Laying Roadbed

[mondotrains]

Hi Guy,
I have built 3 layouts and still prefer glueing/screwing a sheet of Homosote to my plywood base. I use short wood screws to hold the homosote down while the white (Elmer's) glue is setting and then I remove the screws. Of course, the screws don't have to be removed, but some may end up in the way of laying track or whatever so I take most out.

I then draw my track plan and glue cork to the Homosote. The cork is great for reducing noise and gives the mainline the height you need to look prototypical. I use track nails to hold the cork in place because the glue alone won't hold it on curves. I especially like the cork from Midwest Products because it comes in 2 pieces, where you glue the first piece along the centerline of your track plan and then lay the second piece against the first. The cork is great for making it easy to lay the track because track spikes go into the cork easily. Once your track is ballasted, the ballast glue will add additional holding power.

Another tip....If you're going to mount switch motors under the table to operate your turnouts, it's a good idea to cut out cork under the throwbar on the turnout so there is no friction between the throwbar and the cork. It's easy to disguise the cutout after.

I should mention that a company called Homobed makes Homosote "shims" that you can use to go from the mainline height of the cork, down to the grade level of your sidings. In other words, the shim is cut about the height of the cork on one end and tapers down to flat. The shims are about 10" long. Before I found these, I used to have to bring the grade of the area of my sidings up to the level of the mainline or just use cork for the sidings and live with them being too high. These shims work great when your entering the yard and want to get down quickly from the height of the mainline to a "flat" grade.

Hope this helps.
Mondo

[Anonymous]

I just purchased some Cork and some Woodland Scenics roadbed to expiriment with. I've always layed the track right on top of the Homasote top on my layout. So I'll try the roadbed, and ballasting this go around.

I'd be interested in others thoughts also.

Chris

[RedSkin]

I dunno if I fit your description of a Pro..but on the topic of roadbed there are several ways to do it, I think the oldest would be homasot. I perfer using cork myself, there are different ways to put it down...I think the newest techic is using caulk to secure it like liquidnail. It can be nailed down aswell. umm lets see some of the guys on here have talked bout using Woodland Senices Foam roadbed alot of success. You could check there site for info on it. Hope this helps.

PS: you might have better luck if you would have posted this on the layout building forum

Brad

[Anonymous]

Hi

I have decided that it is best to use real underlay rather than ez track so i would like to ask the pro's (the people on this forum!) to give me some advise or refer me to any good sites.

many thanks

pavariangoo[:)]