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Wayne: What I have used for years, I also hand lay track, is a produce called dona cona board. It is a fiber board, comes in 4 x 8 sheets and 3/8 th's in thickness. As I said have used it for years and poured lots of glue, water, paint on it and have had no warping. One thing that I like about it is that if you glue something down and you want to pull it up, all that comes up is a thin layer of the board and you can re glue again over it. This is great when you if you want that ties/rail sunk into the ground look, or are altering a track plan. It cuts easily with a jig saw or hand saw and with a little work can cut with a good drywall knife. What I do is lay it down and draw out your track plan on the board then if you want just use small brad nails, I use 1/2 inch, last package (small blister packs give you lots and they sell at hardware stores) cost about $1.35 Cdn. just tack yout cork roadbed down. For areas that you do not want the height of the cork but want track raised a little bit I use sheet cork that sells in the hardware stores in large rolls. I get a couple of feet and with carefull planning can get a lot of milage out of it. And for some areas like around industries where you do not want the track raised I just glue the ties right on the dona cona board. It is nice soft material so the spikes that go through the ties laid directly on the board go right into the board with no problem. When I have my track down and want to build a project I just cut out the dona cona board, take it to the workbench, work on my project there and when I want to put it back, just drop it back in the hole. This way you do not always have to build directly on the layout. Makes it great for changing a project. Just cut out the same size of board, build your new project and drop it in the old ones place. I put it ontop of the 1/2 inch plywood that I use, just screw it down with #8 by 1 inch screws. <br />**BEWARE** there are two types of dona cona board, there is one for outside insulation sheeting, it is darker in color and has tar impregnated in it, usually one side is black. DO NOT use this one, the one that you want is called "NATURAL" dona cona board, it is a light tan to a beige color. The last one that I bought at our local lumber store was $9.00 Canadian. Check around, by phone, as prices may vary. <br />Ron.. BC Canada
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