Hello Everyone! First I apologize for any spelling errors, I cant see. Lol. Broke my glasses 2 days ago, and I can’t see anything close up.

I’m about to start building my indoor layout, hope to start this week but I need some help. I have all track and digital stuff bought. I’m going to be using 2" foam insulation board glued down with liquid nails for projects. Now the questions.
What’s the best way to fasten the track down, I’m using Piko track, would nailing work on foam.

What should I use for ballast?

I’m converting all switches to DCC and would like to do a bus line for that along with extra power points for the rails. What’s a good bus?

In the picture, the blue lines will indicate an area of track that will be pulled out to allow for a door to open then close…

Any and all help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Steve

Hiya, Steve, and wellcome!

Here’s your picture. If you want to call me (email me and I’ll call you or give you my number) and I can walk you through how to post pictures here. I’d love to see your progress, and, like we say, no pictures and it didn’t happen:

Welcome aboard the looney train, Steve. Well, not everyone here is looney, just me, Rooster (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)and a few others. All joking aside, there are a lot of great modelers here all willing to help. One big question everyone will want to know is what is the size of your layout space? Also, are you building for roundy, round or operations or both? I’m sure others will chime in with more questions. Look forward to seeing your layout come to life and as John has pointed out, around here pictures are king and no one will believe any progress has been made without them (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

Nails don’t work well on foam. I use a latex caulk/adhesive, or Locktite Powergrab to glue down my HO track on foam. It should work just as well on gauge 1 track.

Outdoors I use crushed limestone for ballast, I would think indoors you could also use a crushed stone product.

I would think 14 gauge or 12 gauge stranded wire, like lamp cord, would work just fine indoors.

I am sure there are other opinions soon to be posted. Consider them all (except Rooster’s) and chose what will work the best for you.

Loctite Powergrab is my go to adhesive if you can find any railclamps it’s best if you clamp down the switches and do not glue or screw the switches down. If you ever have to remove or replace on your can simply unscrew the clamps and lift it out. Same for ballast, Don’t adhere it down on switches. Are you planning on DCC or rc/battery or simple DC track power?

Also is this a stand alone layout in a room or will you be able to walk around the sides, asking about reach issues I see.

John Passaro said:

Hiya, Steve, and wellcome!

Here’s your picture. If you want to call me (email me and I’ll call you or give you my number) and I can walk you through how to post pictures here. I’d love to see your progress, and, like we say, no pictures and it didn’t happen:

Thanks for adding the pic. I usually do videos, but will take some pictures as well. Hoping to start this Wednesday, but still a lot of unanswered questions. Lol

Dan Hilyer said:

Welcome aboard the looney train, Steve. Well, not everyone here is looney, just me, Rooster (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)and a few others. All joking aside, there are a lot of great modelers here all willing to help. One big question everyone will want to know is what is the size of your layout space? Also, are you building for roundy, round or operations or both? I’m sure others will chime in with more questions. Look forward to seeing your layout come to life and as John has pointed out, around here pictures are king and no one will believe any progress has been made without them (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

Well, let’s see, hmmmm… the layout will be basically a 8x12 with a small section in the middle cut out for me. It’s basically taking up the whole room, so the layout is hard to reach on the outsides near the walls. I’ll probably have to use a step stool to lay track. Since it’s small, I tend to probably just run trains and hope the boredom won’t set in. I do have two points at the top, where I’m hoping to add more track into another room… hopefully soon, because I don’t have enough space for all my equipment. Lol (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-undecided.gif)

David Maynard said:

Nails don’t work well on foam. I use a latex caulk/adhesive, or Locktite Powergrab to glue down my HO track on foam. It should work just as well on gauge 1 track.

Outdoors I use crushed limestone for ballast, I would think indoors you could also use a crushed stone product.

I would think 14 gauge or 12 gauge stranded wire, like lamp cord, would work just fine indoors.

I am sure there are other opinions soon to be posted. Consider them all (except Rooster’s) and chose what will work the best for you.

Any idea on the size of the crushed stone? And thanks for the suggestions, I’ll have to see what I can find for the adhesive.

Vic Smith said:

Loctite Powergrab is my go to adhesive if you can find any railclamps it’s best if you clamp down the switches and do not glue or screw the switches down. If you ever have to remove or replace on your can simply unscrew the clamps and lift it out. Same for ballast, Don’t adhere it down on switches. Are you planning on DCC or rc/battery or simple DC track power?

Also is this a stand alone layout in a room or will you be able to walk around the sides, asking about reach issues I see.

Hi Vic. I’ll have to get some Piko rail lamps then, never thought about having problems since the switch mechanism is actually bought separately and screwed on to the switch. The layout will be DCC, using Piko’s DCC system, and you guessed right, there will be a reach issue. The layout takes up basically the whole room, with no access to 3 of the sides or at least good access.

Thanks again…

Steve

It appears you are using R1 (4 foot diameter) switches except for the outer mainline.

I think you can use R3 switches for the 2 crossovers between the outer and inner mains, that would allow much larger locos to navigate into the outer loop.

Glue track down, no nails, use a few books or weights to hold it down while gluing.

Greg

Greg Elmassian said:

It appears you are using R1 (4 foot diameter) switches except for the outer mainline.

I think you can use R3 switches for the 2 crossovers between the outer and inner mains, that would allow much larger locos to navigate into the outer loop.

Glue track down, no nails, use a few books or weights to hold it down while gluing.

Greg

Hi,

Using R3 would mean inner loop would have to be r1 curves if it would even fit… I’ll have to try it out and see. I did originally try r3 but the difference between tracks was to big…

Steve

just the switches for the 2 crossovers between the inner and outer loop… you might have to use a more normal switch like a #6… not the switches that match a curve exactly.

Greg

The crushed stone I use is 1/4 inch down to dust. Indoors you won’t need the dust component of the stone, so you could use a cleaner variety of crushed stone.

Welcome to the micro-Railroad club! I’ve got a small outdoor one I put down this summer and the folks here have been of great help to me.

Start off small … do the outer loop and get a train running first…You might rethink your track plan once you see how it looks not on paper… (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)

Welcome aboard the crazy train…

Bill Sakalaucks said:

Welcome to the micro-Railroad club! I’ve got a small outdoor one I put down this summer and the folks here have been of great help to me.

Thanks. I’d really like to hit the outdoors but my knowledge isn’t all that great. Lol

Sean McGillicuddy said:

Start off small … do the outer loop and get a train running first…You might rethink your track plan once you see how it looks not on paper… (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)

Welcome aboard the crazy train…

As much as I spent on track. Lol . I Better not change my mind. I will admit though i think I have too much track for the space I have. But we’ll see where I’m at this Saturday.

Anyone have suggestion on type of paint to paint the foam board?

typical household acrylic latex should not attack the foam.

On the crossovers, you have plenty of room to use longer switches, since you have some straight track adjacent.

The track to track spacing using the Piko R7 switches for your crossovers may work… you might have to trim them a bit. I have crossovers between my 2 mains with Aristo #6 and the track to track spacing is about 9.5"

Hi Steve, and welcome.

What type and how big locos and cars are you planning to run on your layout?

Given the relatively tight curves and turnouts previously described, it looks like you will be limited to smaller items with short lengths and wheel base like, for example, a narrow gauge logging railroad.

-Ted