Building track with PC and wooden ties

[OldEastRR]

Not sure if this goes here or in the Scenery forum .... I'm making some track from C55 rails and I know you use PC strips soldered to the rails at intervals. Do you glue the wooden ties that go between them to the rail before you lay the track? Or glue the ties to the roadbed (with gaps where the PC ties go) then lay the track on them?

[dem34]

Not sure if this goes here or in the Scenery forum .... I'm making some track from C55 rails and I know you use PC strips soldered to the rails at intervals. Do you glue the wooden ties that go between them to the rail before you lay the track? Or glue the ties to the roadbed (with gaps where the PC ties go) then lay the track on them?

Ideally you do all the ties in one shot and laying track in situ since you can get long runs of rail with staggered joint placement but the second way you suggested is fine if you plan to do the track on your workbench. I strongly suggest getting a FastTracks or equivalent Tie placement jig either way. Since that gets incredibly tedious doing manually. Especially if doing the track on bench since then you can mark which ties are being used as PC ties.

[wazzou]

Agreed, glue PC ties and wood or Styrene ties, (I prefer Styrene) to the sub-roadbed. 
This allows you the opportunity to be sure all ties are level.  I like to use the straight “edge” of a metal ruler to check for high spots and then sand If needed where necessary.
I also choose at this time to put some grain in the ties with a coarse sanding stick. 
Use three point gauges and solder away.

[ednadolski]

Do you glue the wooden ties that go between them to the rail before you lay the track? Or glue the ties to the roadbed (with gaps where the PC ties go) then lay the track on them?

Ultimately it's a preference, use whatever technique you find works best for yourself.   I generally prefer the latter, since I find it easier to sand the tie tops level (no need to take too much off) and then touch up the color with a paint or stain.   You don't really need a lot of glue between the rails and the wood ties, since the structural integrity comes from the soldered PCB ties, and the ballast/glue will do a good job of holding it all together.

Edit - also worth mentioning, many folks pre-gap the PCB ties (and check with an ohmmeter) before assembling any rail... makes it easier to ensure you have no shorts. [1]

Ed

[1] the electrical kind, that is

[OldEastRR]

I'm using scale wooden N ties I salvaged from someone else's scrapped layout, and look to glue them to the rail. This is the approach track up a grade to a coal trestle, so I figured I'm make it that the ties go where the track wants to go, up or down. I will have to put plastic shims on the PC ties as the wooden ties are thicker, but nobody will see the undersides. Half of this track section is on the coal trestle with no ties, which is why I decided to build the other half with ties. There's no other hand-laid track anywhere else, but I do have one more spur to install so I might do that. I've got lots of C55 stock rail I bought in the late '70s when I got intrigued by the smaller size but nobody made commercial C55 track. I had grand ideas of handlaying a layout but luckily I procrastinated enough that ME came out with C55 flex so I didn't have to.

I did cut gaps in the PC boards, and also had to cut a gap in one rail near the track bumper because I'm using one of a scratchbuilt one I bought in the '70s. Looks like a standar bumper but made completely of code 80 rail, so it would short the track unless you cut a gap in the rail.  I have a picture of one in Lee's retro-layout thread.

[wmcbride]

Agreed, glue PC ties and wood or Styrene ties, (I prefer Styrene) to the sub-roadbed. 
This allows you the opportunity to be sure all ties are level.  I like to use the straight “edge” of a metal ruler to check for high spots and then sand If needed where necessary.
I also choose at this time to put some grain in the ties with a coarse sanding stick. 
Use three point gauges and solder away.

This was a light bulb moment for me. Why I had never thought of using styrene as ties but this makes so much sense.

[robert3985]

Not sure if this goes here or in the Scenery forum .... I'm making some track from C55 rails and I know you use PC strips soldered to the rails at intervals. Do you glue the wooden ties that go between them to the rail before you lay the track? Or glue the ties to the roadbed (with gaps where the PC ties go) then lay the track on them?

