The On-Line Article on Laying Flex Track with Caulking

[Anonymous]

I just finished reading the article on using caulking compound as an adhesive when laying flex track. This is a good technique and one I have used extensively, but now I offer an enhancement:

Use a little more caulk than the author recommends and then sprrinkle ballast into the wet caulk. (Buy the caulk in a dark color so that it will blend in nicely with the ballast color) . You may have to experiment to get the right amount of caulk, but once you've mastered the technique you will have a neatly ballasted roadbed with less mess than the usual diluted white glue method.

[Anonymous]

Dumb question here: I clicked the link for this thread, thinking I would be able to read the on-line article, but it just gave me the post by DonCameron. May I ask (without upsetting someone who has answered this question before!) where is the article on Laying Flex Track? And is it still available? Sorry, but I had to ask. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Might be this one...

http://www.trains.com/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000/000/004/379dcjrm.asp

[Anonymous]

Looks like the right information to me! Thanks BaldwinJL!

[ondrek]

QUOTE: Originally posted by DonCameron

I just finished reading the article on using caulking compound as an adhesive when laying flex track. This is a good technique and one I have used extensively, but now I offer an enhancement:

Use a little more caulk than the author recommends and then sprrinkle ballast into the wet caulk. (Buy the caulk in a dark color so that it will blend in nicely with the ballast color) . You may have to experiment to get the right amount of caulk, but once you've mastered the technique you will have a neatly ballasted roadbed with less mess than the usual diluted white glue method.

I have a bunch of test sections of doing just that. it works to a degree...Finding the right amount of caulk is more difficult than i thought. it all depends on how you want it to look.

You have to remember that only a thin layer of balast will actually stick to the caulk, there will be no thinkness of balast. So, the balast will not fill up the area in between the ties making them "burried" in the ballast. I tried to use a lot of caulk, so much that the ties were sunk into it so that the balast was the right height when sprinkled on...it wokred well, until i touched it with my finger. Word of caution...Dont Touch it with anything! I messed up that test section with that one second touch.
Next issue, if you just sprinkle the balast on and let it dry, try not to touch it or let anyone else touch it after it dries. if you rub your fingers on the balast with any force, it will come off, much like how the sand comes off sandpaper after it gets wet.
I am still in the process of testing this all out. in theory it should work like a
charm, its finding that charm first thats difficult.

If you are not a huge stickler on the fine fine details, there is another method for balasting track that I learned from another member on this site.
He has painted his roadbed and then just laid the track on top of it. no balast at all. he used grey paint on the coark and did it thin, so the multi colors of the coark caused multi color grey paint, and it did look good in the pictures. the only thing, the track and ties sit on top, they do not get burried, so for those who are sticklers, this might not look authentic enough.
An advanced paint technique that he and i also talked about is that pray paint that is speckled rock looking. its a textured paint. I bought some and did some tests....this paint(i bought it at wallmart) does NOT eat the foam, (white bead or the extruded foam type) and it does NOT eat the woodland scenic foam road bed either! so my test tonight is to put a new test section down....ws foam roadbed on white bead styrofome, spray paint the roadbed with the specle paint. a very healthy portion as this paint gets thick, it doesnt seem to run like water or normal spray paint, so maybe it will build up a thickness to it. then when its still wet, lay the track right in the paint. Lastly sprinkle some ballast on top, it should stick to the wet paint and give it some more look to it. this then can NOT be touched when wet. as i have found that the speckles, when wet, will smuged and mix if touched when wet.

Ok, sorry for the long read. I just got a bit excited when i saw someone talking about what i have been testing out for a few months now.

Kevin