how do I lay cork roadbed and find centerlne of track?

[Anonymous]

I am about to lay my cork roadbed and read somewhere to find the center line of the track then lay the half cork to the line then put the other half on. I am not sure how to find the center line of the track with track sitting there. Is there anyone who could help me with this. Thank you.

[cwclark]

the centerline is exactly what it says..it's the center of the track between the ties..if you are using flex track it is where the nail holes are at...in a straight away it is obvious, in a curve you have to mark it on the plywood sub road bed with a pencil...first get a sheet of plywood and lay it down flat...take a small board and drill a small hole in it about 1" from one end of the board...now... take a measuring tape and measure out the radius you want..let's say it's going to be a 24" radius...so measure from the hole to 24" on the board and then mark it and drill a hole in it that a pencil will fit into...now lay it down on the plywwod and in the first hole, drive a nail to secure the board to the plywood....now stick a pencil in the other hole in the board (the one 24" from the other end ) and in a sweeping motion, pencil in a mark onto the plywood....this is the centerline of your track radius...now from the mark you just made, (it should look like a big semi circle on the plywoood) measure out 1 3/8" from the mark on both sides of the centerline mark and cut it out with a jig saw....you now have a piece of sub road bed with the center line right down the middle...mount the plywood radius you just cut out on your layout benchwork, screw it into place, take the cork road bed, tear it in half and lay one half of it on the centerline..glue it into place and drive a few track nails into it to keep it in place until the glue dries...now do the same with the other half section of the cork roadbed...it will butt up against the first piece you layed...be sure you keep the beveled edges of the cork roadbed on the outside to form the track roadbed ...Chuck[:D]

[Anonymous]

Great advice Chuck, and very detailed. Wish I had this tid bit before Christmas of this year before I laid out some of my curves. I can offer another tid bit as well in determining where to lay the roadbed. For a small poriton of roadbed I laid, I put the track down first, and then spray painted the track with Krylon brown primer. I did this for my staging yard. This accomplished two things. 1. it painted the ties of my track, and 2. it marked where I should lay the roadbed. I only sprayed the track, and sprayed it at a direct downward angle. I didn't want to paint too much of the surrounding area. Once everything dried, I removed the track and cleaned the railheads. What was left was the outline of the track. I simply lined up the roadbed with the track outlines and tacked them in place.

I also did this with a small oval of track on my first layout. I would say this method works best for small projects, and projects that use sectional track, but if you're going to undertake larger layouts, I would use Chuck's method.

Dave

[Anonymous]

To add one more thing to Chucks instructions, I put a straight line at both ends of the curved subroadbed so I can line it up with the approach track. It makes the curve easier to lay and I know that it is alligned correctly.

Have a blessed day and rememberSANTA FE ALL THE WAY

Bob

[Anonymous]

Hello,
I'm just curious whether anyone has any suggestions on how to low flextrack around curves, so that it stays smooth and flat...

[Anonymous]

The way I did my flextrack was to lay it until there was about a foot of track left. Then I bent it to find where the track needed to be cut, cut it, and then nailed it down some more until there was about 2 inches of track left. Then I attached it to the next piece of flextrack with railjoiners and while it was still straight, heated the rail and joiners and applied a little solder to the outside of the rail where it meets the joiner. I made sure that the solder had flown inbetween the rail and the joiner before I removed the heat. I waited until both joints had cooled and then bent the track, continuing to lay track. I didn't really mention it, but I also remover two ties from each end of flextrack to the joiners would slide on and so the ties wouldn't melt.
Reed

[Anonymous]

How flexable is the cork roadbed in the packets of about 2 m long? I was interested in laying my track with cork roadbed later this year. I have some 15" curves on the layout too.

Thanks a lot! :D

Mike

[cwclark]

you will have no problem with the cork road bed being flexible enough...it can bend to about a 10" radius before it is strained...be sure you stagger the end joints so they lock eack pice in place at the ends...put a bead of wood glue down along side the centerline, position the cork roadbed where you want it and press it down...tack about 6 -8 atlas track nails into the corkroad bed to hold it in place until the glue dries...Chuck[:D]

[Anonymous]

You might need more if the cork is on a curve. Just make sure that it stays down.
Reed

[Anonymous]

Thanks a lot for your responses Chuck and Reed!! :D Im still in the process of fixing up some stable benchwork! :)

Mike

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: you will have no problem with the cork road bed being flexible enough...it can bend to about a 10" radius before it is strained...be sure you stagger the end joints so they lock eack pice in place at the ends...put a bead of wood glue down along side the centerline, position the cork roadbed where you want it and press it down...

One of the N scale layouts in the book Model Railroading in Small Spaces has some curves that go as tight as 9-3/4 inches and 8 inches... I'm just wondering if cork roadbed will work, because it doesn't seem to want to lay flat, but starts to kink.