I'm no expert, but here's my method, mostly gathered from reading, deep thought, and a few mistakes along the way.
Starting with bare plywood, I painted the whole thing a dingy brown that my local Home Depot had made as a mistake and sells for $3/gallon.
When that's dry, pencil out the layout, with the pencil line being the center of the tracks.
Glue down cork roadbed, one half at a time, with carpenter's glue. I found that little picture-hanging brads, driven to within 1/4-1/2 inch of the roadbed surface, hold the cork down firmly to dry well but are easy enough to pull later. If at all possible I try to stagger the joints so that the roadbed is smoother. I followed this up with some judicious razorblade planing to take out a small ridge in the center of the roadbed- it might well have been there because of too much glue on my part.
Next, the track- code 100 nickel-silver flex track which I had already painted roof brown. While the paint was wet, a quick rub of a cloth took paint off the rail tops, and a pass with a bright boy after the paint was dry seems to have taken all traces of paint from the tops. Next time I'm going to use code 83- code 100 loks a bit clunky, accents the 'toyishness' of the trains. I tacked it down loosely, soldered the rails at each joint (after removing 3-4 sleepers around the joint), then replaced those sleepers and glued them (the removed sleepers) down. Then snug down the nails carefully- if you dimple the sleeper that holds the nail, you've created a wonderful derailment spot. I speak from experience! (if the sleeper is pushed down by the nail being too tight, the rails are closer together at that point than at any other- out of guage)
Next, ballast. I have no turnouts on this layout as yet. Turnouts require some care in ballasting if you wish them to continue turning out after the ballast is laid. Oil the moving parts with an oil that won't attack plastic. Keep the ballast low enough that the moving rails won't hang up on it, and glue with care. Naturally, if it's a remote turnout, it'd be a good idea to turn off the power before spraying water and glue in the area.
I used the plain grey ballast, poured over the road dry and adjusted with a foam paintbrush until I was satisfied. An old hairspray bottle filled with water and a few drops of dish soap was used to mist the new ballast, first spraying up in the air to get it damp then more directly to get the ballast soaked well enough- if water began to seep from the bottom of the ballast it was too wet.
Once it's all reasonably well-saturated, I used an Elmer's glue bottle with Elmer's white glue diluted 50%-50% with water to drizzle glue over the still-wet ballast. Again, if glue began to seep from the bottom of the ballast I had used too much.
One problem that I did see was where I had not gotten the ballast wet enough with the soapy water I would occasionally see bubbles when the glue came by- bubbles that displace the ballast. It makes a nifty-looking little crater that I'll have to remember for my next military diorama but should probably be avoided if possible for model trains.
My next step was the natural- cleaning. Glue and ballast and soap are not kind to electrical conductivity.
My final step, not yet completed due to lack of time, will be to lightly airbrush the whole track (ballast and all) with grimy black, then start on any individual detaisl such as weeds, spilled coal, etc.
Now that you've ready my whole mini-thesis, read the caveat. I am new to the hobby. I've been blessed with a few good books on model railroad building but little experience, as yet. My methods are reasonably simple and have worked for me- in my little 4x8 layout. If you're considering between my advice and that of a much more experienced model railroader (Shamus, for example) then look on mine as the plan of an amateur- which it is- and on his (or hers) as the voice of experience.
Thank you all. Comments are of course welcome.
[This message has been edited by Biggerhammer (edited 05-12-2001).]
