Type of Roadbed for elevation?

[Allegheny2-6-6-6]

 I would opt to use the 1/2" plywood on risers attached to the L girder bench work and use cork or homabed roadbed rather then WS foam roadbed. You have strength, adjust-ability with the combination of the risers and the 1/2" plywood, heck save some money and make the risers out of 1/2" ply as well. I don't care for the foam roadbed it jst doesn't appeal to me as I feel the ballast shoulders aren't big enough and it doesn't take track nails like homabed or cork.

If you do opt to use blue foam with your track work you still need to put some sort of roadbed material between it and the track. Ask me how I know this with the pink foam. a considerable noisy yard throat to my engine servicing terminal now exists. The neighbors who live in that part of town sure are gonna hat me.

[markpierce]

Definitely option 2, with the half-inch plywood for the subroadbed.  Some folks prefer 3/4-inch plywood, but I find that overkill, and besides, their 4 by 8 sheets are too heavy.  I have no experience with foam roadbed.  Homasote/Homabed is what I use for handlaying track.  I presume foam will work for flex track, based on reports from others.

You should have some separation between the framework and the subroadbed so you can model below-tracks scenery such as ditches, gullies, creeks, culverts, etc.  It is disheartening to see layouts built upon a flat table.

Mark

[tomikawaTT]

Your option 1 is the way I do it, leveling side to side with wallboard 'mud' and subduing the occasional lengthwise heave with steel angle iron.  I do have risers every 400mm (16 inches) or less.

If your risers are more widely spaced, then go to thicker plywood.

Make sure to form a nice, parabolic vertical easement at the top and bottom of each grade.  If you avoid joints in the transition areas, plywood does this automatically.

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with lots of grade transitions)

[dehusman]

Option 1: 1/4" plywood is subject to warping.

Option 2:  Your best bet.

Option 3 and 4 : Why bother with L girder if you are going to build "tabletop" benchwork.  Use the L Girder method.

[Aralai]

 My layout is L-Girder, but has sections with different types of construction - ie: my yard uses 1/2" plywood base with WS foam trackbed sheet on top. I plan to use 1" blue foam for scenery, and in places where the layout is level, will likely glue sections of 1" blue foam as a base with no plywood underneath. (I used the 1/2" plywood for the yard mainly because the yard needed to be only 1/2" elevated - 1" would have been too high.)

From the yard, the track starts from the 1/2" on a 2% incline up to a level section that is 2" high. 

My question is, which of the following do you think is best for the incline? (I do not want to use homasote.)

1. Risers attached to L-Girders with 1/4" plywood subroadbed then foam trackbed.

2. Risers attached to L-Girders with 1/2" plywood subroadbed then foam trackbed.

3. 1/2" plywood base with WS incline foam and then foam trackbed.

4. 1" blue foam base and use same blue foam to create incline with foam trackbed on top.

My preference would be #1, but is 1/4" plywood strong enough or will it bend too much? My second preference is #3 as I think it would be strong and smooth. #4 would be light but probably harder to get a smooth incline.

Thoughts??