Can I glue FasTrack to inddor/outdoor carpeting?

Take a look at this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpHg-w0yYHM

John

Try using clear silicone.

I had a large Fastrack layout.  Half homasote and half foam. My experience was despite whether it was gluing or screwing it was still loud (wow, that sounds like it should be moderated from a family forum). Carpet is your best bet. Some guys stuffed it full of cork or foam and did okay, but it was lots of work. Your probably doing the best you can with Fastrack.

An alternative to screwing it down is to use small cable ties. You put one down through the track hole with the nub on top to hold it down. Then you use a second cable tie to cinch it tight from underneath.
I’ve done tho in certain track locations, and it holds tight. The cable ties won’t transmit the sound near so much as screws.  Also, you can undo it way better than gluing it  
Alan

@ajzend posted:

An alternative to screwing it down is to use small cable ties. You put one down through the track hole with the nub on top to hold it down. Then you use a second cable tie to cinch it tight from underneath.
I’ve done tho in certain track locations, and it holds tight. The cable ties won’t transmit the sound near so much as screws.  Also, you can undo it way better than gluing it  
Alan

I had seen that idea elsewhere on the forum.  However, some of the layout now does not have access underneath to do that.

@Rider Sandman posted:

I had a large Fastrack layout.  Half homasote and half foam. My experience was despite whether it was gluing or screwing it was still loud (wow, that sounds like it should be moderated from a family forum). Carpet is your best bet. Some guys stuffed it full of cork or foam and did okay, but it was lots of work. Your probably doing the best you can with Fastrack.

It isn't the FasTrack plastic roadbed noise I'm trying to get rid of.  It is the noise being mechanically coupled to the plywood that then acts as sounding board.  With the screws in, you can feel the entire layout structure vibrating.  On another layout where I used carpet on a 1 1/2" foam top with embedded plastic drywall anchors (no screws into the underlaying wood) it was pretty quiet.  There was still the FastTrack hollow roadbed noise and I did put stick on strips of weatherstripping inside the roadbed to try and help that.  It helped only a little for that higher pitched noise.  The noise problem I have is a more low to medium growling grinding pounding sort of sound.  The plywood is acting like a big drumhead amplifying what the screws transmit.

Referencing an article in the January 2001 issue of CTT, you might consider the use of berber carpeting and Velcro (The 'hook' portion thereof).  It worked quite well for our LHS layout built in the same timeframe.  We used O27 tubular track...still popular, available, affordable at that time...and used the carpet for road bed, the hooked Velcro attached to thin wood strips glued to the bottom of a portion of the track ties.  The Velcro hooks sufficiently grabbed the loops of the berber carpet to keep the track nicely in place without transmitting noise to the table structure. 

The advantage of the berber carpet was to provide the 'loop' portion of the Velcro bond.  The hooks of that portion of the Velcro did a fine job of grabbing the carpet loops well enough to keep the track from shifting.  (Gravity, of course, took care of the downward concerns.)

A local carpeting retailer near our LHS had some roll remnants that were just the ticket...a speckled brown/gray appearance that replicated a ballast roadbed quite nicely for our purpose.  The carpet was cut into track-sized pieces, much as in the Lionel Youtube video referenced in another thread, above.

Those of us working 'counter-intelligence' nearby really appreciated the quieter benefits of the new layout over the prior...which was O27 tubular track directly screwed down to a plywood table surface!

When FasTrack became starter-set dominant, the layout was again changed within the 4x8 format.  But in order to provide more security of the layout and also cut down on ambient dust accumulation in the store environment, we opted to erect a cover for the O3R layout with sliding /removable acrylic panels surrounding.  The cover also provided space for a display HO layout above and facilitated better lighting of the O3R layout.  Yes, if you didn't have the clear acrylic panels in place and closed, the FasTrack would've been a noisy nuisance.  But for a non-commercial or home layout, using the combination of berber carpeting and Velcro hook tape...it just might be the ticket for noise isolation and stability of the FasTrack layout.

Just another suggestion.

