What kind of glue to use?

[Anonymous]

I'm wondering what kind of glue to use for assembling components onto or repairing engines and rolling stock. Obviously it has to be good with plastic.

When I visited my local hobby shop tonight, I found many types of glue. I was specifically looking at that CA but which kind? Quick drying? Slow drying? Thick? Thin?

I'm having some difficulties getting started with the basics because I have some real dumb questions. Part of the problem is that the guy at the hobby shop seems like he's not interested in helping me. Sometimes I feel like he's talking to me in a condascending way. Needless to say, I'll be getting most of my advice and help from these forums and other forums until they replace that guy at the hobby shop.

Question #2: Can someone point me out to a good source or two for track layout designs? Web sites would be great but ISBN numbers or authors for books would work too. I may be looking specificially for something on shelf type layout. I've got a pretty good sized basement but the problem is that it's a finished basement (70% of it) and I really don't feel that it's appropriate to fill up the entire space of the basement with a layout. I was thinking something like running a layout along the length of the walls and making at least 1 90 degree turn so I"d have kind of an L-shaped layout that could hug the walls. The interesting part will be to find out if I can fit a helix at one of the ends and make it "not visible" so I can run at least 1 continuous main line.

I hooked up a remote switch tonight - Yay!

Thank you in advance,
Jas

[Anonymous]

BTW, if it makes a difference, I'm interested in modeling diesel engines, not so much steam engines. I live in the Midwest and would like to try my hand at either a BNSF line, a SF line from the SouthWest/Arizona area, or a Chicago NorthWestern scheme.

I got two GP-38's last night (Atlas) from the shop. One is a SF and the other a BNSF. They were marked down from $120 to $65 so they were either priced wrong to begin with or they were 50% off :) At any rate, I like them. They run quite a bit better and quieter than my HO trains from 20 years ago did. These things also run at very low speeds too which is really really great. I'm using a Rail Power 250 Tech 4 which really does some neat stuff with momentum and braking. Eventually I'd like to get to a point where I can have running lights or ditch lights regardless of engine movement but I'm guessing that's where DCC comes into play and I'm not quite there yet....

I've taken a few pictures of my few pieces of track, on plywood, on a table, in the cold garage:
http://www.boche.net/trains/pictures/

Thank you,
Jas

[snowey]

first off, welcome back to the hobby! Your questions aren't dumb, we all have questions from time to time, believe me! OK, as for glue, CA is a good choice, but as for viscositey (thickness, thinness, etc.) that all depends on what you want to glue. If the parts are a perfect fit, use the thin stuff. But, if the parts don't quite fit, use the thick stuff. But, one warning with CA, BE CAREFUL!! Because sometimes you can accidentaly glue your fingers together, or glue your hand to the part, or whatever. That's why you should always have some nail polish remover handy, to disolve it. As for track plans, there's numerous web sites, like http://thortrains.net and a site called Mike Rose hobbies. I think that's MRhobbies.com Also, look in some of the books from Atlas, and Kalmbach (WWW.ATLASRR.COM and WWW.KALMBACH.COM/BOOKS)

[snowey]

forgot to add, as an alternative to CA, you might want to try epoxy. It comes in @ parts, and you squeeze out equal parts onto a piece of cardboard or something, and mix them together. However, I haven't had very good experiance with it. Also, it's wastefull and messy. Also, Atlas has a great forum at WWW.ATLASRR.COM that you might want to check out. It's great, you can post a question on ther, and 1 or 2 hours later, you'll have an answer. GUARANTEED!! Sometimes, 5 or 6 of them! Also, they have some FREE layout planning software, which you can download from their site for free!!!

[Anonymous]

Jas, one of the best sources for track plans I have found is the local library. Best of all its free. I have since purchased a number of Kalmbach books and find them to be very helpful as well. By the way if you look in the back of MODEL RAILROADER magazine or check the yellow pages you may find a different hobby shop thats more to your liking. It pays to shop around a bit and its very likely that you'll find someone with a much better attitude. Remember the only dumb question is the one that goes unasked.
Best of luck and welcome to the hobby!

[nfmisso]

Jas;

Others have answered #2 very well. I need to chime in on #1: adhesives.

I have a selection of adhesives on my hobby bench: gel type CA, thin CA, 5 minute epoxy, 30 minute epoxy, Testor's solvent in the black plastic bottle and Testor's a the cream color bottle.

Mostly I use Testor's in the black bottle to join plastic to plastic - doesn't work for delrin (like the handrails on your GP38's)

The cream color bottle is used to secure windshields.

CA gel for gap filling applications.

CA for other materials.

epoxy when it is forever.

There is also cyna-epoxy from Mike Rose, it is expensive, but many people swear by it, including Jim Six. Mike has an article on in the November issue of Mainline Modeler.

Nigel