I was wondering what everyone's best idea is for setting a road bed for the curves on my N scale layout. Its on wood base, with cork bed for the straight pieces but how do you bend the cork if possible? Or is there a better method?
Cork bends very easily for curves, even sectional track 9 3/4" radius if you are using curves that sharp. You draw in the center line of the track and then lay the cork against that - cork is split down the middle so you have two halves to work with.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
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Slowly building a layout since 2007!
The center line is the middle of the track, between the rails. When you split the cork, you get two pieces, each with a bevel on one side and a flat onthe other. Fasten it down with one flat against the center line, then fasten the other half with the flat up against the flat side of the already fastened piece. Once you have a piece of cork in front of you it's pretty obvious how it goes.
I've found the WS roadbed curves very easily, but I was using fairly large radius curves. It does have a partial split down the center and they do mention slitting it all the way through if you are doing sharp curves so it doesn't bunch up on the inside. I'm in HO - the N scale roadbed is thinner so the curves would be ratio approriate - it I was using about 30" radius for most things although sharper in places for HO and the HO roadbed had no problems. If you're using 11"+ in N it shoudl be appropriately easy to curve. I'd suspect 18" radius in HO/9 3/4" in N might need to be split to provide a smooth curve. Use the rolls where possible so there are fewer joints.