Fixing flexi track with adhesive

   The way I laid my Atlas track was to use white glue and temporarly tack the track to the cork roadbed and used bricks to hold it in place until the track was dry.  I tried the white caulk method and needed to reposition some of the track and destroyed the track trying to get it up, I think I used to mugh caulk.
     I did solder all of my track joints together as well as installing feeder wires about 3 foot.    
                   Hope this info will help, others will surely have different opinions.      Mike

I was thinking of using 'copydex', the white stuff that smells like fish until its dry. Is this the glue thats also known as latex caulk??? Anyone?

Be aware that if your layout room has wildly varying temperatures that you *may* have problems with buckling and mis alignments in the summer. My first layout used all flexi with all the joints soldered up tight. I discovered a few problems one hot day a few years back and had to cut some gaps in the rail. I personaly wont be soldering up all the joints on my new layout but i will be using droppers every few feet so as not to rely on the joiners alone.

Ofcourse if your room is more stable in the temperature department like hopefully mine is now, its not such a big deal.

I used Latex Adhesive Caulk that can be purchased from any home supply store, Wal-mart, etc.  Spread a very thin coating, put the track in place, and weight down for 12 hours or so.  I used split pavers, which are the same size but only half as thick as a normal brick, as weights.

Glue?  CHEAP, Latex(not silicon) caulk(I like clear)

Put a little on with a putty knife or a flat stick.

Weight it down or put a spike in the center of the ties (Atlas has holes.)

I solder joints on curves (Solder before bending) I am learning to not solder the turnouts.

Great care with the turnouts so NO glue gets near the moving parts.

mikesmowers wrote:

The way I laid my Atlas track was to use white glue and temporarly tack the track to the cork roadbed and used bricks to hold it in place until the track was dry.  I tried the white caulk method and needed to reposition some of the track and destroyed the track trying to get it up, I think I used to mugh caulk.      I did solder all of my track joints together as well as installing feeder wires about 3 foot.                        Hope this info will help, others will surely have different opinions.      Mike

That's the way I did it when I used flex-track, about a million years ago, seems like.

I glue cork roadbed on plywood with yellow carpenter's glue. I use Latex Adhesive caulk (clear) from Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Lowes or Menards to glue the flex track to the cork roadbed. I use paving bricks to hold it in place until it dries.  You can remove the bracks after about 30 minutes.  Works great.

I solder two 3' sections of flex track together with 18ga wire jumpers.  I do this at the workbench which is a lot easier than on the layout.  I drill small holes in the roadbed and push the wires underneath the layout to connect to the 12ga wire power buss with suitcase connectors.  I use unsoldered rail joiners between the 6' sections, but a locomotive is never more than 3' from a jumper with this settup.

JIM

I've used similar methods as jamnest.  I found that small gaps (1/64") between soldered pairs of flex-track were needed to avoid misaligned track due to heat.  In my case it was the heated basement during the winter that caused the problem vs. the air conditioned space in the summer.

For future projects, I'll try gluing the cork with a latex adhesive as prior posts suggest the white/carpenter's glue may resonate too much sound to the plywood.  Hopefully a latex bond between track and cork, cork and plywood will reduce the growl.