to work on my real layout, i will be doing it with the WS foam roadbed exclusivley.
I also have done a pair of 5" tests where i laid the track down on the roadbed on the foam base board. the caulk holds the track well, and i imagine just as it does with the roadbed, if the track needs to come back up, it will with very minimal damage.
I also tried this, as the caulk was still wet, and the track was laid, I then did the balasting. my therory was that the balast would stick to the caulk and i could get two steps done at once. I have mixed results. the balast DID stick and it DID work. the catch? you can NOT rub your fingers on it after its done, it acts like wet sandpaper, the balast comes off very easilly along the sides of the roadbed. the balast between the ties stayed put, but along the edge, you can rub ALL the balast off with your fingers.
My next test with this process is to press the balast down after its been sprinkled over the caulk, that might be my problem, i just sprinklied it over and left it, if i press it down a bit, the balast should stick better.
Kevin
when using dcc transformer
I have tried most of the glues that are compatible with plastic and foam. Elmers white glue is probably the cheapest and the stuff certainly does hold. Put a little on a piece of poster paper and then slide it along the bottom of the ties. Not a whole lot. Put some weight(I like to use copies of Model Railroader(hey,I always have plenty of those!) ontop of the track you just layed. A whole lot of weight is’nt necessary. I like to keep the weight on overnight and the next morning remove the magazines. I have never had any track come up. Using Elmers to glue foam layers together works great too. Don’t spend the money on the pricey glue, it’s a waste of money that you can use for the good stuff… Jerry[:p]
I have used WS tack glue, Elmer’s white and carpenter glue. WS glue has the advantage of setting up faster but both the white glue and carpenter’s glue worked well and found them both easier to pull up if I needed to reposition the track. The biggest advantage though is cost. WS tack glue is relatively expensive if you are going to lay a lot of track.