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Laying Train Track On Cork
George has a question for you:
“Trying to lay cork using center of track is frustrating because its difficult to mark the actual line with the track in place on the plywood. What is needed is a tool to mark the center line. Doing it by eye creates a very unprecice line. I thought of using a two wheel truck and making the dot through the mounting hole on the truck. In practice it didn’t work too well. Using a pencil through the hole wasn’t much better. What is needed is a marking pencil firmly mounted to the truck hole. Is there any such tool available?”
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4 Responses to Laying Train Track On Cork
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George, I don’t know if there’s a tool for laying track, but here’s what I used to do when using sectional track without roadbed or ballast. I’d first put down the track, making sure it’s straight, but driving the nail in the center part way, just enough to hold the track. Once that’s all down, I’d split the cork in half as indicated, and put in the outside half up to the nails all the way around, putting in a few nails outside the track to hold the cork in place. Next, put in the inside cork half under the track,remove the center track nail, push the inner cork so it butts up to the outer half, then put the nail back in thru the track hole and into both sections of cork. Do this all the way around, but of first priority is to keep the everthing straight.
Hope this helps.
I have a very different approach, I don’t use cork. To me, it is just too thick, and raises the track too high. I lay my track down (mostly all flex track), on the table surface (1/2″ press board) and nail it in place, then pour the ballast onto the track, and clean up the excess ballast.
If that isn’t different enough, I don’t glue the ballast either. As long as I don’t move my layout (it is fixed to the wall), the ballast isn’t going anywhere. Sometimes I even use the ballast to level the track, bank the curves, just like the real railroads do. If I decide to re-arrange any of my track work, it is a piece of cake. I just pull the nails, and lift up the track, and sweep up the ballast with a paint brush and box, for re-use. The track is not harmed by having had ballast glued on it. My friend calls my layout “editable”. This is all done on an HO layout. I run DCC and Analog, using a desktop PC and JMRI. All of my turnouts are Peco, and powered by Tam Valley DCC”Singlets” and under table servo motors. I still use block switches, and even have block detection, to simplify troubleshooting problems.
I use a laser line for my straights. The brand I have is STRAIT-LINE, it puts a visible line on the surface and it will work on inclines as well. You can use it and layout your tangents and then fill in the curves.
http://www.amazon.com/Irwin-64001-Strait-Line-Laser-Level/dp/B000065CE7
For my curves I created a patterns from poster board. I made different radius. I marked where the 9″ section track would fall but didn’t use them as I used all flex track. Straight line is a just a 3′ steel ruler. I put the outside half of the cork down first. I use calk tube for projects to glue the cork down. I then use cheap white glue to hold the track to the cork. It makes making changes easy. I recently expanded my layout and move a small 5 spur yard. It took about 15 minute to remove the track & cork.