Laying track: Glue, nails, or both??

[Bubbytrains]

Doughless

Okay, on the subtopic of making changes, we're talking about taking up both the track and the roadbed, and not just the track from the roadbed?  Doing the latter would be a problem, no?

So for the track nail folks, do you use one nail through both the track and the roadbed or do you first nail down the roadbed to the subroadbed, then the track to the roadbed?  So you would need to take up both nails to realign something.

My experience with caulk is that you just pry up the roadbed and the caulked track comes with it and move the whole thing a bit. 

I don't know if either way is a real problem or an advantage, just want to be clear as to what's being talked about.

 

Correct, I nail down the cork roadbed first, and then nail the track to the roadbed.

[riogrande5761]

Doughless

So for the track nail folks, do you use one nail through both the track and the roadbed or do you first nail down the roadbed to the subroadbed, then the track to the roadbed?  So you would need to take up both nails to realign something.

The only way that makes any sense is to lay the cork first, which I lay on the center-line I draw, and fasten it down with nails.  The go back and lay the track on top.  Of course if you need to remove it to relay or to salvage, reverse the order.  (naturally if everything is fixed with ballast, thats a different story - but nails, IMO, give you the best options if you are at that stage and need to remove for any reason)

My experience with caulk is that you just pry up the roadbed and the caulked track comes with it and move the whole thing a bit. 

I use Atlas track nails to attach my cork as well as the track.  I learned that technique from old Atlas books years ago and it works just fine.  I put nails every 3 inches on the straight sections and about every 2 inches on curve sections.  When it came time to break the layout down and I had not ballasted it yet, I took needle nose pliers and pulled out the nails and recovered all of the cork.

Here are photo's of the cork going in with nails, and later recovering it when the layout was torn down - I salvaged everything for re-use due to the no-adhesive methods and no mess either, no water to soak glue.  No caulk to have to scrape off the bottom of track or cork to clean it up, nothing.

 

[doctorwayne]

On the original portion of my layout, I put down the cork using yellow carpenter's glue, temporarily holding the cork in place with partially-driven 2 1/2" nails (I had a 50lb. box of them left over after building my house).  The nails were all removed the next day, and after sanding the cork, track was added, using nails to hold it in place.  I've not needed to move any of the track that's on cork, but have removed some turnouts forming a crossover between parallel main lines, and managed to scrape away the excess cork between the two lines.

On the upper level of the layout, all of the cork was put down using contact cement, working to pre-drawn centrelines. 
However, after adding an interchange, I discovered that its tracks, leading to a staging yard in another room, were too close to the existing main line, leaving insufficient room to add a view-block for much of the interchange's track.
I couldn't relocate the interchange tracks, as it would have created unsuitably tight curves through the room's wall, so instead, I altered the too-close mainline's curve to create the needed space.

Here's an over-all view showing the proximity of the curved main (between the temporarily-placed station and the hole-in-the-wall) with the interchange tracks at right, with the loco and short train on it...

As you can see, none of the track involved had yet been ballasted.
The track throughout the mainline curve is all Atlas flex, soldered at all rail joints and held in place with nails.  I used a cut-off disc to cut the rails of the main, just beyond the turnout which is under the caboose of the train in the foreground, above.  The nails from that point, right through the curve, were all pulled, and I then manually re-aligned the curve to see what looked best and would still function properly.  Once I found a reasonable compromise, I used a pencil to roughly mark the edges for removing parts of the existing cork on the outer edge of the original curve and for adding new cork on the inside of the curve.  Here's a partial view showing some of the cork removed (a scraper and some elbow grease made short work of it) afer first using a utilty knife to cut a bevel along what was to become the outer shoulder of the new ballast line...

...and some new cork, or remnants of leftovers from the original, have been added under the moved track, which is already held in place with re-used track nails.

This work was carried through the curve until it reached a point where it transitioned into the original curve...

After all of the trimming of cork and clean-up was done, the free ends of the rails at the original cut were shortened and re-soldered at the original cut-point.

Here's the increased space between the two tracks, enough for a thin stone retaining wall, as most of this curve will be in a low rock cut.  Trees and some extruded foam hillside should be sufficient to hide that portion of the interchange tracks....

With the track move completed, the main and visible portion of the interchange tracks were ballasted...

...and all tracks put back into service.  Another vote for track nails.

Wayne