Devon,
Have you considered the differential in expansion between the metal rails and the PVC plastic for the base. There is a potential for breakage with larger temperature swings, which I believe you get in your neck of the woods.
You may actually have better results NOT having glued the ties to the under lament. Time will tell.
Otherwise, looks good.
3/4" pvc. When it comes to pvc lumber itâs all I Ave access to that I know of
The ties and the base board are both PVC. I am guess here as I really have no clue what I am doing that once glued down with PVC cement that the ties and the base would expand and contract together and stay glued. As for the rail I would hope it can move at least a little because while spiked it really is just a mechanical joint and I do leave gaps between rail sections to allow for it. But I am by no means a hand laid track expert nor am I at all confident it my knowledge of the movement of dissimilar material when it come to eat and cooling. So no I really havenât thought about any of this. But I am open to all ideas.
And yes we have pretty radical temp swings. Any given year we go from single digits to triple digits. And where I built my layout it get a lot of direct summer sunlight. Things get hot.
I agree âŚthat is more than likely the issue. The PVC doesnât really warp BUT it does want to expand and contract with temps. Is it possible to (un glue) from the roadbed and allow the switch and ties to float on their own on top?
Is the rest of the track glued to the subroad bed or does it float on top?
Devon,
i have done a couple of different ways. first is on true PVC decking which is about 1-1/8 thick or 5/4 stock. the second is in spline roadbed areas about 1-3/8 thick on edge and 1/2 thick where attached to the spline. have not had any issues here in NH with these methods warping.
AL P.
Right now nothing is glued at all. On the new set up in question the only way the ties/rail are attached to the base board are with the long rail spikes going through the tie and into the base board which isnât much but it really isnât floating either. That is why when I was installing it they were lifting because there is really very little attaching them to the base board.
As for all of my Llagas track it is all floating with minimal attachment to the base board. Just a screw here and there to keep alignment and I have little to no issue there.
With that said I am sure I could more or less do the same thing Jon does and spike through the tie and then bend over the spikes on the bottom and then install it much like I do the Llagas stuff.
That was Rick. The only hand laid track Iâve done has been my two bridges.
Thanks for the correction. I went back and read Rick and Craigâs exchange in this thread and I think I like a combination of how Rick does it with long brass brads crimped over on the bottom using PVC ties. I might even consider adding some of the details Rooster did though that wold be a lot of work. It looks great though. But in doing it this way I could then basically make flex track and leave it floating on the base. Only about half (maybe only a 1/3) of my track is on bench work. The rest is on a ladder system. So having a more or less flex track would be more universally useful.
To be clear I have no intention of doing a bunch of hand laid track work. I like using pre-assembled flex track. But for things like this switch rebuild it makes sense. Also if I ever do get the notion to build the 32mm addition to my layout for a Fn2/O guage section that will all be hand laid. I have the rail and now that I may have an idea of how to do it ârightâ I might start thinking harder about it. Wife even asked the other day if I was still planning on doing it.
