Oh I hate to nitpick, but...
"Scrapped" please. Scraped is what you do to ice on the windshield.
davidmurray I have found that ballast held down with diluted white glue comes off the track very easily. After all white glue is water soluble. Remove track nails, slide over the rail joiners, left the track and tap the section on the table, tie ends down. A small screw driver will remove the rest. Messy, and the ballast is not worth trying to recover to reuse.
I have found that ballast held down with diluted white glue comes off the track very easily. After all white glue is water soluble. Remove track nails, slide over the rail joiners, left the track and tap the section on the table, tie ends down. A small screw driver will remove the rest. Messy, and the ballast is not worth trying to recover to reuse.
Thats helpful to know. Thanks.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
BRAKIE riogrande5761 I chose not to use adhesives to secure the track but rather used Atlas track nails and MicroEngineering spikes, which were easy to pull out with a pair of needlenose plyers. I only used adhesives once and never again since a lot of track wasn't salvageable. I returned to using old fashion spikes for track laying and the ballast glue will help hold the track in place like its done for decades.
riogrande5761 I chose not to use adhesives to secure the track but rather used Atlas track nails and MicroEngineering spikes, which were easy to pull out with a pair of needlenose plyers.
I only used adhesives once and never again since a lot of track wasn't salvageable. I returned to using old fashion spikes for track laying and the ballast glue will help hold the track in place like its done for decades.
Yes, I like that method too. MUCH more forgiving that gluing track right away - as I like to say, too permanent, too soon! I have had to take up track umpteen times just in the process of getting it where I like it over a period of many months and I am only now finally contemplating ballasting - and since it looks highly likely that I will have to move in the next year or two, I'll probably leave the main yard unballasted to salvage many hundreds of dollars of track for re-use.
riogrande5761I chose not to use adhesives to secure the track but rather used Atlas track nails and MicroEngineering spikes, which were easy to pull out with a pair of needlenose plyers.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
I just scraped the top of my rail with a box cutter blade to get the paint off. But I have maybe one more year before I have to scrap (past tense is scrapped) my present layout so I may very well opt to not ballast my yard so that I can save the track for re-use. The only track I will probably have to scrap is the part that does get ballasted, which will be the scenic'd portion.
I scraped er rather my wife scraped most of the ez track from my original SIW but I have enough unused to make my subway level and all my static displays once the main layout is mostly finished and I have an extra piece of flex track that turned into a programing track now that I have a powercab.
Joe Staten Island West
I salvaged S scale Shinohara flex track and turnouts from a prior layout and am using them on my current layout. I had not painted or ballasted the track. So except for cutting off the soldered joints, there was no problem.
Paul
Turnouts and crossings are expensive. I would make a definite effort to save those.
- Douglas
Some people do manage to salvage some track after securing with adhesives, but it's so much easier to remove it safely if it's spiked. Of course it does depend on how far a long you are.
As it is, the layout I am working on now will probably be dismantled either next year or the year after because we aren't happy with our current location and will likely move; we only moved here because it was all we could afford at the time. I do plan on ballasting and scenicking one side of the layout because it's good practice and I've learned a good deal. The amount of track that would be lost would be minimal - just some flex track.
Hopefully if all goes well, I will be able to build something a litte more ambitious with more mainline after moving. All I have now really is a railfanning layout with a bit of switching interest in the yard. But the practice building it has been worth while.
LEOFUTURE do you think modular layout will help for possible move?
do you think modular layout will help for possible move?
Yes. If not modular, at least a layout that is built in movable sections, fastened with either screws or bolts or both.
I use adhesive and soldier all of my track, and I have still successfully reused many turnouts, though I don't usually try to take up flextrack--too much damage from adhesive.
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I never use any kind of adhesives to secure track to roadbed for that very reason; I may (and havehad) reason to reuse it. I have been using Atlas Code 100 track and turnouts since I started back into the hobby in 1993. The price of track gets more expensive as time goes on. I've just moved about 6 weeks ago and was able to take my layout apart, track mainly intact, except where the bolted together sections join. this is my second layout, which 100 percent of the track is reused from the last one, which was dismantled completely 18 years ago. My layout sits in peices in my new train room, but I should be able to reassemble it and splice the wiring back together and I will be back in business. The track is not ballasted yet, so that made things simple.
Some of the track on the layout of the LION is on its 4th incarnation. Stuff is expensive, we do not waste stuff. I have a large stack of track no longer suitable for the layou, but will use it in the construction of Penn Station which will be a static display.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Back in 1999 I had to tear out a 14x25' layout I had nearly finished the benchwork and track laying - I chose not to use adhesives to secure the track but rather used Atlas track nails and MicroEngineering spikes, which were easy to pull out with a pair of needlenose plyers.
I carefully stacked and packed away all my track, turnouts which included a bunch of expensive #8 curved code 83 Walthers and Shinohara turnouts and a few other expensive specialized switches. It was all in good shape and ready when I began laying track in spring 2014 for my present layout, which around 90% of the track on that layout now was salvaged from my old layout. I'm sure glad I didn't glue the track down at that stage of building.
Did the screws distort or crack the ties? Otherwise, it would seem that you can easily get the track up without damage, and no ballast means no cleaning. If you do have cracked ties, cut and remove them, and then take some whole ties, perhaps from a scrapped section of track, and slide those in to replace them.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I have salvage both brass and nickel silver track and switches regardless of length and reused it.I have salvage snap track from short ISLs to reuse as needed on a longer ISL.
I have reused both track and turnout (Atlas) with only minor problems. Painted flex track, especially brush painted, is hard to change the curvature thereon.
It would also seem to be to be a poor idea to use to short, reused bits of track instead of a single long one.
Sometimes even after removing a feeder wire, the track does not want to slide in that area.
The hardest thing to reuse is Atlas undertable switch machines.
Dave
As long as the track is fine, reuse it as long as it is quality stuff (atlas has made a lot of track in their time, I have seen some early incarnations that would not be of use much use today.
If they are nickel-silver track, you can carefully remove it and re-use it. Cleaning ballasted track may be difficult. Inspect every piece carefully. If it's bent and you can't get it perfectly straight again, toss it.
How was the track held in place - glue, nails, caulk? Was it ballasted, and what did you use for that - white glue, matte medium, etc.?
I had to take some of my layout out. I want to change some of it my question is would it be worth it to reuse any old track and switches.The layout pieces are in the garage here it is damp and cold been in there about 6 months. The track and switches are atlas. Not worth bothering with?