Ok.. i have a 4 by 10 track in basement and i just set it up cuz of my niece and nephew that wants to play so i got everything set up and we played for a while but i realized that i did a terrible job on tracks. (i used nails to hold the tracks and when you drive a car you will hear click click its not a smooth track and on pick up shoes they wear out fast - you get the picture) so my question is that i want to redo my track and make it smooth so do you use glue or silicone under the track? screw head? which is easier to do? any advice would be greatly appreciated.

thanks
Wes

You can't get away from that clicking sound completely. :( You can check the rail height...you'd be surprised how much play some pieces have. Try setting up the track and then go all around with a little piece of 2x4 and tap lightly with hammer to try and settle the rails a little bit. You can also sand the joints a bit smoother.

Another thing you can try for dampening the sound a bit is a tight weave carpet or a sheet of homasote.

Screws or nails? Both do the job, but screws allow you to reconfigure without wrecking the track...but you have to countersink all the holes and thats a lot of work. I don't know anything about using silicone.

Im sure there's other guys with some tips here, and you can also check here for lots of good info on track building.

http://www.hoslotcarracing.com/index.html

Hope this helps.
Trev

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On the track I just finished,I counter sunk screws.I didn't like the way it came out in the end,but I think it had more to do with the fact that I used all old Tyco track.Wasn't bad,but wasn't great either.

So learning from my first one,the second much larger track is in the r&d stage,and I should be putting it together in the next week or two.
Tomy track this time,and I am going to avoid screwing it to the table entirely.
I have two ideas on how I want to go about this.

First,I will cover the 16'X4' table entirely with a material that is the exact thickness as the track.I will then build my track on top,trace out the entire thing,disassemble it,and cut out the traceing I made.Then I will fasten the cutout material to the table,and drop the track into the cutout.It will take a little work,but will be well worth it.The countersink method.

Second idea is to take small half circles,maybe 2 1/2 " in diameter,butt them up against the track at different locations,and screw them down.Then I'll make aprons for the track out of cork,stacked two per section,cutting the bottom part to allow for the pieces I make to butt against the track,and hiding them with the top piece.

The second one would be a lot more work,but it would allow me to change the layout a lot easier if and when I grow tired of it.

Just a couple of ideas that I have been kicking around.


Mike

thanks for the info. I like the idea about screws in case I get tired of the track layout. I will try it .

Thanks again,
Wes