New to the hobby

[Anonymous]

Santa brought the Lionel Polar Express to my grandson yesterday...before we even begin....I know we want to start with a 4 x 8 plywood sheet....but someone has suggested we use "sound board"on top of the plywood...something that will cushion sound? what is that?
Cathy, San Francisco

[Anonymous]

Have you ever heard of "homosote?" (spelling) Its a fiberboard material usually sold in 1/2" to 3/4" thicknesses.

Thats what you'll need

[CBQ_Guy]

QUOTE: Originally posted by The Rat

Have you ever heard of "homosote?" (spelling) Its a fiberboard material usually sold in 1/2" to 3/4" thicknesses.

Thats what you'll need

Homasote is reportedly hard to find in some areas. If you have a Menards Home Center in your area, they advertise having it. It will cost you roughly $15-25 for a sheet, depending on where you purchase it, if it's on sale, etc.

Homasote has a dealer finder on their website at:

http://homasote.com/

BTW, you don't "need" to use it, but it may make fastening down track a bit easier.

Hope this helps . . .

[Buckeye Riveter]

Cathy,
A friend of mine told me you were looking for some help with sound deadening and asked me to post my ideas.

First of all congratulations on the Polar Express. I purchased one for my daughter who is 25 years old and loves the book. Neat little train and good runner.[:)]

As to the sound deadening, the Polar Express came with Lionel's Fast Trac, which is what I am assuming you are going to use for the 4x8 layout. This track is somewhat noisy, but we can tone it down by using some simple principles of physics.

What I suggest you do is go ahead and get your plywood table built and then cover it with foam. Directly on top of the plywood put 1" high-density foam. This is the type that is shown in the photo below and can easily be purchased at Lowes or Home Depot. (The photo actually shows 2" foam on a joist type bench work.)

Next purchase 1/2" to 1" of the white beaded foam and put it on top of the high density foam.

Now you have a "sandwich of foam" on top of the plywood. It will knock down the sound fairly good.
Use screws into the foam to hold the track. They don't even need to go into the plywood. I use deck screws to hold my track. A skirt around the table will also cut down on the sound. A plastic table skirt can be found at a paper party store or someplace similar.

The foam can be painted any color you like with normal latex house paints. You can carve it to make any shape you want. My layout is completely built of foam. Craft stores have special inexpensive tools to carve foam.

You can also find a previous post of mine on the CTT forum at : http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?page=-1&TOPIC_ID=23548&REPLY_ID=239831#239831

In fact, I would like to suggest that you take a look at the CTT forum. It is free just like all of the rest of the forums.