Cork drys out. That woodland scenics stuff is alright but a waste of money you can get the same material at a big box hardware store. Im using tacky roadbed works pretty good. Sticks on press track in and ballast. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk
Y'know, I've been using Midwest Products Cork roadbed (both HO and N) since the early 1980's and I live in Utah where the humidity is very low. I've NEVER had a problem with cork roadbed "drying out", whatever that means. I suppose if you like to rip your track up and re-use it often, then it might be a problem, but I glue my cork roadbed down, sand it and then glue my flex on top of it, and ballast it with no intention of re-using it. If the cork is "drying out" I am not aware of it and I've had several sections of my modular N-scale railroad for 15 years or more. No track falling off, no chunks of cork roadbed falling off...and I attend two or three shows a year, transporting my sections and modules as much as a couple of hundred miles in a U-haul trailer and in the back of my Suburban. Note that I don't nail it down, I GLUE it down, with yellow carpenter's glue on my splined Masonite subroadbed, or with Aileen's Tacky Glue on extruded Styrene foam. If you just nail it down, you're creating a whole bunch of problems from rusty nails after you apply your water-based ballast adhesive, to your roadbed moving around between the nails. Use GLUE. Zero problems since the early 1980's with Midwest Products Cork roadbed...ZERO. However, I can't say the same for WS roadbed. It's too soft and flexy. In the group of N-scale modular model railroaders here in Utah, a couple of them decided to depart from using cork and use the WS stuff. Bad idea. In N-scale, cleaning the rails with a Bright Boy flexed the code 55 track enough that after a couple of years, the rail joiners started breaking. Also, the ballasting started falling off because of the flexing. They now use Midwest Products Cork roadbed, and they do not have problems either. Maybe in HO there wouldn't be a problem with code 100 or 83 rails since they'd be stiff, but my experience with it says "No". Cheerio! Bob Gilmore
Ive only experimented with it. I got some unusual cracks and just gave up on it. Forget what brand but may have been some old stock. I know roadbed is a touchy subject to some modelers. If it works it works to each his own and favor.lol Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk
I have a bunch of what I think is recycled rubber track bed, I used it on my first attempt and it worked quite well, this time I am not going to use any road bed and just glue/nail the track right onto the homasote and then ballast the track. I am sitting on the fence on this as I see some layouts use the road bed and others do not.
That's been my experience as well! Next layout my surface will be harder. I don't care about sound issues, I just want the track to stay the same for as long as the layout lives.
Thank you for the reply, I am just going to forgo the roadbed and fasten it down direct to the homasote.
I think if you want it to look more real you should use roadbed. I did that on my layout at 1st. I just nailed all the track down to the wood. Then I got to thinking how it wouldn't look right when I do the scenery... So I pulled up all the nails and got the woodland scenics foam track bed. It works really great. And it also quiets loud of older engines. You can get a 24' roll for about $12.. I got a 4x8 table. I picked up 2 packs of the roadbed and I have a good 7 feet left over. Here's mine. Still way under construction lol. The foam has a precut down the middle witch works out well for curves you can rip it the rest of the way so that you can position them better under the track. You only need to tack down the starting point of the foam. The glue keeps it in place
my experience over almost a lifetime of modeling is that cork is the way to go. I agree with Robert and those who already noted their ascent to the same. woodland scenics provide some good products, but roadbed in not one of them. I use their inclines and risers, but always place cork on top of them, glued with white or yellow elmers and never had a problem laying track or maintaining track. Midwest is the company that supplies the cork I have used. I am not sure of what company's cork I used back in my HO days, but I think that was Midwest too...so that would be over 3 decades of Midwest cork without a problem. best wishes Gary
Jimmy, not sure if too late. If and when use employ flex to make curves, if/when you can, lay out 2-3, 3ft sections of flex perfectly straight (on a tangent) and solder them together (end to end of course !). Then when you do bend them the curve comes out perfect with no kinks at joints. Mark
Thanks Mark will do as I have pulled up all the track to try a different idea. Sure like being the CEO of a RR
Jimmy, it was lookin' real good. But, we can now see where " Look before you leap " comes into the picture ! And be ready for several more, as we all had also not done, too, somewhere. It's a learning, broad-radius, curve..... Initial, serious thoughts are: Build/design a layout, any layout. Hoping this is not an insult: Build it so that at least one switch connects your RR to the outer world; the other RRs...If you are set on using large, flat plywood surfaces, no problem right now. But, then do check out what 'cookie-cutter' is. It falls right in with that...Sorry if it's all old news to you... Mark
I am going to give it another go, but this time I have a very old and slow laptop on the table this will allow me to run my plan and also to keep the dimensions correct. I will get photos and post from the desktop. Jim
Well thank you for the info, the flex is making me a bit on the cranky side trying to get the sections together in a smooth arc so I will give Marks suggestion a go. I also am struggling with the switches do I use #4 or #6? Industry trackage I would use #4 due to space limitation now what would I use on the main line where I exit to the industry tracks #6 or #4, currently all I have is one main line. Jim
Here is the beginning of the layout, I am going to get all the track to fit tight after which I will draw or mark a center line on the main for the raised bed while the industry tracks will be made permanent to the base.
Looking good, you'll be running trains soon. (jealous face) Are you going to separate this into blocks? Or is this DCC?
Thank you, I am going with DCC and have two engines that are equip'd right now I am putting raised road bed under the main but I am not thrilled with the way it looks.
