A few months ago, Randy Rinker recommended I begin to lay track using latex Caulk. He made a lot of grandiose promises, all of which I can now say are true.
After RR's suggestion, I laid a couple of spurs using caulk. I could not find any clear latex caulk, so I used clear silicone caulk. Yesterday I had to remove that spur and the time of truth was at hand.
Just like RR said, it came up easily and without damage to the cork, track or my fingers.
Thanks Randy for sharing this great tip.
Joe Fugate, in his DVD series recommends using gray latex caulk to lay track. I am off to HD today so I am going to see if I can find any gray. White just seems too be to bright for me, but maybe it would give me an incentive to get the ballast down sooner.
Oh, and Randy, I have begun to use silicone caulk for almost everything where I would have used hot glue or liquid nails and must tell you that except for planting trees, where the glue gun excels, Caulk is next to my drywall screws!
Thanks Randy!
Fellow Okie,
Joe Daddy
If everybody is thinking alike, then nobody is really thinking.
http://photobucket.com/tandarailroad/
Had not been to the caulk counter in a while (say that three times fast!) and was surprised to find the rainbow of colors now available, black, brown, biscuit, gray to name a few as well as the old standbys of White and Clear.
Now I wonder what the ideal color for balast would be.
Joe
Crandall,
I appreciate your comments about the darker colors. They match my own thoughts.
JFallon,
Thanks for the heads up, and no, I'm not likely to have much foam beneath my track.
Best regards,
The higher I climb through the subroadbed sandwich, the darker the caulk gets.
I have been using caulk for just about everything except wood-to-wood and metal to anything. That calls for screws, or nuts and bolts.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Certainly happy to do that, however, I am afraid that the damage has been done, it seems that the heading propogates in such a way that my spelling error will be there for all to see.
I went to a larger Wal-Mart supercenter and found a 4-pack of acrylic latex caulk for $3.88. Can't beat that price anywhere.
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
So, Joe...Does that mean you'll change your mind about extruded foam insulation, too?
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
tstage wrote:So, Joe...Does that mean you'll change your mind about extruded foam insulation, too? Tom
Tom, that's not fair. I'd never tried the caulk, but when I did, it was everything that was advertised, and I am just acknowledging those facts and experiences with caulk. I knew it was good glue, but Randy had said it would come apart easily when I needed it to. That's when I became a believer of caulk.
Regarding foam, lets see:
I try hard to be a mirror to what I see and do. Sometimes the kid is ugly, sometimes the kid is cute. Caulk turned out to be cute, foam, well, I think it will take more than a shave and a haircut to fix that!
Warmest regards to all,
The use of caulk to fix track to the surface of whatever you are using sounds like a good idea but how or where does one apply it if using 3 rail O gauge Lionel tinplate track? Under each tie looks like the only place?
Mike
I don't see why it would/should be any different. A thin bead stretched atop the centreline, and then a plastic or metal spatula or scraper to spread it thin and wide. Lay your sections, and weight them into place with cans of pop or food, or use track nails if that is appropriate. Wait one hour, remove retaining items, and you should be good to go. Ballast as desired.
Or, did I miss something?
I agree, also. Earlier on these posts, asked about securing blue foam to a door and got a lot of answers. I used DAP caulk with silicon and removed the weights from it yesterday, after about a week, and it seems to be holding. Thanks for all the good advice, everyone
Bill
joe-daddy wrote: tstage wrote:So, Joe...Does that mean you'll change your mind about extruded foam insulation, too? TomTom, that's not fair. I'd never tried the caulk, but when I did, it was everything that was advertised, and I am just acknowledging those facts and experiences with caulk. I knew it was good glue, but Randy had said it would come apart easily when I needed it to. That's when I became a believer of caulk. Regarding foam, lets see:Tried it as roadbed, noisy, hard to even run wire through it, secure wires to it, mount switch machines to it and it was pink. Nope, someone gave me a bum steer there. Tried it as moutains, tried shaping, carving, stacking and it looked exaclty like stacked foam. Nope, other methods easier, cheaper better results for me.Tried it as profile boards as mountains to support aluminum screen wire and cardboard lattice. Works ok and gave me something to useful to do all that foam I'd bought. Tried it as a building foundation or where I need a flat spot on the rr and it seems to works better than plywood or any other alternative, so far. I try hard to be a mirror to what I see and do. Sometimes the kid is ugly, sometimes the kid is cute. Caulk turned out to be cute, foam, well, I think it will take more than a shave and a haircut to fix that!Warmest regards to all,Joe
Try the caulk for switch motors too. At least for Tortoises. If you can stand to hold it for 5 minutes or less until the caulk sets enough to self-support the weight of the Tortoise, you won't even need any other fasteners. I did it to fasten a Tortoise to foam, should work equally well with plywood.
