I use flex track on my layout, with all the mainline on cork (the equivelent to the Kato track in height) and all the yards and sidings laid directly on the deck. All the suggestions so far would work, you just have to be selective. If the industry has a parking lot, raising the building works fine, but then if there's a road coming into the industry, you have to deal with the difference in height between the building/lot, and the incoming road, or you suddenly have truck docks that are way too high. You probably need to just handle each building separately using one of the above suggestions.
Foam core board is what I used in places on my layout to bring scenery up to track level. Mainly to raise roads, building, and parking lots. Worked well. You can get a 20" x 30" sheet fairly cheap at a dollar store to experiment with. Comes in handy for other projects as well.
I have used rolls of shelf cork sold at most of the big box home stores. Cuts easily with a pair of big scissors. the paper backing is gridded so cutting is easy to follow a straight line, and best of all peel the paper backing off and it is self adhesive. Takes paint or scenic materials nicely.
So, let me get this straight. You guys use Kato Unitrack because you want a built-in roadbed. OK. But then, you have to raise a lot of the layout where you don't want the track to be above where it would normally be in relation to the surrounding terrain or structures. I think I have it, now. Sounds completely "logical' to me. Doug
So, let me get this straight. You use flex on top of cork. When you come 'into town' do you come off the cork so the track is closer to 'street level' while in town and then go back up onto cork when you go out of town? Or is your track on cork the whole way around the layout ? You know....Like Unitrack ? Asking for a friend...
Like I said, I lay the track right on the board/table. I stopped unnecessarily adding to the vertical dimension, years ago, Doug
Most places, I wanted the raised roadbed. I like the raised look when the tracks are running next to a highway or a creek or such things. However, where I had something I really wanted at track level, it was easier for me to just raise that than create the dip for the track to go down.
Not neccesarily "when I come into town", but if I have an industry I need to service, I "come off the cork". On my layout, the main yard, and my industrial area are on a peninsula. The peninsula is fed by a Wye coming off the mainline......as trains enter the Wye, they drop down to table top level and everything on the peninsula is at that level. I have a small town that has a siding for a grain/feed elevator and a team track....the siding drops to table top level. I also have a couple of factories that are switched off the mainline and their sidings drop off the mainline. It's pretty easy to shim the track for the transition, and once you ballast you'd never know the difference.
While the built in roadbed is a great feature and saves many hours of ballasting it’s not the main reason I use Unitrack. I use it because it’s ultra reliable. When trains run reliably it makes the hobby a lot more enjoyable.
I don't know what the railroads do where you live but around here the mainline track is elevated above the surrounding terrain for drainage purposes. Roads at crossings are ramped up to cross at or near railhead height. Sidings are usually below mainline height to prevent rolling stock from possibly fouling the mainline. Cork roadbed comes in different heights. There is N scale and HO scale plus there is also sheet cork as mentioned before. Some modelers use HO scale cork to simulate well maintained Class I mainlines with N scale cork or sheet cork for branches, sidings and what have you. To answer your question, the mainline track height is maintained through a town. If there is two or more, they are all the same. That is true of passing sidings as well. Team tracks or industry tracks are lower than the mainline for the above stated reason. If an industry is located on a plateau above the mainline then the siding leading up to that industry would, in most cases, be protected by a derail. Also, let me add another thought here. I am not an advocate of Unitrack or any of the other "knockoff' products. I do use it for temporary setups to test equipment or as a programing track. It is fine for that. But I see it for what it is. It is glorified sectional track. It suffers the same disadvantages as sectional track. That is predefined radii and switches. Only advantage over regular sectional track is that it doesn't need to be fastened down so it won't come apart like sectional track. Flex track is what the name implies. It is flexible. Largest radii available for Unitrack is 716mm. That's about 28.25 inches. That is your limit. With flex there is no limit. Switches can be larger than a #4 or 6 that are offered in Unitrack. You can employ real easements with transitional curves and not two different curve radii with no transition. That is not an easement. It is a compound curve consisting of two curves with no transition between them or the straight track. The downside to flex track is that it takes more effort to build a layout. But that work is done only once and the results are worth it. These are my thoughts. You may not agree. If so, I wish you well with your endeavors.
I do the same off my Unitrack. Its not that hard to shim it coming off Unitrack... That being said...the only places that are that way are the industries. The rest of the places in town are full on Unitrack. If need be the surrounding scenery is raised to rail height. Like at my passenger station. .
A lot of the time, raised roadbed is seen outside of towns and yards. So the Kato is good to go there. Even if we need to adjust the scenery to track level, usually in town or around yards, the reliability of Kato track is well worth that effort.
A bit of misinformation there. Kato does have it's own brand of flex track and cork track bed if you need those wider curves. https://katousa.com/n-unitrack-flexible/ And to make it more interesting...you can make your own Unitrack flex track if need be... .
I know. I also know that while it is Kato; it is not Unitrack. And, as you state, it comes with its own cork roadbed. Gee, it looks like even Kato acknowledges Unitrack's shortcomings.
Reliability is not limited to Unitrack. I've been going to train shows for over 25 years. I go just to see the layouts and converse with the people running. These layouts are predominantly Ntrak but not all are. Very few are Unitrack. Some of these layouts contain modules that are 30 or more years old. That's thirty years of transporting, setting up, tearing down, transporting and storing then repeating over and over and over and over. Modules take a real beating during that process but when set up, they work just fine. Now that is genuine reliability.
Kato has an adapter piece of track that hooks up to unitrack on one end and Atlas track on the other. Thus it is possible to come off of a Kato unitrack switch and with adapter go to Atlas flex. I have done that and used the thinner cork shelf liner under the flex track for a lower profile.
Unitrack is SO reliable that guys have only had to pull rails out of the switches to carve notches in them so trains won't derail by snagging on the point rails. Doug
John, I am not impressed. Why not just ditch the Unitrack and use flex track? That way you don't need any adapter track. By the way, according to Kato's website, that adapter track (part #20-045) is only 2 7/16" inches long and costs $5.50. That equates to over $79.00 for 36 inches which is the length of Peco and M E flex. For that money ($79.00) you can buy 10 pieces of Peco flex. That's 30 feet of track. Do you know how much you will spend on 30 feet of Unitrack? Well, a four pack of 7 5/16" straights (29 1/4 inches) costs $8.78 so you would need 12.3 of the 4 packs for a total of $108.06. No thanks, I stay with the flex.
