I’m about to start the track-laying phase of my first, 5x9 HO layout. I’m using all Peco flex track and turnouts and standard cork roadbed. From the reading I’ve done, I’ve seen 3 basic methods of securing the track to the cork. Wanted to get some input to see which method people prefer here. If there are any other ways to do this, I’d love to hear that as well.
Attach track with standard nails or track tacks in the center of tie.
I would use a pin vise to drill holes every few ties and nail the track down that way. Seems like the main pros are that its quick and easy. Only con I can think of is that it doesn’t look as realistic?
Use track spikes to secure the ties on the outside of the rail on both sides.
I believe this requires filing or cutting away the existing plastic (fake) spikes, and then using pin vise to put hole in place and hammer down spikes. Seems like this much more realistic, but also slightly more time consuming? I would imagine that this way is also more secure than #1 since you have two spikes per tie instead of one in the middle?
Use glue, caulk, or some kind of adhesive to attach the track.
This seems like a popular method, but I don’t understand why. Doesn’t it ruin the track if you have to lift it for some reason to adjust, etc at a future time?
I am leaning towards #1 or #2, but am really curious to know why people glue the track down. Having the ability to pull out the pins and make adjustments seems like a big benefit to using spikes in some form.
I use caulk and it works great. I use push-pins to hold the track in place until the caulk dries. Very easy to adjust before it dries and easy to pull up and re-use if necessary.
That’s the con all right. Provided you’re using track that doesn’t already have holes down the center of the ties, I don’t see recommending this method. It’s no more secure than your option 2 and not much faster.
What I’ve done is to use spikes on alternating sides of the track, spike the near side of one rail, the far side of the next, and so on. It’s every bit as secure as it needs to be in most cases. Spiking both sides is fine too, and doesn’t take much extra time. You can remove the cast-on spike heads, or drill adjacent to them.
Another option I’ve used is to spike on both sides of the rail adjacent to a tie. It’s almost as secure as going through the tie and requires no drilling. The paired spikes look a lot like a rail anchor so aren’t really obtrusive. They disappear after weathering and ballasting much more readily than spiking down the center.
This is what I currently do. I use DAP Alex Plus clear sealant (as opposed to adhesive caulk), which secures the track nicely but can be readily removed
If you have to realign the track, you will also have to realign the cork roadbed.
I put down my track in sections or phases on the top first holding it with pins as necessary. Then run a few cars through it to see if there is going to be any problems. Then I mark the centerline. After the centerline is marked and the track taken up, then the roadbed can follow the marked centerline and when the track is put down on it, you are almost assured of good alignments.
I perfer methods 2 or 3. If you use Woodland Scenics foam roadbed, you almost have to use #3.
I do not see what your layout surface is made of. If it is plywood, all methods would work, however, if you have a foam surface, it will not hold nails.
I used inexpensive latex cauld to hold my cork to the foam and track to cork. You only need a very thin layer to hold the track down, if it squishes up between the ties you have way too much. I have found that a putty knife between the cork and ties will lift the rails off with little or no damage. Do not use caulk under turnouts, makes it easier to replace them if necessary. The track should hold them securely enough.
I do paint the areas under where turnouts will be a color close to what my ballast is. Makes it easier to hide the cork with less actual ballast around the moving parts. There are varried opinions on painting all the cork.
Is the DAP Alex Plus silicon? Is it really easy to lift if need be? If it is easy to get up without doing damage to my track, I would definitely consider using that. How long does it take to set or dry?
Also, do you use that for turnouts as well? Of course I’d need to be careful not to get any on the moving components. But at $20-$25 a pop, I definitely don’t want to ruin my turnouts if I need to lift them for some reason!
Alex Plus is primarily acrylic and latex. It has some silicone to maintain flexibility but not so much as to interefere with removing track. Track secured with it can be removed using a putty knife if you’re careful - it bonds more securely to the roadbed than the ties. Any left on the ties can be rubbed off, especially if you soak the track in hot water.
I know many people don’t secure turnouts themselves, and advice in MR seems to follow that. I still use the caulk under turnouts, at least sparingly. Turnouts are critical infrastructure and I like to keep them aligned. If you’re concerned about removal, think about caulk like you do spikes and use only a small amount here and there - just enough the turnout won’t budge, but not enough to risk not taking it back up later.
I built the first part of my last layout using “caulk on foam.” Then I switched to “spikes on homasote.” Spikes on homasote is the only way to go, period. I personally think caulk for holding down track is the most overrated thing in this hobby in at least the last 20 years. It’s horrible. It takes longer than spiking and is far more difficult to change.
Micro Engineering spikes are very small, and virtually invisible, especially if you paint and/or weather your track.
I used Alex Plus caulk for both the cork and Atlas flextrack (with Walthers Shinohara turnouts) for my 5’x9’ HO layout started 3 yrs ago. I built a similar size layout in 1980 and believe I used spikes, but now unsure how long they were to hit the plywood through the cork. I would definitely do the Alex Plus approach again. I did have to modify a couple things and indeed it is easy to get up the track and reuse it. I did use a tad of caulk under the turnouts to help secure them, of course staying away fro the throwbar. Also, it’s good practice to sand away a bit of cork below the throwbar for freedom of movement.
I’d suggest not to make a decision but rather try both on a piece of plywood.
As you go along, use a putty knife to spread the caulk along the center of the cork. A smallish bead that spreads to a fairly thin layer is all that’s needed. As you proceed, you will need to make your track joints (rail joiners, and I soldered most of mine), bend your flex to near shape needed, put down an additional length of caulk, place and fine tune the track and pin it as needed as well as add books. You can continue along but don’t feel like you need to get everyhing done in 1-2 days. Let dry overnight before removing books.
Track nails and/or caulk, never glue. Use whatever you enjoy using and don’t resist trying new methods.
