What's Cutting Edge in tracklaying?

[gronk the shunter]

I'm about to start tracklaying in the next couple of weeks on my 2010 challenge layout, and am moving away from OO peco for the first time, but it dawned on me that maybe there's a better way of laying the line than pins and pva straight onto the ply baseboard with 50/50 water/pva ballast. I've heard of cork being used for years, but now there's some kind of foam too, and even cork AND foam. For that matter what's the best track for EM or P4. The challenge layout will be pointless (that's no turnouts rather than a futile exercise - hopefully )

 

So here's the questions bothering me, what's the cutting edge of track laying:

 

1.What track to use, SMP, C&L, wood track panels or plastic sleepers, or exactoscale track panels?

 

and

 

2.How to fix the track and ballast? and should I use some kind of underlay?

 

Sorry for the questions , which are probably rudimentary and simplistic but having never knowingly seen the different track types I can't compare like with like.

 

Thanks in advance for your help and guidance chaps. (and chapesses)

[RFS]

I'm about to start relaying my layout with Depron 3mm foam underlay which is readily available from Ebay for about £3 per sq metre. The use of cork goes back a long way, to a time when there was really nothing else available. I laid my original layout directly onto Birch ply, but it was a bit noisy and didn't quite look right without a ballast shoulder. On the other scenic part of the layout I used 3mm cork floor tiles. These gave a nice ballast shoulder but there was little difference in noise level.

 

With the Depron foam underlay I propose fixing the ballast with a mix in equal parts of copydex, water and methylated spirit. Once I've got well underway I'll post some pictures and report on how it went. I'm continuing to use Peco code 75 for now as I've managed to lift all the points from the last layout.

[hayfield]

I'm about to start tracklaying in the next couple of weeks on my 2010 challenge layout, and am moving away from OO peco for the first time, but it dawned on me that maybe there's a better way of laying the line than pins and pva straight onto the ply baseboard with 50/50 water/pva ballast. I've heard of cork being used for years, but now there's some kind of foam too, and even cork AND foam. For that matter what's the best track for EM or P4. The challenge layout will be pointless (that's no turnouts rather than a futile exercise - hopefully )

 

So here's the questions bothering me, what's the cutting edge of track laying:

 

1.What track to use, SMP, C&L, wood track panels or plastic sleepers, or exactoscale track panels?

 

and

 

2.How to fix the track and ballast? and should I use some kind of underlay?

 

Sorry for the questions , which are probably rudimentary and simplistic but having never knowingly seen the different track types I can't compare like with like.

 

Thanks in advance for your help and guidance chaps. (and chapesses)

 

You need to chose the gauge, as it will be your stock.

 

If you use C&L indvidual components you could build the track as per prototype in pannels with 12" wide sleepers at the start and end of each pannel, and vairy the sleeper spacings accordingly.

 

You could of course replace the plastic sleepers with wooden ones and pre-stain them before track construction.

 

C&L also sell the dense foam underlay, never used it but to keep the sound qualities dilute copydex has to be used.

[craigwelsh]

You need to chose the gauge, as it will be your stock.

 

If you use C&L indvidual components you could build the track as per prototype in pannels with 12" wide sleepers at the start and end of each pannel, and vairy the sleeper spacings accordingly.

12" wide joint sleepers were an early thing I believe with 10" being used later on and 12" left for pointwork. Exactoscale panels can be made up with two types of joint sleeper in any case.

 

Cutting edge really depends on what you are looking for. Prototype accuracy would be covered by Exactoscale components and their wide range of different chair types as well as P4 standards. Exactoscale also sell a closed cell foam underlay that is a lot more robust and dense than a camping mat before the two are confused!

Wooden stained sleepers do look a bit better than plastic sleepers but are usually 1/2 height and if so should be ballasted when laid as its otherwise nearly impossible to get the required single thickness of ballast. Full height sleepers are a lot easier to ballast around later.

