Painting Cork Roadbed

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have a suggestion on an actual readily available paint or stain that is limestone color that I can use in coloring my cork roadbed? A spray paint would be even better.

[Big_Boy_4005]

I've never heard of anyone painting cork roadbed in 35 years of model railroading. Any FLAT color you like would work.

[Anonymous]

Do most people leave the cork the natural color? What are people doing to get it to look like a limesone trackbed? Stricly apply ballast? It seems like some kind of undercoat must be applied first, or do you just pile on the ballast.

[Chris F]

Most modelers using cork roadbed add ballast. After positioning the ballast, it is sprayed with "wet water" (water with a couple drops of liquid detergent), then dribbling diluted glue (1 part glue and one part wet water) on the ballast to thoroughly soak it. The most popular glue is Elmer's white, but I'm using matte medium.

That said, you don't have to do what most modelers do. If you're going for the "toy train" look, you can paint the cork flat gray. As an alternative, check out your home center for a spray paint called FleckStone - it simulates stones and may come in colors you want.

[Big_Boy_4005]

Yeah Roy, that's the way its usually done when using cork. I'm guessing that you are using one one of the ones made for model railroading, like Midwest, and not simply sheet cork like is used for bulletin boards.

Chris' method is basicly what I use even though I don't use cork. For my new layout, I'm using pink foam insulation as roadbed, and that WILL NEED paint before ballasting, because I REALLY DON'T WANT THAT TO SHOW.

Either way, if you cover it with Ballast you won't really see the cork anyway. If you are worried about bare spots, think of it this way, on real railroads, there is earth under the ballast. The ballast is there to promote water drainage, and help "lock" the track in place and keep it from shifting.

[Anonymous]

A recommendation on ballast - if you buy the "HO Scale" ballast, it's too big for HO scale. I normally use fine ballast, which is just about appropriate for N scale, too. However, I found 1/2 pound bags of sand at the Dollar Store, and as long as the sand is properly bonded, it looks better than "ballast as big as your head".

[spankybird]

Hi all,

On the subject of ballast, I tried what I read on one of these train magazines. I used clay cat litter and the dripped Scenic cement with water and soap added.

It really doesn’t look bad.

If you click on the web icon below, you can see more shots of my layout.

[Big_Boy_4005]

Tom, thanks for the photo on this, I almost lifted one off your site, but got lazy. The ones that you had posted here are easier to "borrow" because you don't need the image, just the URL, but those didn't show the ballast as well as some of the others I had seen on your site.

I thought that might be kitty litter, I first saw that used more than 20 years ago, when I lived in Denver. I always wondered if you could color it with rit dye mixed in the glue solution. Some brands have rather large granules, but work well for tubular track.

One thing about kitty litter is that it is cheap, and for our needs, the cheaper the better. The low cost brands usually don't have those GREEN THINGS, and we don't want green things in out ballast. Just make sure that if you do have a cat, that you keep it off the layout if you choose this type of ballast[:D]

[Chris F]

Elliot,

You're only the second person I've heard using extruded foam for roadbed. The other one is me! How'd you do it?

I used thin fan-fold insulation, painted it earth-brown and laid GarGraves track over squares of the stuff. I made a simple jig to hold a hot knife and cut a beveled edge on each side. I'm still in the process of painting the edges.

One of the things I like about this method is that it raises the GarGraves track to O-gauge height. I've got some Lionel O-22 and K-Line O-42 turnouts for my yards, and they mated perfectly - no shims required.

[Big_Boy_4005]

Chris, I'm just getting started, and haven't really made up my mind on exactly what I want to do. I'm using 1/2" R-3 pink, and cutting from 4x8 sheets. I've been working on my helix, and have one track that comes off it, that has a piece of foam under it. I have a hot wire, but I don't have a hot knife.

Right now, I think I'm going to glue sections down along the right of way, and get the Gargraves track totally shaped, but not fastened. Trim the edges with a sharp cold knife putting the bevel on it, then paint. Finally secure the track, I found some cool blackened trim head screws, at Home Depot, that should work perfectly.

I don't have height issues, because I'm using Ross and Curtis switches, which are a perfect match to Gargraves track.

Actually the use of Foam is much more common with the HO guys over on the MR forum. I read both magazines, so I learn a lot more than if I only read CTT. Most of the stuff I see in CTT these days is fluff to me, and often the ads are most interesting. CTT is not intended to really be much of a "hands on" or "how to" publication anyway. OGR, gets more into the nitty gritty of operating.

[Anonymous]

I used Owens Corning FOAM SEALR. Works like a dream. But then I fell into some cash and bought vinylbed. What a dream that stuff is!

[Anonymous]

Thanks! Everyone for your input. You all gave me just the information I was looking for. I am going to use the ballast on the cork. However I have a cat and plenty of kitty litter so I may do a little experimentation with that as well.

By the way, the cork I got is O-gague sized for my O layout. I saw a comment about he HO ballast being a little to big for HO. Sounds like it may be the right size for O.

Roy