Model Railroad Track Installation Made Easy

Parts List

Atlas Code 83 Track

2 - 001 500 36'' Super-Flex Track (wood ties)
7 - 002 510 9" Straight
3 - 003 521 6" Straight (4 pcs./pkg.)
1 - 004 522 3" Straight (4 pcs./pkg.)
1 - 005 561 #4 Custom-Line Switch left
4- 006 562 #4 Custom-Line Switch right

Midwest Products Cork Roadbed

TRAIN SETS
3D PRINTERS
CAMERA
MICROPHONE
LIGHTS
MOTION CONTROL

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“The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again.
But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked.
Don’t rejoice when your enemies fall;
don’t be happy when they stumble.
For the Lord will be displeased with you
and will turn his anger away from them.
Don’t fret because of evildoers;
don’t envy the wicked.”

Proverbs 24: 16-19 NLT

[JDsHouseofHobbies]

A lot of model rails don't like laying track or ballasting. It's one of my favorite things to do. I don't know if it's OCD or what. I find it relaxing.

[Bigbuddyandblue]

Thanks for filling in the missing ties! I see so many really beautiful, realistic, and highly detailed layouts, with MISSING TIES! Makes me crazy!

[acousmata]

I really enjoyed this video, thanks for putting this series together!!

[octavian]

Had to come back and give this beautiful man my full thanks, I just laid my first cork board for my ho scale switching modular layout im building with my 3yo little girl. Without this it would not have gone as smoothly and easily as it did, thank you for the informative videos and stellar content 💗💗💗💗 even my little one loves watching and loves the train videos

[nfnty_xd]

Hey, love the videos. Im brand new to model railroading, and thanks to your videos im about to start my first layout. Im going N scale due to my space constraints and plan to make my model modular because im not staying in this location for long. All in all thanks for giving me the push to get started making my own model railway. Great videos, looking forward to more, and hopefully updates about my start in the hobby will come.

[terrancecoburn]

I’ve been modeling since 1950 before cork roadbed cork roadbed came out I found that by using a utility knife hooked in the hard surface at the proper angle and taking the court bro bed and pulling it through the blade would continually refinish the cut in the cork eliminating all that crap on the edges. Just a thought. Hope it helps

[rwissbaum]

Regarding gluing track: by using caulk, you insure that your track cannot be salvaged if you ever dismantle your railroad. I nail my track in place (and yes, the nail heads look horrible) and when I have finished ballasting, I remove the nails. The ballast holds the track in place beautifully, and the glued ballast releases much easier if you ever have to tear up your track.

[RVA]

Thanks for the tip on where the flex side of the flex track goes! I had been looking for that info. Today drinking Bustelo with milk and sugar or ‘cafe con leche’ as we Cubans call it.

[ronaldrondeau]

Great that will help new in the hobby. im in for 36 years

[dryheat]

Jimmy, a new subscriber here, just watched this video and it was great. I've been an "armchair" model railroader for years but am now retired and have the time, resources and--finally!--space to build my first layout. I'm working my way through your extensive video list looking for helpful tips and how-to's, and this one on track installation was just what I needed. I looked at your channel intro video and it is clear you have lots planned for this year so I look forward to all your updates. I also see you have plenty of requests, but let me add one more for your consideration. I see in this track installation video you use RailModeler Pro for Mac. We are an all-Mac household and I bought RailModeler Pro to start my layout planning. While I am adept at most things software, I find RM Pro to not be all that intuitive on how to make various features work smoothly. The videos on YT offering tutorials are mostly short, quite old and don't really instruct on how to do something, rather they just show things being placed on the screen in sequence. So if you are looking to do something different, some true teaching videos with tips, tricks and lessons learned, consider doing a few on using RM Pro software to design one of your future modules, starting with the benchwork and moving on to track design. I don't know how many of your subscribers are Mac folks but those of us that are could definitely gain from your personal learning experience with that different segment of a Digital Railroad! Thanks again!

[dkaustin]

One of the things you can do with the cork dust is fill in the larger gaps in the cork road bed and fix it in place with dilute white glue, then sand it smooth. That way you do not have ballast filling in your big gaps in the cork. There is a reason to drill the holes under your turnouts when you plan to use hand throws. You may later change your mind and want to use Tortoise style switch motors. You might be at a model train show and stumble across a great deal on tortoise style switch machines. Having the holes already in place under your turnouts makes it possible to retro fit with the powered switch machines without removing turnouts to drill holes. In the meantime just put masking tap over the holes from underneath to keep ballast from falling through.

[kenmabie]

Thanks for this video…. I will come back & review it when I reach this phase of my layout build…

[therailbaron]

Take a shot everytime he says "rinse and repeat"

[rwissbaum]

Jimmy, I ALWAYS sand the top of my roadbed: the roadbed may appear level, and it may feel level when you run your fingers over it, but I find that 9 times out of 10, the places where two pieces of roadbed meet at not quite level - you can see this when sanding: dust accumulates on the low side of the joint. I just use an 8" sanding block with 80 or 100 grit sandpaper, and it is easily done while you are sanding the edges.

[TourDriverSean]

Makes me want to build another layout. I may just have to steal this plan and build along with you

[johnbanicki]

Great video. I actually use Autocad to draw my layout and print it out full size. I then transfer the centerline of the track with carbon paper and a pounce wheel. Works great. But for a small layout like this your way works great.

[davidblackham]

I have found that particular line of locktite Adhesive works great and holds things in place really well when wet

[ColonelCottonBelt]

Great video Jimmy. Only thing I do differently is instead of gluing my cork, I use track nails as it holds it down just like glues but if I need to make adjustments, it's just simply popping a nail out instead of peeling up glued cork which can be damages and requires cleanup. Also instead of using #4 turnouts, I use #6 and shorten the straight leg so it's the same length as a #4 but a much better angle than a #4. This will be a very cool switching layout! - Jason

[KCAviatrix]

Great video, I’ll definitely be using some of your techniques on my little HO scale layout. Can’t wait to see what you do next for yours.

[tim_c]

Great video Jimmy! It answered a lot of my questions!