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Carrfan, Hand laying track is time consuming and to do it right it will cost some money. For a contrarian view.... While there are those who use pine for roadbed in handlaying, the preferred material is homasote. There is a reason that it has been used for many years as the roadbed for hand laying... get some and see for yourself. You are going to spend a lot of time preparing your pine roadbed. Cookie cuttering homasote with a plywood subroadbed is going to be quicker and give you a more consistent surface to spike into. (Yes, I have used both methods) Just make sure that the pieces of homasote that you get are of even thickness...No humps and bumps....As to cost, Homasote is 25.00 for a 4 x 8 sheet. You have to cut it yourself, but it is pretty cheap. As for trying to do this real cheap: What is your time worth??? It would be a drag to spend many hours laying some perfect track work and have it come out sub par because you cheaped out on materials..... I know that homasote has its drawbacks and many here will tell you about them. For hand laying nothing takes spikes quite like homasote. Most of the expert modelers I know who handlay still use homasote.
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