I was thinking about using nails to attach my track to the roadbed and plywood on my layout. However, I have done that before using glue and had issues so I’m thinking of using foam under the roadbed.
I have the pink foam to use on the layout but I’m not sure what to use to adhere the road bed to the foam. Will standard caulk / adhesive work on the foam like it does on plywood? I would like to be able to remove the road bed if I need to make changes in the trackwork.
Bill
Latex caulk is what I have been using for several layouts in place of nails or any other type of adhesive, and it has been working out very well so far. I have used it to attach foam to wood, cork and foam roadbed, and track. It just needs to be weighted until it sets.
Clear laytex caulk works great.
A thin layer of caulk attaches pink foam to plywood, cork to pink foam, track to cork (or foam), and foam to foam.
You have about 10-20 minutes to work with it before it starts to get super tacky, and then you need to wait a day for it to cure well.
(Caulk between large layers of foam sometimes takes days to cure)
The great thing about using pink foam is that you can use t-pins to hold down cork and track:
And making the transition from roadbed to ground just involves sanding out a little section of foam, then laying the cork in place as is (like the T-pinned section above).
Track is easy too:
Thin layer along the cork (avoid applying under the throwbar of the turnouts) and then press the track down, adjust, and then T-pin in place.
To remove, VERY GENTLY slide a knife under the ties:
Track comes off of cork easier than cork comes off of foam.
I wouldn’t count on re-using the cork.
With pink foam, DO NOT use any solvent-based adhesives or paints: they will eat the foam!
Laytex paint works well.
A good rule of thumb: if the container says “Flammable”, don’t use it on foam!
Hope this helps.