I need to decide whether to lay down a whole bunch of cork or put track directly on homasote. Your two cents? The 21"x16' section of the layout I am building first is almost entirely the terminus of a short line with an interchange (originally with Erie). HO scale. The base is 1/2" homasote over 1/2" ply. I am inclined to build straight onto the homasote and then ramp up onto raised roadbed on the last few feet on the right end as the line departs the town. The track in the upper left will go to a staging cassette for an interchange. The curve on the left end is if I decide to put in a liftout and have a continous loop available. The circles are 22" radius references. There will be a town on either side of the peninsula and one on the other wall. I intend to run a small steam passenger train for 'color' (thus the continuous loop consideration) but my primary focus will be on switching the industries. My layout is inspired by a section of the Lehigh Valley Auburn branch from Owego, NY to Dryden, NY. Most of that rail is still in service as the Owego&Harford, interchaging with NS. .
I have never used any kind of "roadbed" on any layout (except for a little one I built for one of my sons once). I have always laid track directly on the basic surface. Here is my rational: I know conventional wisdom is to use cork or whatever to raise the track up like in the real world. However, I have always thought it looks unnatural on a model railroad because of our reduced horizontal aspect. Raising the track up just emphasizes that our layouts are much smaller than real life. Generally, when we look at track, it usually doesn't look like it's much higher up than the surrounding land, unless we are standing next to a high speed corridor or the like. Track being lower on a model railroad just has always looked better to me. As a bonus, it's less work. Doug
Personally, I like the appearance of roadbed under my mainlines and no roadbed in yards/industries, so I've elected to model the change in elevation, even the very small ones in N-scale, between the mainlines and most of my yard tracks. But I've also used roadbed under yard tracks in 2 of the larger yards on my layouts, and I'm pleased with the appearance in those yards, too. Either way can work out fine for you, depending on what is important to you. On my N-scale layout, I've used cork roadbed under all mainline tracks and the bigger yards, and have used cardboard strips to ramp down to attached track directly on Homasote in the smaller (2- to 4-track) yards. When installing the larger yards in 2003 and 2004, I had originally tried to start the taper between levels immediately upon entering the yard throats--so the vertical easement on/off the roadbed was under the turnouts, but that led to derailments when pushing long strings of cars through them because the middle of those turnouts were subtly bowed up or down instead of perfectly flat (straight) all the way through from one end to the other. When I eliminated the bows by putting roadbed under all the turnouts and made the taper in the first foot at each end of the classification tracks, the high turnouts and low classification tracks looked odd to me, so I put roadbed under all tracks in the larger yards. If I were to do it again, I would probably complete the taper out on the main before the turnouts into the yard (much like what you describe in the upper right corner of your track plan), and would create the appearance of a higher mainline profile by using a utility knife to carve out a ditch in the Homasote that gradually gets deeper until it is 1/2 inch deep (that is, down to the OSB panel/plywood panel), and contour the Homasote to match a roadbed profile from the edge of the track ties over to the edge of the ditch. This pic shows the East Peoria Yard with roadbed under all of the tracks: TBX 82015 2015-12-29 09.43.52 by ppuinn posted Dec 29, 2015 at 4:55 PM For my HO switching layout (4-track yard at one end; industries, 2 interchange tracks, and wye connections to a main at the other end), almost all of the track is in yards, industries, and interchanges. I've put all track directly on the Homasote, because only a few feet of mainline tracks are modeled, and because the 3 industrial spurs off the main are so short that any tapering down from mainline roadbed to spur tracks directly on Homasote would leave limited level space for coupling/uncoupling. Industries at East end of Switching Layout2015-08-12 18.09.01 by ppuinn posted Aug 12, 2015 at 11:54 PM In this pic of Hillery Yard on my N-scale layout, the highway is made with 1/4" thick foamboard attached directly to the Homasote; The grass/trees are directly on the surface of the Homasote, and just like the prototype, the ditch between the road and the tracks is very shallow (read: not noticeable). The closest track is the main, and is on 1/4" cork roadbed; the 2nd track is the passing siding and is on cardboard strips about 1/8" thick; the turnouts to the yard are on 1/4" roadbed; and the classification tracks ramp down on cardboard strips to the surface of the Homasote. Even though the differences in track elevations are relatively close to prototypical, they hardly show at all in this pic. 2016-02-13 12.47.30 by ppuinn posted Feb 13, 2016 at 3:11 PM
I like the appearance of cork on main tracks, as they appear to be better maintained, with well groomed ballast. For sidings, spurs and branch lines, which often saw much less upkeep, then I get away from cork or bury it to appear a bit more run down.
I glued track directly to Homasote for my entire layout. The ROW was cut spine fashion and elevated as needed. The various yards are flat one piece areas unless I wanted to elevate a track for scenic effect. I sculpted all ROW to shape with a band sander; a sort of mini chainsaw with sandpaper rather than cutting teeth. It made short work of the Homasote and also created a huge mess of dust. I would do it again this way and resign myself to cleaning up the mess. I like the ability to shape the ROW; built up for the main and flatter for secondary tracks. I glued the track to the Homasote with Aileen's Tacky Glue diluted with water. The glue has held well and has the bonus of being soluble when rewetted allows me to modify the alignment.
Thanks everyone for the feedback. @hoyden - how did you chose how much to dilute with? Any relatively set ratio, or more of a "put some in a small container and start stirring in water until I like the consistency"?
Mike, I ended up using about 50/50 mix of glue and water. I wanted the mixture sufficiently fluid that it would wick under the track when I squirted it from a syringe dragged along the field side of the ties. The more glue/less water the harder it will be to dissolve if you want move the track later. I paint the Homasote with two coats of latex paint and pin the track in place with aluminum push pins,The pins hold the track very well in Homasote. Then I squirt the glue along both sides until it wick up and fills the tie cribs. The only time I use Aileen's full strength is when I want something permanently glued, such as the wood supports under the Homasote, or when I want to slightly elevate one track I will fill the gap between the tracks with undiluted glue. If this looks like something that interests you then I suggest trying it out on some small track samples. I found the diluted glue had sufficient strength and I don't have to apply the glue until after the track is pinned in place and I am happy with the alignment.
