My layout I am building will not last more than 5 more years maybe more while I am off to college but I want to know how to attach my track to my cork (and to the homasote in the yard) so that even after ballasting, in 5 years I can rip up this track and use it on my next layout. I am primarily concerned about turnouts because they are $$$$$$$$$$$. I was considering spikes but caulk would be an option. Any ideas?
I would use track nails to lay the track. I have been able to pull up track and relay it if it did not turn out well the first time and I’m sure you could simply pull them out if you want to remove the track. One word of cation is that if you use flextrack, it will be cut to length in some places for this layout, making it harder to fit onto another layout.
sfb
If your layout is that temporary and you want to reuse the track. i would put it down with T pins or small ball headed pins and airbrush {or paint} the ties to LOOK like ballast. Both pins are available in fabic/craft stores and sectiosn of major retailers like Walmart.They will generally NOT cuse a poroblem with runing trains unless you have low hanging uncoupling pin OR they are sticking up to much.
At any rate, I would only paint the track lightly on the switches and NOT glue them down for any reason.
If you use white glue, you can supposedly soak it wet to get the track up.
If you use caulk to hold down track, you can take a putty knife and supposedly wedge it under the track and just pry it up.
I still have the pins in my layout cause I was going to expand it. Of course I also used extruded foam for my base so the pins stick in easily and come out easily. I did use caulk for some areas, before I decided I was gonna expand it so I should be able to just pry it up. I used small ziplock bags of play sand to hold it down while the caulk “set”.
If you use white glue to bond your ballast you can get the track back up by soaking an area at a time with 50:50 isopropyl alcohol:water. However, cleaning up the recovered track and turnouts is a time consuming and not easy job (just finished some). I don’t think that I would ballast if I intended to salvage the track later.
Joe
I just took up some track that I put down with Elmer’s white glue several years ago before I switched to using caulk. It came up easily using a large putty knife. The glue that came up on the ties was easily removed with the same putty knife.
That said, if I was putting down track that I knew was going to come up in a couple of years I wouldn’t use any kind of adhesive nor any ballast.
Have you considered building in small modules that you could just store and then build into the new layout?
Thanks for the advice! I have put down a lot of track very temporarily with spikes and have concluded I will continue this way. I don think I will be re using the flex track but maybe. I was mostly concerned with turnouts. I was thinking, I really want ballast because I guess I lIke it, so can i put down ballast and jus not glue it? can I later clean it up with a shop vac?
I highly recommend against it because of the risk that the ballast finds its way into an engine’s drive train… If you really want ballast I would either:
A) Use a sectional track with the molded ballast, such as kato unitrack or a similar item.
B) Go all out and glue down the ballast, but just tear it up when you want to reuse the track.
C) You said that you mostly just want to save the switches, so why not omit ballast on them only?
These are just some ideas, what you do is your choice. If you are happy with it, then you made the right desicion.
sfb
Just wondering, how does it get into a drive train? isnt it fairly heavy for its size, if it isrock?
An alternative to “real” ballast would be to paint your roadbed before laying the track with a speckled spray paint. Not as effective as the real thing but a short-term compromise.
Dante
Not really. It is painted finely minced walnut shell pieces. each piece is very lightweight. it is NOT “rock”. Loose ballast, if you sneeze can blow all over, for example. It can also be attracted to oily parts.
You COULD ballast with glue under the track, and paint the ties the color of your ballast to blend in and just tack the track down.
If you really want to save the track for later use, then I suggest as I suggested: paint the ties to look like ballast, and just pin or tack down the track.Otherwise you are asking for trouble somewhere along the way…
5 years is temporary? my last layout lasted that long. But also try using small tack nails. just dont nail them into the Track
Use white glue. When it’s time to take it up, spray the ballast and track with water, and it comes right up.
I’ve done this after YEARS of service.
Lee