Laying tracks

The tracks are Roco-Line code 83 flexible without roadbed, from which I bought about 150 pieces to start with (this did cost a lot, but I got a discount). The track isn't nailed or screwed to the sub-roadbed, but glued. This way, the noise insulation stays OK, and the tracks are easy to correct in case of misalignment, track plan changes,... The tracks are fixed to the sub-roadbed using wooden clamps (home made from scrap pieces of plywood and a small crew in the middle). I then glued them in place, using diluted white glue (2/3 water and a few drops of detergent). This glue was then applied using a syringe. A bit of a boring job, this, but I'm able to lay a lot of track in an evening this way.

The wires are connected to the rails (not to the rail connectors). Hidden track can be easily connected after the glue dried (about two days). The visible tracks are connected before mounting them. A wire is soldered to the rail bottom (so it won't be visible after ballasting the tracks). Each piece of rail is individually connected, and then all these wires are grouped and then, using a thick wire, connected to the controls. Track insulation (for the block-system control) is put in place at this stage.

For ballasting, I tried various methods, both for the material and for gluing:

Grinded cork and carpenter's glue was something I used earlier, but this wasn't satisfactory. Although cork has excellent sound-reductive capabilities, it is too coarse, and especially too light. When moistening the ballast, it floats away.

Real stones are better: always trying to use the exact material when modeling (wood for wood, metal for metal, ...) The carpenter's glue still posed an issue: when dry, it's not flexible, resulting in sound amplification. On my first piece of track (on the left hand side of Boulroie station) trains pass quite noisy

I heard about latex (liquid rubber) and matte medium as alternatives, and put them to the test. They are both excellent sound absorbents, and provide a solid gluing. Latex gives a slight brownish color to the ballast, but that doesn't seem like a problem to me. The price should make the difference.

The picture shows the test results: above latex, matte medium in front. The ballast is from Woodland Scenics.

See: turnouts - semaphores - crocodile