As for pushing wires through foram, I use a piece of piano wire, or whatever drill bit I have handy (drill bit doesn't go all the way through, but the solid wire I use for feeders easily pushes the rest of the way through). I never had a noise problem, but I used caulk to attach foam roadbed tot he foam, and again to attach the track tot he foam, so there was no hard connection between the track and the hard foam. My foam was supported with a simple box frame made of wood, the foam was fastened to that with yellow glue. No annoying noises running modern HO models with all metal wheels. I had a 2x4 foot test piece of foam that I set on sawhorses, used that to test tracklaying and Tortoise installation with the foam base, it's actually noticeably QUIETER when a car rolls on to the half of the track that is ballasted.
As for using it for mountain forms - it still needs to be covered with something, I don't think anyone uses stacked carved foam and NOTHING else (besides paint). I can see an interesting way to use foam - for a deep vertical cut. GLue rock castings to a piece of foam flat at the workbench, then stand it up alongside the track.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Hi Randy,
I know there are ' good ways' to deal with the shortcomings I've listed for foam. I only respond an carry the flag against it because of the huge number people who recommend it as cheaper, better, faster and the 'ONLY way' to go for benchwork, scenery and the cure for the common cold. Some even insist that they don't need any kind of plaster to finish their mountains, all you need is latex paint.
It has been my experience that using some of older, more traditional ways of building hard shell and benchwork are actually cheaper, easeier to do and have produced for me, better results.
Some may think I am closed to other ideas, actually, I've very open to try new things, that is why I tried your suggestion for caulk. When the ideas turnout to be good, I talk about it, but if it is not, like in the foam stuff, I'll bark about that too!
Never do I mean to be personal, but I do mean to be direct.
Best and warm regards to all!
selector wrote: I don't see why it would/should be any different. A thin bead stretched atop the centreline, and then a plastic or metal spatula or scraper to spread it thin and wide. Lay your sections, and weight them into place with cans of pop or food, or use track nails if that is appropriate. Wait one hour, remove retaining items, and you should be good to go. Ballast as desired.Or, did I miss something?
If you were replying to Mike's post above yours, what you missed is that he only has three ties under each track section, and each tie only has two narrow metal edges in contact with the roadbed - Lionel O-gauge tinplate.
Caulk is good. I don't think it's quite that good.
OTOH, if he were to fill in between the metal ties with wood ties of appropriate cross-section, he could caulk them (and his metal ties) to the roadbed/ballast form and hold his rails down with spikes...
My specialwork is raw rail spiked to wood ties held down by caulk.
Of course, it probably WOULD hold good enough if some caulk were applied to each of the three ties and the track stuck down. Although running good old HEAVY cast Lionel locos might shift things if nails are not used.
Thanks to those who responded to my question about using chaulk with Lionel O gauge tinplate track. As I see it, unless I put somekind of solid material (wood or plastic) inside of the hollow part of the metal tie, attach the track to that material either by nail or screw through the holes in the tie and then put chaulk under the now solid surface, chaulk on foam with tinplate track may not work.
What do you think?
Ah, okay, thanks Chuck. I am glad I had the foresight to wonder aloud if I had missed something.
So, yes, if the device is meant to be finished to make it look representative, do that with some quality epoxy or appropriate glue to get more ties supporting the device, and then use the light caulk to keep it in place. I think that, between some light caulk at each end, proper footing under the rest of the turnout, especially at the frog, and some ballasting at the extremities, your turnout would be there until you hit it with a hammer.
Sorry, I have to change my last statement. Shortly after removing the weights, I checked the foam by gently lifting one corner of it and it all came loose - again. Now I have enclosed it within a border of 1x3 inch lumber, screwed and glued to the door edges. I am not to sure I will ever use the foam again, if I ever build another layout.(I'm getting too old to be doing that). That is my feeling and that's all I have to say on the subject for the time being.
Hi!!
Im new to the forum and the model railroading hobby.Ive been looking as much as I can at all the how to post etc.Good read about the caulking.For the time being I have started to build a 18" * 4' diorama which at first was only going to be a wooden shelf with track to display the 2 trains I currently have.
I noticed the comments on pink foam and found it interesting as this is what Ive made my cliffs rocks out of and I think its the best thing since sliced bread.Its easy to carve and paint.I put down a base coat and applied different coloured washes.I think all materials have there merits and pitfalls.
CHEERS
David
SF Bill wrote:Sorry, I have to change my last statement. Shortly after removing the weights, I checked the foam by gently lifting one corner of it and it all came loose - again. Now I have enclosed it within a border of 1x3 inch lumber, screwed and glued to the door edges. I am not to sure I will ever use the foam again, if I ever build another layout.(I'm getting too old to be doing that). That is my feeling and that's all I have to say on the subject for the time being.Bill
Bill,
I glued 3 4*8 sheets of 1/2 soundboard to plywood (with yellow titebond) about a month ago and have had no incidents of separation. While some proclaim foam to be a replacement for sliced bread, others like yourself suffer from 'silly' issues like trying to get it to stay glued down while still others spend unbelievable effort trying to stop it from being a resonating noise maker.
I remain convinced that one could find a number of better and more suitable, friendly and ultimately cheaper methods of providing a high quality roadbed without using foam.
As always, just my 2 cents worth nothing more.