[Trog]

As stated standard sleepers have been 10" x 5" for about 100 years, joint sleepers 12" x 5" were used with the larger joint chairs up until about the 1960's. Softwood crossing timbers are 12" x 6". Pre grouping sleepers however tended to be longer than the standard 8' - 6", and I have seen very large perhaps 18" wide timbers indeed used under LNWR vintage S&C.

[brossard]

I'm building a small (11' long) 00 layout using the C&L TimberTracks system. First off the track it produces looks beautiful. Nothing looks more like wood than wood. However it is pricey since I guess the timber is very thin birch ply, although if you use the individual components it costs no more than a PECO point (buying in premade blades and crossings really puts the price up). Using TimberTracks for plain track is to say the least tedious and challenging. No flexitrack here so you have to carefully plan the curves you need. I plot the curve using scrap PECO flexitrack onto a 2mm card then cut the template. You could use Templot of course (which I have but to date not figured out).

 

I'm doing this to stretch myself after building a fairly successful PECO code 75 layout and to try several techniques. The small size makes it an ideal testbed.

 

If you check out the C&L site you will see a great variety in the ways sleepers were arranged on proto track. The neat thing is you can buy track bases for your chosen company's track for that ultra authentic look.

 

For me I'm sort of leaning towards the plastic stuff for my next layout. This due to cost and practicality - life is too short to spend hours making plain track when C&L make pretty decent flexitrack. By the way I always use cork for roadbed.

 

John

[hayfield]

You could use Templot of course (which I have but to date not figured out).

 

 

John

 

John

 

I a computer numpty but Templot is well worth the effort to get to know, laying and bending plain track is easy and adding turnouts is not much harder, tutorials are quite easy to follow and there is always Templot club to help.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

As for cutting edge track work how about NE interlaced turnouts, or a nice outside slip as a centre piece !

[Pete the Elaner]

There is something about SMP which I think just doesn't look right in OO. To me they look a little too fat. Maybe it is because the sleepers are a more to scale & the underscale gauge makes this looks wrong.

I'm using Peco code 75 on my new layout & am cutting the webbing to space the sleepers a little further apart. I needed to create a plasticard template for this. For me, the improvement in appearance is well worth the extra effort.

 

As mentioned in an earlier post, I would recommend Copydex for fixing track & ballast. It dries tacky & slightly pliable which allows me to adjust the sleepers after the glue has dried. It also dries a lot faster than PVA.

Having tried Copydex, I'll not use PVA again.

[craigwelsh]

There is something about SMP which I think just doesn't look right in OO. To me they look a little too fat. Maybe it is because the sleepers are a more to scale & the underscale gauge makes this looks wrong.

I'm using Peco code 75 on my new layout & am cutting the webbing to space the sleepers a little further apart. I needed to create a plasticard template for this. For me, the improvement in appearance is well worth the extra effort.

I think i'm right in saying SMP uses 4mm scale sleepers and spacing whereas you have a 3.5mm gauge so its inevitable it'll look 'odd' unless you look side on. Ideally you do want something a bit bigger and further apart than Peco, something like 28 sleepers per panel to a 3.8mm:1ft scale perhaps. The issue here is the defence Peco keep using for no 'better' track mind!

[gronk the shunter]

So, here's where I'm up to decision wise. The gauge will be EM, (since I've got hold of a load of free wheels) laying it on foam rather than cork and using copydex for ballasting, but what about the track? I've discounted wooden sleepers as it looks a bit time consumiing and I need to get a move on, so I need to use flexi-track, but should it be C&L or SMP, unhelpfully neither website shows pics!

 

What's the consensus view, which looks better? The layout is set mid to late 70's on a run down secondary line. I don't want to buy one only to find the other brand is better looking/ easier to use?

[woodbine]

In my opinion C&L looks better, plus you have a better range of turnout construction bits and pieces to match.

Agonising between foam and cork probably isn't useful, plenty of exhibition layouts are on 1/8" cork and don't sound the least noisy to me, specially with Copydex to stick everything down.

Plus you won't melt cork with your soldering iron.