A pretty cool idea if your planning is good. My track planning is pretty awful and I enjoy making modifications all the time. Perhaps when things are more solid, I will give caulk a shot.
One problem I see is that I have super-elevated some of my turns. This is done with strip styrene on the outside and tie contact to the homosote bed on the inside of the turn.
Really, just as simple as not caulking your turnouts- don’t caulk elevated turns either.
Just another thing to think about.
-n
If you drink enough beer, it won’t matter. [(-D]
To free track for repositioning if it has been caulked into place thinly, I use a sharp butcher knife or a paring knife. Insert tip, force tip to other side of the tracks from side of insertion, and with some downward pressure to keep the sharp blade from snagging the close edges of the ties, I begin to saw and move the blade in the direction I wish to free the tracks. They’ll come up easily.
For RichO’s issue: You can use latex caulk instead of silicone. You just shpritz the dried caulk with water and it gets gummy enough to slide the track around or to lift it up.
The water used in the ballasting process does not bother it unless to drown your ballast as you glue it.
How much caulk do you need? I built this:
8x12 overall size, HO scale, track AND roadbed - ONE tube of caulk. I’m on my second tube for my 10x15 around the room layout. The key to successful caulk trcklaying - THIN bead. Good example is, if you draw pencil lines to mrk where the trak goes, you should be able to easily see the pencil marks after you spread the caulk on. That’s all it takes. It holds up fine, even without ballast. The above layout was built over 2+ years, never had the track ballasted, and no track ever came loose. My current layout has been under way for 3 years now, the first sections are still solid, and only a little of it has been ballasted so far, most of it is not. Yet is it no difficult to remove track and reuse it. On the plan above, after I had it in place, I removed the bottom-most track and the turnouts connectign it to the main int he lower left. On the lowe right it became a single siding splitting into two. Some flex track I wasn;t too worried about, but the two turnouts in the lower left - I wasn’t ABOUT to throw them out. In the end, it was all reused, except for the short fitter sections of flex used because the distance betwene the turnouts was not exactly a multiple fo 3 feet. Besides a short straight track with a single turnout and siding I built on a short piece of foam to test the technique, that was my first go at laying track and roadbed with caulk. ANd I was instantly sold. Enough to use it on my new layout, and unless something even better comes along, I will use it on my next layout.
There’s no reason to pay extra for silicon, in fact the smell alone is probably enough of a deterrant from usign it, not to mention it costs more. Cheap plain latex caulk is all you need. I use clear, it comes out of the tube white but dries clear, however I may try
When using latex caulk to secure track to the layout surface, are the results different if the surface is foam or plywood?
I use 1/2" plywood for my layout surface. Does that make it harder or easier to loosen the track once caulked?
Come to think of it, is it more difficult to loosen track on a foam surface? It seems that the prying would damage the smooth foam surface.
Rich
It holds equally well on cork, wood, styrene, or foam, Rich. It could slightly damage a foam surface if your track is secured to it. However, the latex caulk makes a great filler for any voids.
Rich, give it a try with some track on a scrap piece of 1 x 4 and/or foam and form your own conclusions. DAP Alex Plus is only $2/tube at HD or Lowe’s.
Tom
I’m a Loctite Polyseamseal kind of guy using foam roadbed on pink foam. I weigh the roadbed down with a couple of scrap pieces of 1 X 4’s then bricks. If I goof, it is easy to pry up and fix the problem. I am sold on this method. Of course, I have not tried any other method.
I use this stuff, white for the cork and clear for the track (they are slightly different) Draw your line and put down a bead, I use a $ store putty knife to spead it out and thick enough for you to just see the line (a little thick here dose not mater at this stage). Once this has set up run a bead down the center of the cork, you may want to draw a new line on the cork because the centerline can wander not because of your skill but the cork makers rairly get the thing to split perfectly even, one side always seams to be wider than the next (sometimes significantly). Back to the caulking, here the thickness is critical but I use clear here so even mistakes are hard to notice. You want the caulk thick enough to slightly got up between the ties but not very far. Since clear caulk comes out whitish you will know if it is too thick or thin. For turnouts I caulf as ussual but then go back and scrape away the caulk where the trow goes about an inch wide. As far as if you need to take it up, no problem, I use a drywall knife and gently nudge it under and work my way through it. Then sand the cork (you will get a caulk residue which you can scape away, next turn over you track, not much should have stuck to the track, I tend to block sand the track back very lightly to remove any unseen crud and you are ready to go (I just had to do this part today, messed up at a turnout no less, I guess I was pushing the progres a bit).
You can add steel stud material to the things Dap Alex will stick to. I have to spread it a little bit thick, because the new studs have a dimpled surface.
Why directly to steel? I have two extremely tight radius helices (550 degree, not screw thread) and wanted to keep the railhead-to-railhead height to a minimum. I’ve also stuck flex directly to steel in lift-out cassettes.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - in a Southern Nevada garage)
Tom,
That’s a great idea. I will try it. Thanks. I should have thought of that myself.
Rich
I spread it so thin that you can see through it. It never oozes up between the ties; not even a little.
I’ll see your steel stud and raise you some cement roadbed!
Two great minds[I][(-D]
Brent[C):-)]
If you drink enough beer, you won’t have any for “weight”. Stick with the bricks to weigh down track, beer is for drinking!! [(-D][(-D]
I’m glad that I asked. I definately would have put it on too thick.
Thank you, again, everyone for your insight, tips, etc.
(My beer comes in bottles, but I’m sure they’ll work just fine. )
-Ed
Bottles work even better. They don’t conduct electricity. I have also used cans of soup and other stuff out of the pantry.
I use my old MR’s, but since I now have the DVD set and will be getting rid of my shelves of paper copies, I will have to resort to beer. And soup.
Also, it sticks to nearly anything. As a test, I glued a Tortoise to the underside of extruded foam. Other than having to hold it for about 15 minutes, it gave plenty of time for adjustment, and once the caulk set - I was afraid I would bust it trying to get it off. I little chunk of the foam came with it when it finally let go. So you really don;t need plywood under the foam to drive screws in - you just don;t use screws!
–Randy