N-scale flex track code 55

Yellow Elmers Carpenter Glue. Are you going to ballast as well?

YES I will ballast as well. Also I will solder the flex track too.

Harry spake thus:

The post you responded to was by a troll, not me.

Don't use carpenter's glue; it's made for wood and other porous materials. You want something like construction adhesive (you know, the gooey stuff that comes in tubes for caulk guns), like "Liquid Nails" or equivalent.

I use latex acrylic contact cement. Water based, almost no fumes, clean-up with soap and water. Continuous gluing is not needed - just a few dabs, enough to hold the track until ballasting is done. I also pin the track in place, remove the pins once ballasting is complete. The ballast will hold the track.

HTH

I presume you are talking about soldering the joints together? I'm curious why you would do that?

-- Excuse me, I'll be right back. I have to log onto a server in Romania and verify all of my EBay, PayPal, bank and Social Security information before they suspend my accounts.

Working the rockie road of the G&PX

snipped-for-privacy@pimin.wan.vpn (Paul Newhouse) wrote in news:f72dnYejya_

8ILrbnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

On the door layout Northeast Indiana N-Scale is building, we soldered the flex track sections together in the curves. We did this because we plan on covering the curves (at least in part) with mountainous scenery, and wanted no chance of joint problems there.

Don't solder all your joints, though. We laid track on Saturday, nice and smooth and connected, and came back on Wednesday and 2 gaps had opened up in that time. If we had soldered all the joints together, it very well could have put strain on the glue before it cured and created problems.

Puckdropper

This post was made by a troll not me. Carpenter's glue is exactly what you need to use for the track. Liquid Nails is far to heavy for N scale track and only a malicious troll would suggest it to you so you would ruin your layout. Don't listen to that troll.

-- I hope that in a few years it [Wikipedia] will be so bloated that it will simply disintegrate, because I can't stand the thought that this thing might someday actually be used as a serious reference source. Because in its current form, it's not to be taken seriously at all.

- Horst Prillinger (see

Did you stagger the inside and outside joints so that they don't occur opposite of each other?

At the club I belong to we have found that soldered joints cause more problems than they solve. And it makes repairs a lot messier.

Paul

-- Excuse me, I'll be right back. I have to log onto a server in Romania and verify all of my EBay, PayPal, bank and Social Security information before they suspend my accounts.

Working the rockie road of the G&PX

snipped-for-privacy@pimin.wan.vpn (Paul Newhouse) wrote in news:2sOdnfHAlK4A2bXbnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

No, they're right next to each other. Would it have been better to stagger the joints like laying brick? (By taking the freely moving rail off and cutting one piece in half, then soldering the whole thing back together?)

What sort of problems? The joints I soldered required nothing else (except to have the flux washed off) to get them smooth and even.

Puckdropper

Hi Harry: I used a 50/50 mix of water and white elmers glue, painted liberally on top of the cork roadbed, then laid the track on it and applied lead weights to hold it down overnight to dry. I did this one

3 foot section at a time. It came in handy when I decided to replace two atlas switches with modified pecos. Just wet the track, wait a while, and lift off the cut section. I soldered jumper wires across the track junctions because some in this group with more experience than I said that soldering the joints could result in enough stresses with temperature changes or more likely as the wooden benchwork aged and shrunk, to pop the track loose from the roadbed. Others suggested soldering the joints on curves to better hold the mechanical alignment, but use the jumper wires on the straights, to allow for expansion. I melted a lot of ties doing the soldering, and the wires look un-prototypical, no matter how hard I try to tuck them close to the rails. I now think that they are correct for large layouts, but for the little one I'm working on.......if I had it to do over I'd just solder the joints right over the outside parts of the rail joiners. I think there is enough flex in the cork roadbed that a small layout won't shrink enough to pop anything loose, and if it ever does I can just wet it down with the 50/50 water glue and fix it easily. A good electrical connection is essential, however, because as the rail and joiners age, they are going to get crusty. There is no air tight joint to keep out the oxidation. However, if you are using 3 foot flex sections on a small layout with non-staggered joints and a DC system where each section is a block, then maybe you won't have joints needing any electrical connection.

ohsix21 wrote in news:1177549290.170673.185320 @n15g2000prd.googlegroups.com:

Sobo glue's been a favorite of one of my club's best modelers. It's supposed to (meaning I haven't tested it myself) stay somewhat flexible after it dries, making it good for track.

I managed to only melt two ties per track (one on each side) with my soldering. I've got a couple suggestions:

-- Make sure your iron is clean. You can wet a sponge or paper towel folded over several times to clean the tip while the iron's hot.

-- Use flux. A little flux on the rails you're joining is all you need.

-- Use a thin diameter solder. Don't get the thinnest, but definately go for something in the thin range.

Honestly, I could write and write about proper soldering and how to get a good joint. Maybe someday when I get some free time...

Personally, I don't have a lot of trouble with expansion and contraction. Unlike many others here, though, I spike my rails to the plywood and have done so for years. I'm still learning, though, so we'll see how my "time saver" does during the next N-trak show I participate in.

Agreed, however, I think this problem manifests itself in the larger scales (1:29, 1:22.5) more drastically than the smaller ones.

Puckdropper