Does HO track fit ok on N Scale cork roadbed? Assuming as long as it fits, ballast will hide the narrowness of it ok.
I did that once on a diorama. I turned the pieces upside and butted the beveled edges together to get the width to equal the width of the HO scale ties. As you suggested, the ballast does the rest.
HO is just a bit too wide for use directly on N cork. What I have done is to simply spread the two halves, then fill the middle gap with slivers of scrap cork pieces saved from other projects.
NOW HEAR THIS ! YES.. IF you are trying to depict a funkier or bucolic, say, branch line where trains look nearly directly on the ground in the woods or yard, say, here's what i do : Take the cork and separate the two halves. Now, find/draw the center line of the track on the ply. Just do one or two lengths at a time. Put the cork down as if it where HO, together at the line. Lay a section of 3' flex on the middle also. NOW, holding the flex, slowly pull the 2 halves of cork away from one another until they roughly are the distance out from the ends of the ties (the way you want it to look). Then carefully lift away the flex and measure the gap between the two pieces of cork. Say the gap is 0.5". Take a separate single piece of cork and Xacto knife 4,5,6 little 0.5" pieces to be glued between the 3' strips directly below the cross tie center holes. These pieces will both hold a spike and support a brad in the cross tie center holes and will act as gauges to spread apart the 3' cork. Run a bead of white glue along the bottom of one of the 3 footers and place it roughly 0.25" away from either side of that center line. Put push pins in it. Glue 2nd piece of cork (BTW sloped edges are on the outside same as if HO cork/prototype road bed) along other side of center line. Now add glue to the little spacers you made and (locating where cross tie center holes will wind up) begin installing them between the outside strips. Once in place where everything looks good, add push pins to the rest. I find a mere 10-20 Min is adequate to start removing pins. A little truing here, nudging there and you now have N scale cork representing low yard or woodsy rural track. When glue is firm, spike/nail flex on top. Later on when you are adding ballest you can first fill all the gaps by pouring soil in then up to tie bottoms. Then add your ballast. Sounds complex in writing, but is a cinch to do and gets real easy for next lengths.. Hope you try it.. Mark
