I want to secure hundreds of loose HO scale wood railroad ties in an HO gondola by stacking them and then spraying adhesive over them. Any adhesive you would recommend?
Thanks and Happy New Year!
Spraying would be hard to control and leave residue in unwanted areas. Try good old Elmer’s White Glue, or ACC. All you need is a drop or two on each tie. Maybe a wooden block in the bottom of the car could be used as a base for the ties meaning you would not have to glue as many ties. I used this method in making pulpwood loads and the loads could be removed from the cars so they could run empty back to their loading point.
Mark B.
Hi Dave,
First off, thank you for your service! My father-in-law and a brother-in-law were in the AF for 20+ years. My own father was in the South Pacific with the Navy in WW2.
Personally, I would use carpenter’s glue. Yea, it will be more tedious to assemble but it will look better, IMO. Spray adhesives will give the wood surface a “residued” appearance because of the adhesive. That’s just the nature of the material.
My [2c]…
Tom
“Spray Adhesive for loose loads”…
Well, if you’re using adhesive of any type, technically it’s no longer a “loose load”.
For removeable lumber loads, I usually do them with either left-over basswood from the days before strip styrene, or, nowadays, with strip styrene painted to look like wood.
For either choice, you can save money and material by making the loads hollow…
…and as you can see in the photo above, it’s easy to add a little extra weight, too.
These pipe loads, made from the barrels of Bic pens, use a similar “cheat”, as I didn’t have enough to make the five or six flatcar- and gondola-loads that I have in-service…
And the gunky adhesive on the top of the load would become a dust magnet, eventually making the load look a bit fuzzy.
One option would the tacky cements suggested for HO figures so that they can be kept in place yet each piece remain removable.
Another option is to line the gondola with wax paper, use the Elmers suggested by Mark so that the load is a solid unit but removable. I like the idea of a removable load and it adds variety to operating sessions.
Dave Nelson
If you already have the railroad ties cut and ready to secure… I would just brush on some white glue diluted about 4:1 with water. That should do it.
Stain or paint them before assembling the load, and when it is 100% dry seal it with dullcoat.
-Kevin
That brings up another reason to just add a drop of two of glue as each piece is assembled. You can’t stain a bunch of wood pieces if you’ve already sprayed them with adhesive.
It might be easier to cut a piece of pink or even white foam for inside the gondola, paint it a dark color and use it as a base for only a couple of layers of wood ties. Less material, and probably lighter, too.
Balsa or bass wood ties are light, but when you start using heavier materials for loads, you want to consider the overall weight of the cars. I have a couple of resin scrap loads, and when I put them in I had to remove the metal car weight to keep the whole thing reasonable.
In hoppers and gondolas a broad V shaped block of wood or card shell that fits snuggly inside; just below the top. Cover the top with the load to be carried. You only need a small amount. To remove the load press down at one end and take hold of the other end.
David
I’d advise him to try the exact method used for ballast fixation: spray the load lightly with ‘wet water’ (or a few drops of detergent in the spray, etc. to break surface tension) and then spray on the dilute white or carpenter’s glue – the kind that dries clear and reasonably ‘waterproof’ so that even high humidity doesn’t make the surface tacky. Let it dry thoroughly, and spray with a clear finish to suit … semigloss to Dullcote.
I built some pulp wood loads with twigs and Elmer’s glue and had trouble with shrinkage. I filled the car and when the load dried it was too short. I then used epoxy and had no shrinkage issues.
Mark Vinski