Foam roadbed or cork

[MGAcoal]

I too had the same question....WS foam or cork.  All these replies have helped me alot.  This is an older post, and I figured I could ask a little something and "bring it back up."  The question I have is this.......which looks better without ballast?  I do not plan on adding scenery to my staging yard, and I am curious which looks better with track on a plywood base....foam or cork?  I know, I could actually try it for myself, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet.  I am still racking my brain trying to design my railroad first!!  Any additional opinions, comments, and/or suggestions would be welcomed.

[pcarrell]

I like the foam myself. It does require a bit more change [2c] though.

[SMassey]

I have used both and I like the WS foam the best. The cork is a little easier to lay down along the tracks centerline but if you use the seam in the WS foam and cut it in half it is just like laying the cork. At my LHSs it is cheaper to buy the foam and the 24' rolls are realy nice. My fav again is foam but they are both OK and sound is not an issue after the ballasting is done.

[waltersrails]

All else use what ever is around. Lots of things work for roadbed.

[Duce]

All I can tell you in I us the foam. I have had to pull my track up due to a mistake I continue to make.... Anyways.. I have reused the foam both times..I used just enough glue to keep the bed down.

I hope this helps

[nbrodar]

I've used both. I prefer the WS foam, because it comes in 24' rolls, and is easier to cut then cork. I've also had more sucess pulling up and reusing the WS foam then with the cork.

As for the sound difference, yes foam is quieter then cork. But as the others have stated, once the track is ballasted, the difference isn't noticable.

Nick

[Anonymous]

You may have seen those displays where they have a small peice of cork roadbed and a small piece of foam roadbed and it says "knock on these and see which is quieter". Of course the foam is much quieter. But once you ballast it and especially if you nail your track it wont really make any difference. I went for cork because I could buy it in bulk cheaper than the foam.

[ondrek]

I wrestled with this myself. I ended up going with.....both
Details:
I have a 4x8 with a main loop and some sidings, nothing special. the main loop is WS foam roadbed. most of the sidings are cork.

My base is the white bead board foam....please no bashing on me for using that, we are focusing on the roadbed issue here....anyhow....There is a HUGE difference between the sound from the two different roadbeds. the WS is MUCH quieter.

NOW before you close this and run off and buy the WS because of this.....here is where things get complicated.

IF you leave the track on the bare black WS roadbed, its quieter than the cork. if you put ballast down and use the white glue / water to hold the ballast down, the sound difference between the two are NULL.

why? the rigidity of the glue mixture creates this hard "Shell" and that shell creates a noise that the WS foam roadbed was created to subdue. So since once the track is ballasted, both are ridged, I would choose the cork. pins holding the track down are held MUCH better by the cork than the WS foam, so that is a huge plus for the cork. I used a caulk adheasive to glue the roadbed down and I have had to pull up the WS foam roadbed after laying it, 4days after laying it to be exact. I was able to pull it up and re-use it with no problems. so as long as you use the caulk sparingling, and you dont really need to use much, the WS foam roadbed DOES pull up without destroing it. Now, it you have gone so far as to ballast the section that needs to be pulled up, i can see why the roadbed is wercked....its the ridged shell of the white glue and water that when flexed on lifting that will ruin the WS foam roadbed. SO, if you do choose the WS, make sure all track issues are taken care of BEFORE ballasting.


If i was to do it all over, I would actually try out the AMI instant roadbed. that stuff is suposed to be a middle groud as far as noise betwen the WS and cork. thing is, you dont create a ridged shell over it when ballasting, the ballast is suposed to just stick to it as it is. I havent tried it though.

I painted my roadbed. I used the speckle paint that looks like stone. I had the roadbed down and then after all the track was placed, I pulled up sections, spray painted the area, lots of paint as it builds up, then i placed the track into the paint. the paint holds the track, so no pins needed and it looks like ballast, two things done at once. Now this paint is a laytex base, and after it was dry it is very flexable. you can take your finger and press down on the "ballasted" WS foam roadbed and you will compress the foam and the paint will flex with it without cracking, something that might happen with the ridged glue/water ballast shell. BUT even though its flexable, it still created a shell over the WS that is causing more noise when the train runs over it compared to the un-painted areas of the main line.

Ok, so there you go. lots of food for thought.

Kevin

[Anonymous]

I don't have a lay out yet but I was at the hobby shop some time last spring and this question crossed my lips! The clerk said to me that foam is a bit quieter but not much! and that if you nail or tack foam or cork to your table, when you go to pull it up for repairs after a while they both fall apart and need to be replaced!... so I would say that both are good choices it just depends! Thats my 2 cents but I would wait for more opinions!

[Anonymous]

I like cork for the reason that is does not come apart if you pull up a section of track for repairs.

[Anonymous]

I just got throuth installing my blue board to the benchwork and now ready to start laying some track. I would like to get some ideas which is better Woodlands foam roadbed or cork roadbed. I heard that foam is quieter than cork. Anyone have any preference?