All,
I’m working on finishing up my helix and have started to replace the ties under the soldered joints that I had to remove. Since my track is laid directly on the sub-roadbed plywood (to reduce clearance between the levels of the helix), I’m wondering what to use to glue the plastic ties to the plywood. I will use CA to glue the ties to the rails I guess this would work for the ties to the plywood but I was wondering if it would be a strong enough bond. Any thoughts?
Chris
I use Tacky Glue to hold the ties to the roadbed, and don’t bother gluing the ties to the rails.
Nick
Any caulking compound or liquid glue that won’t dissolve the plastic should be fine. You are more interested in lateral displacement, and not in using the tie to lift the layout.
-Crandell
I save all the ties I cut off the ends of flex track. If they’re in groups joined with that web between them, I leave them joined for the places that require more than one replacement tie. When I go to use them, the first thing I do is sand off the little nubs that hold them to the rail. I turn them upside down and rub them against a piece of sandpaper fastened to my workbench. With N scale ties, it takes only a few strokes. HO ties would take a few more strokes. Then I put a little white glue under the rails and slide the ties in, align them, and leave them for the glue to dry. The rails are supported by the ties and fastened securely on either side of the joint so there’s no need to glue the ties to the rails.
When I used flextrack I would do everything Bob said above, except that rather than sanding the “nubs” I would just slice them off with a single-edge razor blade.
If it’s hidden trackage, and you haven’t cut off too many, why replace them at all? If the rails need the support, glue them under, but no need to bond to the rails.
i have used strip wood ties at every track joint on my layout. just slide them under the rails and space them out to where they look good to you then add a drop of superglue to the edge of the strip wood where it contacts the roadbed. this works best with the thin stuff since capilary action pulls it right into the joint between the cross tie and the plywood or cork roadbed.
if the strip wood raises the joint, just sand it down thinner
if your wood ties are not uniform in length, just align one side with a straight edge and then trim off the excess on the other side with razor blade or hobby knife when the glue is dry.
with a little practice, you can get a lot done in a short time and after painting the wooden ties with an appropriate color it is hard to tell where the joints are unless you look for them closely.
i like to wait until the track has been in operating service for a while to get any bugs out then do a lot at one time. i have a double ended 12 track yard about 25 feet long and i put in all the needed ties in one evening. it took longer to paint them than it did to install them.
i must admit than i am not a stickler for highly detailed track but it looks good enough to me.
i find this method a lot easier and faster than trying to trim the spike heads off of plastic ties.
grizlump
Hi!
I’m in the middle of building an 11x15 two level HO layout, which is the first I’ve built since the early '90s. I too save the cut off ties from the flextrack (Atlas code 100), and install them after the trackage is in place and thoroughly tested and I’m reasonably certain it will stay in that configuration.
At that point, I take the individual ties and using an Xacto chisel point blade, I cut off the “tie plates” from at least one side as the second side often will snap onto the rails. PLEASE, cut “away from you”, and I do this by holding the tie on end, with the bottom end securely on the benchwork. Then I use the bevel side of the blade and push downward. Using the flat side of the blade can often push the chisel into the tie. This is the same method as woodworkers use (Ha, learned that in 2 years of woodshop at Lane Tech High School - Chicago in the early '60s).
Once I get the ties in place, I would use either a colored latex caulk, or a bit of adhesive like Walthers Goo. I do not fasten the ties to the track, unless they snap in place as mentioned above. Remember, the space you are filling in should not be more than 1-2 inches, so there should not be a need to fasten the ties to the rails.
Hey, the above has and does work for me, hopefully it will work for you!
Mobilman44
A couple of things. Some of my gaps are near 2.5 inches, some maybe a little more. What I did was solder 5 pieces of flex track together on the floor, then move it to the helix level I am working on. In the process of bending the track, more ties had to be removed as the rail joiner bumped into a tie in certain spots. This left me with fairly wide gaps. I saved all the plastic ties, so that is what I plan to put back in. I just grind off the tie plates with a dremel and create a channel in some of the ties to accomadate the rail joiner. I was concerned about using caulk or goo because it seemed like it would make a mess when I try to slide the ties back under the rails. Basically what I want to due is use some type of liquid (glue) that can be dispensed from a needle point bottle. That was the intent of the original post. Suggestions? Thinned white glue, CA, yellow glue,??? Thanks!
Chris
No need to thin. Just apply some wood glue with a toothpick or some other implement and slide the ties into position. Personally, I would just put a bead of the glue on the bottom of the ties and slide them into place. Weight the rails above with a soda can, wait an hour, and you are good to go.
-Crandell
According to an old saw middle age is when your narrow waist and broad mind change places. When I think of glue I inevitably think of epoxy first. And as selector said, if all you are doing is replacing these ties for track support at the rail joints all you need to do is tack down the ties; don’t worry about the track. Even on visible trackage that’s all I do at my rail joints since, when soldering my rail joints, I always cut just ten ties away from the ends of the track and my track stays pretty rigid across that two and a half inch gap.
Huh? Don’t get it.
What’s not to get?; you wanted to know what kind of glue to use to replace these cut away ties–I was saying I use epoxy for almost every small job such as you have here.
The above. Why didn’t you just say epoxy? I tried Walthers Goo last night and it works fine.
The quickest and easiest way to get the tie plate nubs off the loose ties is to use a small pair of square jaw nipers. Snip-Snip and they’re gone and no sharp blades or high speed cutting wheels that might slip and do serious damage.
I have my own method, but it combines two…nippers for the nubs, and a smal flat needle file to make a shallow trench betwen the ‘tie plates’ for the metal joiner. If the tie will not support a joint and joiner, just the nippers or just the needle file rubbing off the spike heads.
-Crandell
Instead of a narrow waist and a broad mind I now have a broad waist and a narrow mind.
How about this?: EPOXY!
Maybe it’s my 12" to the foot fingers but I have always found Walthers Goo to be rather messy and I don’t use it.
Wonderful, good for you! I have epoxy at home and the reason I’m not using it is because I would constantly have to keep mixing up batches because it dries too quickly and would be wasteful. Problem solved. Thanks for your input.
Chris
I’m doing this very thing right now as I’m laying track on my layout!
Definitely save your ties, Depending on your manufacturer and scale (I’m using Micro Engineering flex track, N scale), you can have tie “groups” of 2 or 3.
I get a group of ties, then use a Dremel to shave off the “spikes” and slip it underneath the bare rail joint.
Then I just CA the tie group to the roadbed.Don’t use white glue, because it’ll slide out of place when you use the diluted white glue for the eventual ballasting. If you use adhesive caulk to secure your track, you can also use that to glue the replacement ties down.
No need to secure the ties to the rails, the tie replacement here is just for show, so as to keep the placing of ties continuous.