why does everyone use some kind of adhesive material instead of spikes? i always here about everyone complaing cause liquid nails or whatever makes the track impossible to re use, or move.
Just wondering because it seems that if you have a foam base on your layout wouldnt you just beable to just pull the track up?
What you are saying is basically true. I use minimum spikes and rely on the ballasting to hold the track down. However, in an Industrial section I used adhesive glue because I didn’t use roadbed and I knew the track would not needed to be moved as the buildings would only fit one way. Interestingly I made one track a little long and found that to remove about three ties I destroyed that small piece. Adhesive means adhesive. Some use adhesive everywhere; I wouldn’t recommend it on the main or sidings that are apt to move in the future.
Ron K.
Spikes are for holding the rail to the ties, not the ties to the roadbed. The only time I spiked every tie was when I had access to a friend’s Kadee Spiker tool. It did both sides of the rail at the same time with nice tiny spikes. Not to mention that last time I went to the LHS to get spikes I found out they don’t carry them any more.
It’s not true that everyone glues down flex track instead of spiking rails to individual ties. There’s a large contingent of folks that hand lay track, although it’s surpassed by the number of folks that do use flex track.
Hand laying is done by a lot of narrow gauge modelers. They’re not the only ones, of course. Once you get the hang of it, it’s not very hard. It allows you to do some track arrangements which are fairly difficult to set up if you’re trying to use commercially available components.
-Ed
well, im using flex, so i wont be dealing with hand laid track
I model in N-scale, so using spikes (nails) can be risky. I’ve cracked many rail ties with a bad swing of the tack hammer. I then learned that the best way to lay track was to use adhesive and temporarily secure the track with tacks.
I don’t think you need to use something so permanent like liquid nails. There was an MR article not too long ago that recommended using latex caulk because it remained flexible enough to remove later, yet provided enough adhesive strength to keep the track down. Ballasting will further secure the track, and if you use white glue, that too can be fairly easily removed.
Many people use adhesive, because foam doesn’t hold nails very well, and the adhesive acts as a sound insulator.
Nick
Most of the articles on handlaying track start with gluing the ties down, then spiking the rails to the ties. Usually there’s a roadbed that holds the spikes – foam just won’t, and there’s a tendancy for a pu***o dent the foam.
Pre made track can be held by glue or spikes but the glue is a bit surer on foam. I use green contact cement.