Securing track to a baseboard

[Psiborg]

Recently we have been using UHU (from a pound shop) to glue down track.  It is applied to the board and the bottom of the sleepers and left for a few minutes, the track is then stuck down and if it's not quite aligned it can be corrected before weighting it down.  It works a lot quicker than PVA and we now lay all of our track this way!

 

 

I hope this helps,

Simon

[28XX]

I use 2mm thick Fab Foam self adhesive black polyurethane foam from HobbyCraft / The Range as underlay, then PVA to stick the track to that.

[Spacewagon52]

I know this might be the holy grail but has anyone put down ballast with a fixative that is easily removed?

 

Track is not cheap and being able to re-use or re-position track AFTER ballasting would be very appealing to me, a novice, as I keep changing my mind on the track configuration.

 

Please say if I am living in cuckoo land?

[Vecchio]

Especially with finer track like code 75 it is easy to rip the rail from the sleepers - so for me once it is down that's it. No recycling. Also because I use ballast in the scenic areas. 

[philsandy]

I used Copydex to fix cork underlay to the baseboard, and also to fix the track to the cork. I ballasted using 50/50 Copydex and water.

I have had to uplift sections of track and with care managed to do it, and reuse the track (SMP code 75).

[cypherman]

Hi all,

I used to just use pins. I would drill small holes in the sleepers where I wanted the held down then pin them. Once the ballast had been laid and pva'd that was all I found was needed.

[Graham_M]

I have tried every method in the book, but now I am building a layout which I need to be portable, this is the method I am using now. For pointwork (soldered copperclad sleepers) and for baseboard ends and other important bits, I obtained from China via eBay some very fine screws. These are 1.4mm x 10mm Phillips head self tappers. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/322993326449 at £4.99 for 1000! I drill through the sleepers into the plywood baseboard 1.2mm, then open up the holes in the sleepers to 1.5mm. A good watchmaker's screwdriver is essential to drive the screws home. For the rest of the trackwork I use railroad spikes, pre-drilling holes of about 0.6mm. After soldering thin dropper wires and ballasting with PVA or Pledge I smother the whole lot with a brown+black matt acrylic paint mix. This sets hard enough to hold the track in place but allows lifting, which is best done with a thin 6" rule eased under the sleepers.