Here's how I do my Code 40 track: 
(1) I make a jig about 3' long that I can place my N-scale wooden ties in so that they're properly spaced, with a missing tie every 5th tie. 
(2) I draw a track centerline carefully where I want my track to go on my sanded subroadbed.
(3) I lay Midwest Cork Products N-scale Cork Roadbed carefully to the drawn centerline on my subroadbed, gluing it down with a quality yellow carpenter's glue and using a 2" wide wooden seam roller to flatten                                              the cork against the subroadbed, and I scoop up any excess glue with a palette knife.
(4) After the yellow carpenter's glue has dried sufficiently...usually around 15 to 20 minutes...I sand the top of the cork roadbed with a sanding block I've made from a straight pine 1X2 with 220 grit sandpaper and I break the ragged edge where the cork roadbed's angled sides meet the top.
(5) I vacuum up the cork dust
(6) I draw adjacent lines on either side of the centerline of the cork roadbed so that these lines are very close to a tie length wide.
(7) I place wooden ties in the jig
( 8 ) I cut a piece of masking tape that's a little longer than the ties sitting in the jig, and 1/4" wide.
(9) I press this piece of masking tape down on the ties in the jig and burnish the tape so that it's stuck pretty good to the ties in the jig
(10) I then spread some yellow carpenter's glue between the two lines drawn on the cork roadbed using a cheap acid brush I buy in bulk at Harbor Freight Tools
(11) I then go to the jig where the tape is stuck to the tops of the ties near their centers, and lift these ties out of the jig.
(12) I carefully lay these ties (still attached to the 1/4" wide strip of masking tape) so that their ends are between the two lines drawn on the cork
(13) I carefully wipe the glue from between the ties where the missing fifth tie is located so that there's very little yellow carpenter's glue there
(14) I let this dry overnight, or speed it up with a hair dryer
(15) I glue in my PCB ties using gap-filling CA and Accelerator, pressing each one down until the glue sets off after a squirt of Accelerator

Note: I've pre-gapped my PCB ties on BOTH SIDES...down the middle on the bottom and randomly on top with a fine oval jeweler's file removing as little copper as possible and getting rid of any burrs with a small steel welder's brush.  PCB ties that have been CUT sometimes have burrs on the edges, so make sure this is gone with a file or scraping it with an X-acto knife.

(16) Since my wooden ties are thicker than my PCB ties, I now carefully sand the wooden ties down until my sanding block is just starting to scratch the copper surface of the PCB ties

Note: Use a 320 or 400 grit sandpaper or emery paper to do this.  With a scrap piece of rail make sure that both wooden ties and PCB ties are the same height by laying the rail over several PCB ties and the wooden ties in between them.  You definitely DO NOT WANT to sand away any copper cladding from the PCB ties, so be careful here.

I use three three-point code 40 track gauges I get from Micro Engineering and I start laying track by putting both rails down at the same time with them centered between the tie ends.

(17) After you've centered your rails on the ties, solder your rails to the PCB ties every fifth tie for 3 PCB ties.  I use Superior No. 30 Supersafe Gel Flux and 96/4 Tin/Silver Solder for this. Buy the stuff here: https://www.hnflux.com/  I have laid a lot of track using my old Realistic 35W soldering iron, making sure the tip is always clean and tinned.
(18) If you're happy with this first start, then continue onward, using templates or the Mk I Eyeball Method to get straight and nicely curved rails.  With Code 55, it should be pretty easy, since the rail is markedly stiffer than Code 40
(19) Stagger the rail ends and use a double set of PCB ties at these ends with the rail ends meeting between ties, not on them.  No need for any rail joiners as long as you put a feeder on each and every piece of rail before painting, weathering and ballasting and thoroughly test each section before doing any painting.

I don't stain my wooden ties, but I paint them with rattle-can Krylon Ultra Flat Camo Black first, then a thin coat of Krylon Ultra Flat Camo Brown sprayed vertically downward...just barely covering the ties and getting a bit of overspray on the rail webs.  I pick out several ties every 6" or so with various shades of brown, tan and grey to add variety.

That's a lot of steps, but it yields pretty good looking Code 40 track, and it should do it for Code 55 too, and it goes quickly.

Photo (1) - Here's a photo of my Park City Branch at Echo Curve laid using the above method in Code 40: