Nailing Ross Track

It depends on whether your track is laid directly on plywood, on cork roadbed over plywood, on Homasote over plywood, on cork roadbed over Homasote or on something else.  I recommend:

#19, 1/2" nails for track directly on plywood

#19, 5/8" nails for track on cork over plywood

#19, 5/8" or #18, 3/4" nails for track directly on Homasote over plywood

#18, 3/4" nails for track on cork over Homasote

In all cases, drill a 1/16" diameter hole in the Ross tie, insert the nail, then use a punch to drive it home.  If nailing into Homasote, the nail can be pushed home with the nose of a pair of needle nose pliers.

I have well over 1800 feet of track and it was all laid by pushing these small nails into Homasote.  The Homasote grips them well.  I bought all of the nails at my local Ace Hardware store.

i would never nail track,if you care about it.always use small screws,ones atlas make work good for me.-jim

An assortment of small screws.  Atlas track screw is second from the bottom.  I would pre-drill before using any screw.  

Ed if you are going to ballast I'd use the Atlas screws then remove the after ballasting.  The ballast will more than hold the track in plus plus you've eliminated telescoping track sound thru to the board. 

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Gargraves sells track screws in a variety of lengths. I believe Ross sells these as well.

Predrill and use #4 screws. I use one inch and one and a quarter inch. If I ballast, I remove the screws.

Drill a hole (thru the base/foundation you're laying the track on) on either side of a tie you want to hold in place and insert a tie-wrap to hold down the track.  If it needs to be removed, simply cut the tie-wrap with some nippers, no damage to the track unless you tighten the tie-wrap too tight.

Exactly what we did. Screws are not required to hold the track down. The nails (brads) hold the track well, don't show up in pictures, and are dirt cheap. If you plan putting down ballast, the glue will hold the track anyway. 

No track fasteners of any kind show up in pictures when you use brad nails. Once you drill a small pilot hole (to prevent the ties from splitting) the "head" of the brads are bigger than the body of the brad so they grab the ties very well when you countersink them below the top of the ties.

The brads hold fine by themselves, but then the ballast really secures it. That track wouldn't move if I want it to, but if I did want it to move, I could wet the ballast with water to loosen the glue, and pull the track up without doing any damage. 

This track doesn't even have ballast yet, and the 18ga brads hold it just fine. NO screw heads, or even nail heads showing for that matter.

I also use nails or brads just like Bob and Laidoffsick. Doing it that way for 25yrs. Fast secure and removable. And a whole lot more accurate in track placement especially in curves (I bend all my own curves). 

No need for screws or nails.  Use two-sided carpet tape.  It'll hold down carpets, it'll hold down 3 rail track.  It's also easier to remove without destroying track.  Carpet tape has kept my Atlas O track secure for the last 11 years.  I also use it for the Woodland Scenics roadbed.