KD

@dkdkrd posted:

Referencing an article in the January 2001 issue of CTT, you might consider the use of berber carpeting and Velcro (The 'hook' portion thereof).  It worked quite well for our LHS layout built in the same timeframe.  We used O27 tubular track...still popular, available, affordable at that time...and used the carpet for road bed, the hooked Velcro attached to thin wood strips glued to the bottom of a portion of the track ties.  The Velcro hooks sufficiently grabbed the loops of the berber carpet to keep the track nicely in place without transmitting noise to the table structure.

The advantage of the berber carpet was to provide the 'loop' portion of the Velcro bond.  The hooks of that portion of the Velcro did a fine job of grabbing the carpet loops well enough to keep the track from shifting.  (Gravity, of course, took care of the downward concerns.)

A local carpeting retailer near our LHS had some roll remnants that were just the ticket...a speckled brown/gray appearance that replicated a ballast roadbed quite nicely for our purpose.  The carpet was cut into track-sized pieces, much as in the Lionel Youtube video referenced in another thread, above.

Those of us working 'counter-intelligence' nearby really appreciated the quieter benefits of the new layout over the prior...which was O27 tubular track directly screwed down to a plywood table surface!

When FasTrack became starter-set dominant, the layout was again changed within the 4x8 format.  But in order to provide more security of the layout and also cut down on ambient dust accumulation in the store environment, we opted to erect a cover for the O3R layout with sliding /removable acrylic panels surrounding.  The cover also provided space for a display HO layout above and facilitated better lighting of the O3R layout.  Yes, if you didn't have the clear acrylic panels in place and closed, the FasTrack would've been a noisy nuisance.  But for a non-commercial or home layout, using the combination of berber carpeting and Velcro hook tape...it just might be the ticket for noise isolation and stability of the FasTrack layout.

Just another suggestion.

KD

It's too late to use a different carpet since this is nearly finished.  Besides, I wanted the look and fairly easy to clean nature of the fairly smooth indoor/outdoor carpet I used.  I've attached a couple of photos to show what this carpeting looks like as well as the layout in general.  It is nearing the end of construction.  The first photo shows most of the layout but not wide enough to see all of the right lobe of the dogbone.  And the left wall backdrop not installed yet.  The second photo is the left section with all the clutter removed and its backdrop now installed.  It shows pretty well what this carpet looks like.  In it, you can also see one of the "controller cradles" that hold a LionChief controller solidly so it can't walk off (and allows controllers to be powered from a power supply - so no batteries).

I thought I would report back what I did.  I did a quick overnight test using Loctite "Power Grab" all-purpose construction adhesive to attach a piece of FasTrack to a piece of the carpeting I used.  In the morning, it was reasonably secure.  In shear (sideways) it was very strong.  But it could be vertically pulled free with only medium force.  But I deemed it "good enough"

After removing about 150 screws I had installed (for about half the layout), I put a blob of construction adhesive at each track joint and additionally at some of the cross webs of 30 inch straight pieces.  I propped up the track with small pieces of wood, squirted in a blob of adhesive using a piece of paper to help protect the visible carpet from "accidents", and then pressed the track back down.

Photo of construction adhesive blob before pressing track pieces down.

Locktite Power Grab is a generic general construction adhesive (and not their best, since they recently bought the company that made PL8 professional adhesive and relabeled it as Loctite PL Max).   

However, I think that the last time I was in Lowes, I saw tubes of Locktite Plastic adhesive, which I had never seen before.  You may want to try that one on a test basis.

Or, you may want to try a tube of  LEXEL clear sealant caulk.  It sticks to anything and lasts for up to 50 years.  When it dries, it remains somewhat soft and flexible, which may deaden the sound, which is your goal.

Virtually all construction adhesives dry rock hard, which may telegraph more of a rumble down onto your layout board than you might expect

Tube adhesives are really tricky, and unfortunately you have to really test them out before committing to them full bore, because once you spread it everywhere, that is it.  No way to just remove it.

And, for products that actually work well, you have to pay between $8 and $10 a tube, and keep the windows open!

Mannyrock