What is the best material to use to fill in the kerfs on curves and to level the transition from mainline to branchline homasote thicknesses? I will be handlaying track so I need to use something that can hold spikes. I have read other posts where folks have used spackle or wood putty, but there was no mention of whether the track was hand laid or flex track.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thank You,
Ray B.
rmbarry wrote: What is the best material to use to fill in the kerfs on curves and to level the transition from mainline to branchline homasote thicknesses? I will be handlaying track so I need to use something that can hold spikes. I have read other posts where folks have used spackle or wood putty, but there was no mention of whether the track was hand laid or flex track.Any suggestions would be appreciated.Thank You,Ray B.
You will be glueing down your ties for handlaying. Any spackle, waterputty or filler will work. The few spikes that may hit a filled area will be spiked to tie anyway.
A hint for handlaid, sand the ties, stain and ballast. Knock off any granules of ballast then lay the rail. A little trickier at the turnouts but ballasting is much easier.
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org
The issue of the kerfs are one of the reasons I prefer to cut my Homasote ribbon-style from sheets. But 2 sheets of Homasote are all I need for my small layouts.
But getting back to the question, most of your rail holding is done by the spikes being anchored in the wood ties. Unless you are using really large spikes, only a small portion goes into the Homasote. That said, I have found my spikes did need to go into the roadbed in HO. The tie thickness after sanding level and the softness of the wood allowed the spikes to slightly enlarge the holes in the ties over time on sharp cuves and at turnouts (where the load is greatest) if the tips were not anchored in the Homasote. Smaller spikes such as the Micro size spikes sold by ME, or the near scale spikes sold by Proto87 Stores might not have this problem. From what I have seen, in scales larger than HO, the ties have enough thickness/mass that this is not a problem.
The other part of the story is that the kerf filler - whatever it is - must be capable of receiving spikes without undue force. Otherwise, the spikes will curl when being driven just as they did for me in the hard spots of the grain when using soft wood for roadbed. To me, this would rule out most spackles or wood putties. The ones I know of all dry too hard. Perhaps an acrylic caulk would work.
Hopefully, most/all of your kerfs end before the "spike zone", ie.; under the rails. If need be, predrill the spike hole in those (hopefully) few situations. Or skip spiking into that particular tie.
Hope this helps.
Fred W