I recently finished constucting two staging yards for my layout and I am ready to lay track. The staging yards are domino constuction made from plywood with 1 x 4 framing made from 3/4" plywood. They are 12" wide (4 track HO scale) and have a good quality 1/2" plywood deck. The two yards are identical and consist of 4'-6'-6' dominos for a total length of 16' feet. The sections are bolted together. The construction is very strong and sturdy.
On my layout, which is also constructed of plywood dominos I use cork roadbed on 1/2" plywood deck. I attach the track to the roadbed with latex adhesive caulk. These staging yards are visable now but will eventually be hidden under the layout as staging yards. I was planning to attach the staging yard tracks directly to the plywood deck, but I am starting to have second thoughts. The dominos are stong as constructed so I am not worried about sagging or warping. There have been a lot of comments about excessive noise that would result in placing the track directly on the plywood base.
So the question is Cork or or not to Cork?
JIM
Jim, Modeling the Kansas City Southern Lines in HO scale.
Conduct an experiment by placing a section or two of flextrack loosely on top of the module without cork under it, connect a power pack, and run an engine back and forth. If the noise is not too loud, you don't need cork roadbed; but remember, it might be slightly louder once the track is fastened down.
For a staging yard, you're not going to be running at track speed, so the noise may not be something to worry about.
I tested some track caulked to raw plywood (also intended for staging) and was not happy with the result. After I applied my choice of roadbed my quieter locos took on stealth capabilities.
By all means, use cork, or thin foam (my choice), or SOMETHING resilient - the multiple layers of different material seem to be an absolute sound killer. I use foam because cork will eventually deteriorate here in the Dessicated Desert and I'm looking forward to another 30 years of use for this layout.
On a practical note, use sheet cork rather than formed roadbed for your yards. Save a couple of bucks for use elsewhere.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
yeah my mom just bought a bunch of rolled cork to put up on a wall that she was replacing in her office. I got the leftovers :) haha. the stuff is pretty thin... probably the 1/8'' stuff loathar's talking about.
Sorry to threadjack, but I have a quick question: I'm going to paint my foam layout top with a brown latex paint that i bought. if i paint the whole thing before laying any cork roadbed, will i still be able to use latex caulk to adhere it to the foam, or should I lay all the track first and then paint? I'm just stumped on what to do, because i'm going to be building up some layers for mountains, and i don't want to screw with being able to glue the pieces together, and painting it all first will allow me to get going on other parts of the layout.
I was afraid of the possible sound problems. I have several boxes of cork roadbed which I bought for my main line.
I will take a look at the building suppy stores next time I go to the city. If I can not find sheets of cork at a good price I will just use what I already have on hand.
Thanks for the comments.
You can find cork sheets at Home Depot that come in a roll that is used for lining drawers. It may be 1/8' thick at most. It has an adhesive backing, but if I were using it I would put down a layer of latex adhesive. I'm going to try this on a small section of my mainline. I want to stay away of high profile HO cork. I would think that track attached to plywood or any other solid substrate would be loud. However, if you are running a DCC loco/sound, you're going to have noise anyway.
Larry
jamnest wrote: I was afraid of the possible sound problems. I have several boxes of cork roadbed which I bought for my main line. I will take a look at the building suppy stores next time I go to the city. If I can not find sheets of cork at a good price I will just use what I already have on hand.Thanks for the comments. JIM
Wal Mart sells 1'x1' squares for about $1 each. They come in 4 packs in the office supply section. 3/16" thick just like the Mid West roadbed.
DeadHead-I'd lay the roadbed first. Otherwise you'd be gluing roadbed to paint and "hoping" the paint sticks to the foam. Use latex or acrylic paint. (NOT oil)
Cork it. When I first built my layout and ran out of cork I always knew where the engine was on the layout by the noise it made on the plywood base. Now l use Homasote and cork and am amazed at how quiet my DCC engines run. Just my thoughts that work for me. Have fun with your problem solving.
Archie
Took my wife shopping to the big city (Topeka) this morning. I stopped by Lowes and picked up two rolls of cork for $7.95 each. The rolls are 24" x 48". I will cut them into strips and glue them down for my yards.
I use Woodland Scenics trackbed, which is quiet, and its black, so the holes in the ballast won't show cork.
Sawyer Berry
Clemson University c/o 2018
Building a protolanced industrial park layout
deadHead.......like the quotes.
"Sometimes we ride on your horses, sometimes we walk alone
sometimes the songs that we hear are just songs of our own"
...please tell me that you don't have a steamer named Casey Jones!
....are just songs of our own........ dah-dah da-dah, dah-dah da-dah Woooo!!! ::squiggley Jerry leads::
haha thats awesome that theres more people here who rode on the bus. Actually, I don't have a steamer named Casey Jones. BUT, I have already determined that the mine on my layout is going to be the Cumberland Mine, with Terrapin Station downtown lol. I'm thinking about free-lancing a prototype called the Gamehendge Western with the Icculus Express being the local passenger run. but you'd have to have listened to Phish to get those, lol
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
R. T. POTEET wrote:I would avoid track on raw plywood with the same caution as I would avoid the plague.
I'm with you!
One thing that I found helps. A buddy of mine used a Kadee spiker and spikrd to plywood. It was loud!!! I told him to try some of that foam in a can for insulating window and door frames. The kind I'm talking about does NOT expand! He made a few criscrosses of th stuff under his layout. You need to take a hunk of cardboard and form a V (vee) shape so it wont fall and hold it for a minute or so till it sticks. You can follow along with the cardboard like a sliding form, if you get my drift.
It worked like a charm. Best to wait till all your wiring is done. If you need to change somthing under your layout or what ever the foam cut away with a knife easy.
Don't use the expandable foam! I know a guy that used the expandable stuff to insulate a pipe than ran under the corner molding outside his house. It expanded his molding right off the house.
Jules
Modeling the Motor City
I have domino benchwork and for the past year I have had my dominos in a large oval. running trains in a circle is getting old. I like to watch long freights roll by, but I need to get busy with constucting the new layout. I have recently constructed two 1' x 16' staging yards. My new layout wil be point to point with a staging yard on each end. As the layout grows, I just keep moving the staging yards.
Re-arranging my dominos in a U shape was easy, however I needed to re-arange some of the track. My cork was glued down with yellow glue and the track was attached with latex caulk. Most of the track is good as constructed, however I needed to realign some of the track; and thus needed to uncork some of the roadbed which had been glued to the plywood. I purchased a painters tool at Walmart for about $3.50. Scraping up the cork is very easy with this tool.
I had glued my track down with latex adhesive caluk and it was not easy to remove. I use Atlas Code 83 flex track. The rails came up but not the ties. All of my tunouts are re-usable as I nail them down and don't use the caulk. I will continue to use the latex adhesive caluk, but have found that removing the track was not as simple as some have stated.