If you know us by now, you’re well aware that we aren’t as big of train people as we are structures and scenery. That said, we do still like the concept of running trains on our layout, but more as a moving piece of scenery and less about the specifics of trains as far as parts, model numbers, and so-on.
This is the moment that all of our readers and listeners who are bigger fans of the trains lose their minds and lose a little respect for us as “model railroaders”. But that’s just not who we are. WE LOVE building structures and creating city scenes. I guess you could consider us more of diorama builders with a train, than model railroad builders.
Love us for it, hate us for it, we’ll still love you all as readers and podcast listeners just the same.
Laying the flex track for our HO layout
Monday night, I got about one-third of the track down on Black Water Cove (our made-up town name) and we currently sit with about seventy percent of the track down. The only remaining sections to lay include a piece over a curved bridge that needs to be constructed and the top of our city which is about 13’ of track.
This is good, we’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with laying track for this layout. One more good day of work in and I should have it all done and wired up to our NCE Power Cab DCC System. I’m excited to run our engine again (yeah we only have one engine) since we tore the whole layout apart after not being happy with its direction.
Here’s a gripe of mine… Track Nails.
I will just say this once. I hate track nails.
These little things never keep the track down the way I like, they’re a pain in the butt to nail into the track. And when you’re using any type of foam or roadbed, forget it. Half of them are too short (even though the manufacturer advertises them as a half inch long, some of them are longer some of them are so short they barely stick into the wood or base. This time when I started laying the track down, I ditched these little buggers and I picked the glue option.
Using clear silicone caulk to hold our track down
After much deliberation and reading online what to use, I decided to apply clear silicone caulk to the roadbed and foam base of our layout to keep the track down.
I first marked where to apply the clear caulk, applied a line a little thinner than a straw, smeared it mostly flat with my finger and then applied the track to the section of caulk. I used small trim nails (these WILL be removed once the silicone is dry) on the sides of the track to hold the flex track in place, especially on curves, until the caulk was dry and holding the track in place.
The results? Well, it held! And you can’t really see the caulk at all. So all of the track on our layout is going to be held down with clear kitchen & bath silicone caulk.
My second gripe? Track Connectors.
My thumbs and fingertips hate me for all the track I connected and soldered the other night. You know the process, you cut the little 5 or 6 stick of track connectors, get two of them ready to slide onto the track ends, and in the process, the sharp metal ends slice little tiny papercut sized cuts into the ends of my fingers from pushing them onto the damn track.
I know, I know, there’s probably some cool fangled tool or method that would save my fingers. This is totally my fault and all the model railroaders across the world will now rain down upon my stupid and unorthodox way of putting track connectors on. Please, bring on the harassment. It still won’t change my methods, because I only have a couple sections to lay and by the time you’ve read this, I’m probably done.
But my thumbs are all boogered up. Please tell me this problem isn’t isolated to me. Make me feel better.
So in conclusion, after swearing off track nails, getting a bunch of tiny slices on my fingertips which are also covered in caulk, and clumsily burning myself a half-dozen times on my soldering iron, the track is coming along nicely!
Now it’s your turn!
What do you use to hold track down on your layout? Dave Frary, a recent podcast guest, used double sided carpet tape, we used caulk, others have told us they use glues…
So what do you use?
