Hand-laid Track on Tuolumne Forks Model Railroad

Is all of your track hand laid on the railroad? All my track is hand laid except the section that doesn't show the hidden track. And the reason for that is I initially laid the layout as a point to point railroad. Then when I ran it for conventions, it was easier to run in circles, so my wife and I came up here and literally threaded the prefab track under the existing scenery and around. Oh my, then you put the road bed under there? Exactly. Oh my. And it was really quite a job and it's something I would never do again because I can't reach most of it easily, but all the rest of it's hand-laid. And you're going to show us how you do some of it. I'd like to show you some ideas. This is a simple way I have of laying ties down onto my road bed. And after drawing a line showing where I want the ties to go, I've found that it works well just to make a little pool of white glue and then stick your ties in one at a time like this. I know there are other ways to go. Some people paint white glue down on their road bed and then use a sharp point scriber. But I don't like to have a coating of white glue because it hinders the ballast. So this can... I find this very relaxing. This is a wonderful way to relax from the day's efforts. And did you stain the ties? That's right, the ties have been stained in the alcohol and shoe dye mix. So it would just go on hour after hour doing this. How long does it take the glue to dry, Bob. Well, I like to let it dry overnight. I may do this one morning and come back the next morning with the next step, which I'll show you in just a minute. So, if you go too fast, you'll find that when you sand the tops of the ties off, it'll knock all the ties off. And so they need to really dry. Okay, here are the ties laid down and glued down and they've dried overnight, but they have a slight variation in height and if you're going to lay like a code 55 or code 70 rail, you're liable to get some kinking. So I simply come down with a pen or a pencil to make a mark to guide me in my sanding, take a sanding block and then sand the tops of the ties until that mark is gone. Once I know those marks are gone, I know I have a flat base on which to lay my rail. Most narrow gauge lines were laid right on the ground and that's the way I lay mine. And I like to use real dirt for ballast. So I simply screen dirt from the hills around here. If you're a real RGS fan, you might want to go to the RGS and get some real RGS dirt. And then I simply push it out using a piece of cardboard until I have it off of the tops of the ties and it doesn't have to be perfect, and ready for the next step. Now to hold the ballast down with the tried and true method of white glue. First, I have to spray the ballast thoroughly with a what we call wet water, which is simply detergent mixed in with water, kitchen detergent. And it's important that you saturate this or you're liable to wind up with a crust on the top which will break as you start laying your track and the ballast will run out. So don't be afraid to really, really get it really heavily wet. Then I have found that an ear syringe, which you can buy at a pharmacy, works really well for putting in the diluted white glue, about 50/50 white glue to water. And I just really saturate it. It's better to have it saturated than have it coming apart. You notice how it fills in nicely because of the wet water. And you don't want to poof it too hard or you'll make little holes in the ballast. And also if you find yourself getting too many bubbles, that may be that you have too much detergent in your wet water. Now we let that dry thoroughly. And now we have to scrape off the residue of ballast and glue that's on the top of the ties. And I find that a scale ruler works best for this. Come along and make sure I have a flat surface to lay my rail on. Very important or you'll get little bumps and dupes on your track. This is a three-point gauge which is very useful in especially laying curves. This is a roller gauge, which is homemade. And then the National Model Road Association provides an O and three double O gauge, which you can also use. The rail has been painted with Floquil Rail Brown before I spike it down. And I simply use a pair of needle nose pliers and better pull my gauge down. And then I spike better be six ties and push them in. They go in easily into the wood ties and then we put the inner spike in here. Be sure the head doesn't catch on the top of the rail, has the spike push the rail out of gauge. And then we take the next one, go down a few inches. And try one more here. It's very relaxing for me to do this. I can do it for hours.