I am brand new to this hobby. I got involved b/c my 8 y/o son is obsessed with trains…an obession that is highly contagious as I have found out myself and see on this forum.
I bought an N scale predesigned track plan from Atlas (N-11008) which is assembled on a 35" x 65 " table piece of plywood and tracced out in pencil awaiting final asembly. I plan to fit the whole unit on top of an old coffee table which is the perfect height for my son utilize. My hope is that we can take it on and off when playing, so that we can protect it from his litte brother (3 1/2 y/o). We will add scenery, etc. later.
I purchased the CVP easy DCC to run it. My son is a very bright young man, so I think if I program it he will pick up on the operation of the unit pretty quickly.
I am not as brightt as he is so I have a few simple questions that I am cetain a veteran of this hobby can answer with ease.
1.) I was goning to lay foam over the plywood…after reading the multiple posts on this forum…then lay the the cork roadbed and track on top of course. What is the best adhesive to use on the foam to plywood, and on the cork to foam? After that should I use track nails to tack down the track itself or something else?
2.) Here is the really dumb question. How do you attach the power supply wires, i.e. the feeders coming from the track BUS to the track itself. Do you solder it directly to the track or do you purchase some special piece of track? Incidentally, I plan to solder all the joints…is that the right thing to do as well?
There is a type of Liquid Nails that is made for adhering foam. I’ve just used white glue, but it takes a long time to dry.
You can glue the track sown with a thin bead of caulk. That way it can be pulled later if need be.
You solder directly to the track. Drill just outside the track and between the ties. Expose about 1/4" of wire and double bend it to lay flush against the track. It will hardly be seen if you do it right.
One more thing. Build a small frame under the plywood so you can run your wiring without having to set the plywood on it.
If I remember correctly, make sure you select a brand of LATEX caulk, NOT SILICONE as SILICONE will make a more permanent bond and be nearly impossible to pull up track without destroying the track and roadbed.
Thank you guys a bunch; that’s very helpful. I’m off to Home Depat and Radio Shack. This first layout is sort of a practice run for me. If it goes well, I am going to try to build a more sophisticated z-scale layour for a corner in my office.
Other threads (I’m also a newbie) have touted latex caulk (non-silicone as Ed stated, clear also recc.)–supposedly it is fairly easy to pull up the track from the roadbed later if necessary. If your roadbed is over foam, you’ll need to use some form of adhesive as the nails won’t stick to the foam–seems most have recommended the clear non-silicone adhesive caulk.
I use low temp glue gun to stick foam blocks and sheets together. For laying up scenery it is faster than waiting for caulck to dry. For road bed, latex caulk is good.
I solder many of my feeders to the UNDERSIDE of the track before gluing it down. On curves, just solder feeders near the end of the flex track that is next to be attached. If you do it in the middle, the movable rail may try to shift the joint a few ties.
To solder to the underside, turn the track upside down, cut out the plastic between two ties on each rail and solder a wire to each rail. Make right angle bends near the center of the track. Drill roadbed and table and insert wires. It’s completely invisible after ballasting.
If you solder to the sides of the rails, make sure to solder to the outside of the rail and not the inside so that flanges do not hit the joint.
2nd point first… As a younger brother… please be careful not to shut the little one out… maybe get him his own Thomas the tank engine type stuff? This may sound all “Social Worker” but it is important.
Something else that may be important… if you plan to lif the layout (where to???) make sure that it won’t flex as you move it… otherwise it won’t matter what glue you use… things will come apart.
You may need a frame at least around the edge of the board… that will add weight though.
It may be easier to arrange a kiddy proof cover. Two ways…
build up sides around the layout (of clear acrylic so you can still see the trains - which will also not fall on the floor) and provide a flat lid.
build a box to go over the top… if a single box is too big/heavy you might go for two 1/2 boxes.
I wouldn’t solder ALL the joints, just most of them. If all the joints are soldered there will be no room for the rail to expand. This will lead to small kinks and bends in the track later down the road. Believe me, it happened to my layout.
Considering that the first time I used foam I used model glue, not silly questions at all LOL.
I used liquid nails on construction sites. For me it is overkill but it most certainly works and is desigend for that.
For foam to wood I use white glue. I wait until it is tacky dry and press them together. If you don’t wait till it is tacky dry it won’t dry out at all.
I also think that white glue to put down the cork is a great idea as well.
As for the wires to the tracks you drill a hole just beside the track and solder the wire [called a feeder wire] to it. Underneath the layout [where the wire from the track goes to] you solder the feeder wire to the bus wire. This website may help you. http://www.all-model-railroading.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=2020.0
As for soldering all the rails together I have found it better to only do that on the curves myself. I solder 3 rails [about 9 feet] at the most ussually. Otherwise you have no room for expansion and contraction from humidity [the wood and cork changing] or heat [metal like rails etc changing].