Re: Laying N Gauge Track

Tha's OK for temporary use to test out your layout or to hold sleepers to a drawing when building your own track but it doesn't hold ballast well.

I use the childrens washable white glue from the 'Early Learning Centre' or similar plaything shop. Paint an even layer about half the sleeper depth, on the trackbase (use a wet brush so the glue gets diluted a bit). Then set the track in place pour on a layer of ballast, wipe the railheads and weight down while it sets. Then brush off the surplus ballast. Just leave a gap in the glue where the point tie bars will fall and patch up that cosmetically afterwards. For weights just improvise, I have some scrap lead pipe I flattened and cut into handy lengths but a collection of jam jars and coffee jars will do the job and the weight can be adjusted by adding a suitable quantity of water. The advantage of using the childrens glue is that you just have to soak it for half an hour and you can lift the track without damage. Don't use DIY white glues as they are very hard to get off if you later want to make changes. Keith Make friends in the hobby. Visit Garratt photos for the big steam lovers.

I'm using double sided sticky tape to hold down the track on the OO layout I'm currently building. It works quite well, but occasionally some sections come loose and need to be reset with a fresh piece of tape. I wouldn't recommend it for final track holding, but it's good for setting the track up ready to be ballasted using the watered down PVA method, which once that soaks into the cork underlay, holds well.

Ian J.