Roadbed & Track

[Bill54]

I finally made it to the process of laying roadbed and track.

I'll be using latex caulk as the adhesive to hold the cork roadbed to the plywood sub-roadbed and the track to the cork roadbed.

I know a lot of you have used / use this method.  I would appreciate any tips you can share.

Thanks,

Bill

 

[DeadheadGreg]

Well, I know that for the Woodland Scenics incline sets and risers, the box tells you to make a bead along the edge of the riser, and not spreading it underneith.  THis way you would have two beads on either side fixing it to the layout.  Not sure if this would be a good idea with the cork or not; it could, though, help if you need to remove it and fix something

[BlueHillsCPR]

Rather than ramble on I thought I would refer you to a couple of existing threads on the subject.

Here

And here 

 

Apparently, removing cork that is stuck down with latex is easy enough as long as it is not applied to foam.  Just slip a putty knife under the roadbed/track and slide it along cutting the adhesive.  The foam pulls apart I guess. 

[abbieleibowitz]

Being at about the same stage in my latest venture - or adventure - I have learned the hard way to 1) make sure that if there are any joints between pieces of foam, you fill them in and make sure the joint is reasonable level. I'm using scuptamold for this, but I've seen others mention spackling or joint compound. Then, 2) make sure the cork roadbed is glued (or caulked) securely to the foam all the way around. Finally 3) make sure the track is glued (caulked) securely to the cork roadbed. I use push pins to hold the track to the cork, but the latex caulk gets sticky enough after about 10 minutes to hold on it's own. It really isn't that difficult to correct problems later, but care when caulking can make the job easier.

Good Luck!

Abbie

[DeadheadGreg]

would you run into major problems by not filling in gaps in the foam?  My 4x8 piece broke into 3 pieces on the way home from the store, but it fit back together, theres just some gaps that run across it (nothing major, they're just long).  The foam is basically pretty level regardless.  think i should do it?  I know i have lightweight spackling compound in the house, could i use that?

[AFML]

Staple it! Use the large hand staplers. That way you can remove the staples and relocate the roadbed if needed.

Wes