I hate cork road bed

[jwfoise]

I would agree about the Woodland Scenics Roadbed, its an excellent product

[Anonymous]

Tried Woodland Scenics Roadbed? It's only about 1/8" high, deadens sound better than cork, and is reasonably cheap.

[Anonymous]

Tried Woodland Scenics Roadbed? It's only about 1/8" high, deadens sound better than cork, and is reasonably cheap.

[Anonymous]

The worst was my N scale layout before it was the same hight. The rail was about six feet above the ground! This seems to be a universal thickness in my local hobby shops N,HO,O, all the same atleast O looked right.

[Anonymous]

The worst was my N scale layout before it was the same hight. The rail was about six feet above the ground! This seems to be a universal thickness in my local hobby shops N,HO,O, all the same atleast O looked right.

[wp8thsub]

"...it's almost three feet high in HO scale."

Yikes! That's some serious cork! Typical HO cork roadbed is around 3/16" - 1/4" high, or around 20 scale inches or less. That's not a bad height for heavy duty mainlines, particularly in the American West like the prototype UP that's just up my street. If you want a reduced ballast profile, try using 1/8" or so N scale cork or use the 1/8" thick Homabed from http://www.homabed.com .

[wp8thsub]

"...it's almost three feet high in HO scale."

Yikes! That's some serious cork! Typical HO cork roadbed is around 3/16" - 1/4" high, or around 20 scale inches or less. That's not a bad height for heavy duty mainlines, particularly in the American West like the prototype UP that's just up my street. If you want a reduced ballast profile, try using 1/8" or so N scale cork or use the 1/8" thick Homabed from http://www.homabed.com .

[Anonymous]

Wow alot of great ideas thanks.

[Anonymous]

Wow alot of great ideas thanks.

[Anonymous]

Interesting. Well, you can minimize the effect by building up scenery against the edges so it might look more like a small fill or raised roadbed, similar to the small suburban town I grew up in on the SP Dallas to Ennis sub. Just as an idea, put down a couple of scale feet of whatever you use for scenery construction: plaster, sculptamold, spackling compound, etc. The when you add the ballast, you're back to your 1 foot depth you want. Another idea, maybe you could use larger scale rock to simulate the sides of a small fill being held in by rip-rap. Then put the smaller, scale ballast on top.
Also, you could use that 3' as a ditch for drainage dug alongside the right of way, filling part of it up with ballast, if you like.

Happy modeling.

[Anonymous]

Interesting. Well, you can minimize the effect by building up scenery against the edges so it might look more like a small fill or raised roadbed, similar to the small suburban town I grew up in on the SP Dallas to Ennis sub. Just as an idea, put down a couple of scale feet of whatever you use for scenery construction: plaster, sculptamold, spackling compound, etc. The when you add the ballast, you're back to your 1 foot depth you want. Another idea, maybe you could use larger scale rock to simulate the sides of a small fill being held in by rip-rap. Then put the smaller, scale ballast on top.
Also, you could use that 3' as a ditch for drainage dug alongside the right of way, filling part of it up with ballast, if you like.

Happy modeling.

[Anonymous]

This junk never looked right to me and now I know why. I finally pulled out the ruler and....it's almost three feet high in HO scale. I don't know if they're all the same but this stinks. I work for a rail road and can promise you around here we don't use step ladders to cross. There is roughly a foot of ballast bellow the ties. Now I realize miniature presision isn't easy. But 3 feet?

[Anonymous]

This junk never looked right to me and now I know why. I finally pulled out the ruler and....it's almost three feet high in HO scale. I don't know if they're all the same but this stinks. I work for a rail road and can promise you around here we don't use step ladders to cross. There is roughly a foot of ballast bellow the ties. Now I realize miniature presision isn't easy. But 3 feet?