Securing track to base

[Dcollins26]

Hi all 

 

In planning stages of my garden railway build, and luck enough to have over 50% of the track bed pre existing, by means of a ground level concrete block ‘wall’.

Sections I am building will have standard brickw laid flat, also.

This leaves me with a quandry of how to attach my flexi track to the base, as standard track pins will be useless, as well as the need to hold the flexi track in it’s position.

Any experience of different methods, successful or not?

I have thought about the smallest rawl plugs and small head screws to allow adjustment, rather than bonding with a Tiger Seal type product.

Any recommendations and / or links to products much appreciated

 

A smattering of images showing route testing and gauging works.

[Clay Mills Junction]

Hi David,

Not many people on to advise here. One of the things with smaller scales outdoors is that there is no "conventional wisdom" or "one way" of doing things as there is indoors.

Two things worth considering:

1. Temperature differences can be greater outdoors. (I don't know if your rails are generally in direct sunlight or not) That means you need a bit more room for expansion which can affect how you fix the track down. I've only fixed mine down at the points, I'm leaving the intermediate bits the ability to move slightly as they expand and contract.

2. Evenness of the surface. Your bricks look pretty flat from the photos so may be OK. Are you intending to put anything between bricks and track (e.g. roofing felt or plywood)?
There is nothing wrong with direct attachment to hard surfaces, I think it will just be more difficult than to a softer one such as timber.

If you are going for direct attachment, your idea of screws into rawlplugs sounds workable. I would probably use a screw into the middle of the track between the sleepers that allows the track some movement for expansion and contraction but does stop it wondering off.

[Andrew]

I've been looking for, and so far failed to find, a suitable adhesive for gluing down my new track.  This potentially seems less visible than pins or screws which tend to look bad in close-up photos.

The idea glue should be all-weather, exterior rated and not a grab/contact adhesive as there needs to be time for adjusting the position and straightening sleepers.  And it mustn't foam or expand or leave a visible residue when dry.  And of course it must stick plastic trackbase.

I think that's unobtainable!.

[Dcollins26]

Weather proof PVA?

 

However this doesn’t any grab at all when newly applied, so when altering flexitrack you’d need to weight it down etc to ensure correct shape is secured.