Many of you have been so helpful I would like to return some...I have been working my MRR for what must be 7 years now..I stopped improvements for about 2 because I thought I might have to move..But since I don't, I have been fully back into it.. An area of track which is a curved passing siding runs directly below a main line also curving same direction..I have all my flex and some ME on cork held down by spikes in those tie center-holes, not with headed nails as is the norm..But the spikes do tend to pull up, track gets loose, and occasionally a train gets snagged on one..I always knew that one day I will add ballast with the water spray, alcohol, white glue method. But I was unhappy that I used spikes which don't grab cork that good..Yet there is a blessing in diguise that I had done this....I was correcting those tracks I mentioned which are near the wall at back of layout, hard to get to and spikes lifting out here and there. Then it hit me...Why not just squirt white glue along the middle of those ties, clamp track down and let it dry and curved area might never be a problem any more...Sure enough, next day clamps removed, glue invisible, track is fixed in place as if I'd ballasted it...Also ,this may be in a tunnel, so why add ballast (yet)..Here's the icing on the cake: Spikes come right out with finger and thumb nail..Had I tacked down track with nails it'd be a can of worms getting them out; spikes come out instaneously, track is tight down.. What I'm getting at is: If we are not yet ready to ballast we can still get the holding-effect of ballast, but without it, by running a bead of white glue wherever we want track to remain secure..straight white glue...Hopfully those who have used nails in centers will be able to pull them without disturbing gluing. Now I am beginning to retrieve ALL the hundreds of unneeded spikes with ease, too.. Maybe many already do know this. But I thought it'd be nice for those not aware, and hassling with loose flex, not near ballasting. Finally, the nice thing is if you do need to change track you can soak the whole area and glue be gone..And I don't think all this will affect eventual ballasting......Mark
