I have not worked much with extruded foam so I do not know if it would be workable with what I am about to suggest.
I gave a clinic on trackwork for beginners - on the thought that beginners will want to change their track plan often the more they get experience, and are likely to put track on bare plywood rather than cork roadbed. I showed how track can be held in place reasonably securely with gluedots (the high tack, low profile kind from a craft store) including and perhaps particularly the track with integral plastic roadbed such as Kato and Bachmann sell.
Gluedots are basically small pieces of transfer tape (double sided tape that is as thin as Scotch tape or even thinner) and the dots are about the size of a fingernail. They stick like the very dickens (as does 3M transfer tape which I have been using more and more instead of the thick foamy double sided tape) but can be easily sliced with a thin spatula. Gluedots every 5 or 6 inches with track pressed into the dot with a roller like you use for wallpaper should hold and yet be ready to be pulled up without damage.
There remains the matter of ballast. David Barrow experimented with "minimal" ballast and kept it loose, not secured. He is a quirky guy and I suspect few have followed this lead on that but it is a thought.
Dave Nelson
ATLANTIC CENTRAL rrinker If you have a problem lifting track from caulk, you've used too much caulk. It should pop right off with zero damage to the track. This goes back 2 layouts ago, to my first try at using caulk after nailing every layout prior to that. I removed an entire siding I decided was pretty much useless and turnouts aren't cheap - it popped right off, no broken ties, and I was able to reuse the turnout and the long piece of flex track. There was a short fitter piece that just wasn;t worth trying to use elsewhere. And the turnout that was removed was right on the main line, it was easily replaced by a section of flex and once the foam was painted over, hiding the track placement lines, you'd never know it had been there. The trick is spreading the caulk out VERY thing. A flexible putty knife works, but so do those plastic coated fake credit cards you get in some of those junk mail offers - bonus those are free and instead of trying to clean them you can just throw them out and use a new one next time. The caulk should like like a nearly clear, shiny area before you stick the track into it - that's all it takes, not gobs and blobs. The track WILL stay, until you take a putty knife to the underside and gently lift it off the roadbed. --Randy Not the caulk I use....... But I don't glue/caulk the turnouts. I have never worried with salvaging track, especially after it is ballasted. Sheldon
rrinker If you have a problem lifting track from caulk, you've used too much caulk. It should pop right off with zero damage to the track. This goes back 2 layouts ago, to my first try at using caulk after nailing every layout prior to that. I removed an entire siding I decided was pretty much useless and turnouts aren't cheap - it popped right off, no broken ties, and I was able to reuse the turnout and the long piece of flex track. There was a short fitter piece that just wasn;t worth trying to use elsewhere. And the turnout that was removed was right on the main line, it was easily replaced by a section of flex and once the foam was painted over, hiding the track placement lines, you'd never know it had been there. The trick is spreading the caulk out VERY thing. A flexible putty knife works, but so do those plastic coated fake credit cards you get in some of those junk mail offers - bonus those are free and instead of trying to clean them you can just throw them out and use a new one next time. The caulk should like like a nearly clear, shiny area before you stick the track into it - that's all it takes, not gobs and blobs. The track WILL stay, until you take a putty knife to the underside and gently lift it off the roadbed. --Randy
If you have a problem lifting track from caulk, you've used too much caulk. It should pop right off with zero damage to the track. This goes back 2 layouts ago, to my first try at using caulk after nailing every layout prior to that. I removed an entire siding I decided was pretty much useless and turnouts aren't cheap - it popped right off, no broken ties, and I was able to reuse the turnout and the long piece of flex track. There was a short fitter piece that just wasn;t worth trying to use elsewhere. And the turnout that was removed was right on the main line, it was easily replaced by a section of flex and once the foam was painted over, hiding the track placement lines, you'd never know it had been there.
The trick is spreading the caulk out VERY thing. A flexible putty knife works, but so do those plastic coated fake credit cards you get in some of those junk mail offers - bonus those are free and instead of trying to clean them you can just throw them out and use a new one next time. The caulk should like like a nearly clear, shiny area before you stick the track into it - that's all it takes, not gobs and blobs. The track WILL stay, until you take a putty knife to the underside and gently lift it off the roadbed.
--Randy
Not the caulk I use.......
But I don't glue/caulk the turnouts.
I have never worried with salvaging track, especially after it is ballasted.
Sheldon
I used the Polyseamseal stuff on the layout where I modified it and removed and reused track during construction. Had no problem removing what I was changing, without ripping the ties off. Last layout I went to get the same stuff but the local Lowes stopped carrying the Polyseamseal brand so I used a different one, worked exactly the same though.
The cork wasn't reusable after I scrapped it off, but the track was fine. Layout was still under track construction so no ballast yet. Once ballasted - I would agree, forget it. I didn't salvage any of the track off my last layout although most of it was unballasted - mainly because I am not planning to use the brand of track in the next one anyway. The juni man that hauled away the sections that sat stacked in my basement for 5 years perhaps salvaged some and made a little money off it. I did save all the electronics, mostly the servos because I plan to keep using those for turnout motors, although I doubt I will use the controllers over - I'm designing my own this time.
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I will add, I didn;t lay the track to be salvaged, I designed the whole layout to be salvageable - it came apart in easy to handle sections which got stacked in the moving track and then stacked in my new baement. And then promptly forgotten about. I could have put it back together exactly as it was, but had access from all sides, but that would have left a lot of unused space in my basement. After staring at it for 5 years I decided I was not going to attempt to incorporate any of it in the new layout so out it went. Best of intentions, making it portable, but seldom does the new space exactly equal the old space and at least half the fun for me is designing something that will fit my space. Plus because of limited space, the old layout had curves too sharp to run all my equipment - it handled what was expected on the branch line it was a model of just fine, but with a full basement to play with, I can now build a layout with decently wide curves so anything I have will run.
rrinker I will add, I didn;t lay the track to be salvaged, I designed the whole layout to be salvageable - it came apart in easy to handle sections which got stacked in the moving track and then stacked in my new baement. And then promptly forgotten about.
I will add, I didn;t lay the track to be salvaged, I designed the whole layout to be salvageable - it came apart in easy to handle sections which got stacked in the moving track and then stacked in my new baement. And then promptly forgotten about.
I salvaged my whole layout as well, but because I already knew any space I would be getting in the future would require a new layout design, I didn't design the layout to be moved and rebuilt. I have moved plenty of times in the past that it was easy to know any layout would not get moved and re-assembled.
What I did was save major components, such as bench-work grid sections, which could be re-used or modified and re-used on a totally different layout.
Best of intentions, making it portable, but seldom does the new space exactly equal the old space and at least half the fun for me is designing something that will fit my space. Plus because of limited space, the old layout had curves too sharp to run all my equipment - it handled what was expected on the branch line it was a model of just fine, but with a full basement to play with, I can now build a layout with decently wide curves so anything I have will run. --Randy
For sure - most sensible outcome.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
ATLANTIC CENTRALAny such undertaking, which I have briefly experimented with, would in my view be a monumental waste of my most valueable resource - time.
.
100% agree. I would much rather spend money than time.
I would also prefer to have ballast and scenery rather than worry about salvaging track later.
-Kevin
Living the dream.