On this layout I used T pins to hold down all my track until everything was perfect. I then pulled a section of T pins and using a paint scraper, spread a very, very thin layer of caulk under the track by gently lifting it up a couple of inches as I went along.
To pull the track off I lift one end by sliding an exacto knife under the first tie or two and just peel the track off as if I was pulling a fridge magnet off the fridge. I don’t attach turnouts.
I’ve built two layouts now that used the caulk method, and I can;t ever see going back to nails or spikes. Very fast, and when done properly you easuly lift up track to make changes or save it for the next layout. The key is a sparing application of the caulk - spread it out thin. To point: a single tube (standard caulk gun type tube) was plenty for me to do all the roadbed AND track for an 8x12 double track ‘donut’ layout. There should never be any oozing up on the ties - if there is, you used too much. I do caulk my turnouts. A little bit ahead of the throwbar, and then up under the frog and to the diverging legs. No caulk under the area where the points move.
On curves and in critical areas I use pushpins to hold things in place. On straights, I’ll maybe use 3 pins, one at each end so the joint doesn’t get moved and I don’t bump the open end as I attach the next piece, and one in the middle so it doesn’t accidently get bumped out of alignment.
Long ago when being taught to ride enduro and hillclimb on a motorcycle my uncle said, “There’s more than one way to skin a —.” “The best line is the one that gets you over the top.”
After some internet research, including this esteemed forum and some experimentation I chose to use a thin bead of Elmers white glue spread out some with my fingers to hold M.E. flex track down onto the cork. The white glue allows plenty of time to position the track and I use canned food to weigh the track down while the glue dries. Works just fine, but have yet the need to reposition any track, have heard that a soaking with water will soften the white glue enough to easily move the track.
The turnouts I spike down every three or four ties, using spikes just long enough to get past the cork and enter the plywood road bed. But first I drill a pilot hole, then a clearance hole thru the tie. It may be that my dremel skill is lacking, but I stick with a pin-vise for the pilot holes after breaking too many bits, but find the Dremel works well drilling the clearance holes.
I agree with the others. There is no “best” way. There is only the best way for you and your situation. The more “final” the track you are laying the more heavily one would tend toward an adhesive be it caulk or glue. If you think about it the track is going to get glued down anyway when you do ballast work.
Through the years I have used all the methods mentioned above at one time or another. I vary the method I use based upon the layout I am working with. I have even used nails until the ballast is done and then pull out the nails. shrug. I fully expect my “final” real layout will be done using matte medium on foam roadbed.
I use simple Elmers white glue. It holds very strong, and is very simple to pull track back up without doing damage to it. I started with Caulk, but found that it stuck a bit too well.
LION likes nails down the center. Him frequently adjsuts removes or repairs things. Him built big staging yards on the lowest level but then tore them out and put a four track mane lion down there. So NAILS.
LION uses no foam roadbed. Unless you model the main line of all mane lions, they look too much for my eyes. Industrial tracks and yards of youre simply do not need them, although the new rail facilities being built in Richardton are all well built up and ballasted, but LION still uses roadbed foams and corks NOT. Too much money to spend. LION lays tracks directly on table. But then LION models subway trains that run in a hole in the ground or on an elevated structure. Ballast, what there is of it comes from Walmart. It is found in the pet section and has a picture of a cat on t the bag. You don’t want to glue that stuff down or it will clump on you. But then if gravity works out doors, it should work just as will indoors, don’t you think. Besides without the roadbed, there is nothing for it to vibrate off of.
PINK FOAM AND NAILS. Nobody told me I could not use nails in foam, so I did just that. Well, the nails went in real easy, I could see that they were not going to hold tracks down, but I had gravity for that, so the nails kept it from sliding around. This worked for more than five years, so you cannot tell me it does not work. Then I got the bright idea of using reed switches to control signals and train detection, and I put a magnet on the bottom of all my trains. Guess where the nails went. I had to go back across the foam sections with some Elmer’s glue. I ran a bead of it down the center of the tracks, with a glob on each nail head. Problem solved, and the tracks can still be reused.
I use nails. Most flex track comes with nail holes in the ties, one hole every few inches. The blackened hobby shop nails are practically invisible once driven. The much cheaper bright steel hardware store nails will disappear after a dab of paint in placed on the nail head. Be careful not to drive the nails in too hard, it will bend the tie and pull the rails closer together and out of gauge.
The question is what the nails are driven into. Cork doesn’t hold nails very well, and most of the nails go thru the joint between the left hand and right hand cork strip. Foam doesn’t hold nails (or anything else) at all, so for a layout of cork laid on foam, nails won’t do much (if anything) to hold the track in place. Cork laid on homosote is better, the homosote holds nails very well. Cork laid on plywood is a problem, the glue layers in plywood are so hard the nails bend rather than drive home.
My roadbed is wood, (home resawed pine), laid on foam, which holds nails very well. Acrylic caulk hold the wood roadbed in place, and track nails secure the track to the pine roadbed.
Acrylic caulk will do a fine job of holding flextrack down to cork, or nearly anything else I can think of. If necessary, you can get the track up later with a putty knife. The dried caulk can be rubbed off the tie strip with your fingers. I would not use Elmer’s glue. It doesn’t hold to plastic tie strip very well, if at all.
Nails or spikes because if you make a mistake, and even experienced people need to change things, you can simply pull the nail or spike out with needle nose plyers and do over.
With glue, well, it’s kind of permanant from the git go and I hate permanent right away. You have to pry up the track or loosen it with water … risking damage and extra expense. No thanks. Old fashioned is best IMO. I don’t use foam under my track either or I guess I’ve be forced to use glue, and I don’t want to be forced to do that. So in my humble opinion, nails or spikes are best.