I am also using Tracklay along with some H&M Tracklay that I found on Ebay being cleared by a Southampton Model Shop. The H&M Tracklay is similar to Tracklay but about half the width so you have to lay 2 strips side by side for an 00 piece of track. Not sure how old the H&M Tracklay is but seems to be working ok so far.
It is certainly easier to fix the Tracklay to the track and then glue the whole lot down, I have been using PVA from Hobbycraft which seems to have the right amount of tack and dries well enough that nothing moves once it is dry, having put weights on the track to keep it in place whilst drying.
I probably should have used your method of fixing the ballast in place beforehand which saves a lot of messy cleaning up of ballast which is what I will have contend with. I think Tracklay is an excellent product but does not seem to get much in the way of press, not sure why this should be much easier than dripping diluted PVA on to the ballast.
Your results look very realistic, I am using Peco Finescale throughout, had thought of using Scaleway with Marcway points but I have a local shop that stocks Peco so used it for for convenience.
I also appear to be using the same backscene paper from ID Backscenes as you, which I must admit found to be troublesome to fix to the MDF I used, only because I found the ink runs when wet as I used a wallpaper paste probably a mistake perhaps a contact adhesive would have been better. I then spayed a section with a matt varnish and this did the trick and stopped the ink from running.
I use the Proses track gauges that you can set for whatever track spacing you wish. I set one track in place then adjusted the track gauge to the spacing of a pair of finescale points facing each other. Once the first track had set I then laid the parallel track and used the gauges to aligned the track it works brilliantly even round corners.
I found working carefully using Tracklay and the above gauges results in a very sound piece of track. I am using DCC so use Peco wired fishplates at intervals to provide power to all parts of the layout, along with insulated fishplates for the live frogs along way to go before completion but pleased with the results so far.
Tracklaying with Tracklay
in Ben Alder's Blog
A blog by Ben Alder in RMweb Blogs
Posted
I am also using Tracklay along with some H&M Tracklay that I found on Ebay being cleared by a Southampton Model Shop. The H&M Tracklay is similar to Tracklay but about half the width so you have to lay 2 strips side by side for an 00 piece of track. Not sure how old the H&M Tracklay is but seems to be working ok so far.
It is certainly easier to fix the Tracklay to the track and then glue the whole lot down, I have been using PVA from Hobbycraft which seems to have the right amount of tack and dries well enough that nothing moves once it is dry, having put weights on the track to keep it in place whilst drying.
I probably should have used your method of fixing the ballast in place beforehand which saves a lot of messy cleaning up of ballast which is what I will have contend with. I think Tracklay is an excellent product but does not seem to get much in the way of press, not sure why this should be much easier than dripping diluted PVA on to the ballast.
Your results look very realistic, I am using Peco Finescale throughout, had thought of using Scaleway with Marcway points but I have a local shop that stocks Peco so used it for for convenience.
I also appear to be using the same backscene paper from ID Backscenes as you, which I must admit found to be troublesome to fix to the MDF I used, only because I found the ink runs when wet as I used a wallpaper paste probably a mistake perhaps a contact adhesive would have been better. I then spayed a section with a matt varnish and this did the trick and stopped the ink from running.
I use the Proses track gauges that you can set for whatever track spacing you wish. I set one track in place then adjusted the track gauge to the spacing of a pair of finescale points facing each other. Once the first track had set I then laid the parallel track and used the gauges to aligned the track it works brilliantly even round corners.
I found working carefully using Tracklay and the above gauges results in a very sound piece of track. I am using DCC so use Peco wired fishplates at intervals to provide power to all parts of the layout, along with insulated fishplates for the live frogs along way to go before completion but pleased with the results so far.
Jim