Happy weekend all. I’ve stripped down the temporary pink panther layout in preparation to attach the pink foam board in a more permanent manor. In the next couple of weeks I want to start attaching track and I need to settle on a road bed. I had been planning on using foam window seal from Home Depot. I bought a pack and I think it would have worked fine but I realized it wasn’t cost effective at $6 for 5 feet. I’ve used cork roadbed on plywood with good results. I’m intrigued by Woodland Scenics trackbed. It’s slightly cheaper than cork and I would think it would be lighter too. Has any one used it on foam board? What is you impression for quietness, ease of install, and durability? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I have A friend who used it. He's had lots of problems with variations in height. His track kind of rises and falls. He often has trouble with wheels lifting enough that they lose contact and locos stall. He says never again. YMMV. Don
Yes, whatever you end up using must be able to keep to a reasonably constant grade over any 8" length or you'll have trouble with rolling stock keeping its footing, especially along curves. If a rail on the outside of a curve dips even 1 mm, it often makes a great difference and the leading axle in the leading truck will be the first wheel to slip sideways, out of the gauge. So, whatever you use, figure out how to adhere it on the surface below it so that the rails run smoothly. I tried camper topper tape, thin-ish and adhesive foam meant to seal between the top rim of a pickup's bed and the supporting surfaces of a truck camper. Not worth the trouble IMO. Stick with cork, strips of pine or 1/4" plywood roadbed (the latter makes curves a bit more tedious to fashion), or Homabed (has a lot of fans, but spendy), or the Walthers/WS product. Note that you'll not get this perfect, no matter what you do. So, let the flextrack lengths (you ARE using flex...?) keep their level by using ballast grains under the ties to get to the depth the track lengths want to be at. It isn't crucial to have the tracks glue down all along their lengths, just more-so along curves to keep them in place. If you spread ballast, and then lightly tap the flex along the rail tops, you'll find the ballast grains leaving the tops of the ties, which is desirable, and you'll get some of it migrating under the ties to help keep the rails at grade. IOW, let the ballast do its real-world job if you end up with slightly undulating roadbed and you were hoping it would end up flatter.
Thanks for the feedback. Level roadbed is extremely important for easy laying of track. I was hoping to try some new techniques on this build. However, if I’m going to be fighting the foam the whole time, it’s not worth it to me. Good old cork it is. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
At least with cork, you can sand it to make it level. With the foam stuff, you get what you get. I guess you could level it with spackle and then sand before track goes down. Right now, we're prying up low spots and shimming under. He's talking about tearing out the track and relaying with cork. The foam idea sounds good and should make it queiter until you ballast, but maybe this implementation isn't there yet. Don
I've had zero problems with cork on bare foam. Tried the WS stuff ~20 years ago, same problems as mentioned by other posters. I've used a variety of adhesives, there's a liquid nails that comes out looking more like a caulk that I've had good results with. Another nice thing about cork vs WS is it actually looks halfway decent without ballast. Just paint your foam + plaster cloth in a nice flat dark earth before you glue the cork down.
I'll use this older thread to ask a question about the use of Woodland Scenics Riser sets in N Scale. I read that their width is 2-1/2", which I think is too wide for N. 1-1/2" to 1-3/4" would look more prototypical in N. Am I missing something here? I suppose I could cut a ~1" segment out of the entire enter of the product, but that certainly diminishes the ease of using it.
How steep of a dropoff do you plan on having on either side of the tracks? Is there any purpose to have the riser the exact width of the roadbed? There is always the potential to hide it under other level terrain, or cut contours into it after you glue it down.
I figured to have a roadbed width that would look credible for single track. Looking at the dimensions, a 2-1/2" wide space is equivalent to a 33 FT wide right of way. My Kato track is 13 FT and I estimate the width in my shot below is perhaps 17 FT. Cutting down the Riser's exposed contour may be the solution.
Around here if there's a rise on real railroads the road bed is usually that wide. Enough room to drive maintenance vehicles up beside the track on both sides. On level runs the road doesn't have to be as close to the tracks. The rise to the tracks is not as much. Also that leaves room for snowmobile trails. Polaris all the way. Each area is it's own. Rich
Here's another shot of mine that better captures the railroading look I'm after. Even looks like Kato Unitrack, right? I've not yet started tracklaying, but I'm now thinking that I'll experiment with 1/4" EVA foam cut to the width I'm after supported by graduated blocks of wood. I enjoy woodworking, so can custom cut most any gradient needed with as many blocks of wood as needed.
I used these on my HO scale layout. Even with HO there was times I wanted to trim the foam. In this pic you can see a retaining wall with the white foam behind it. I used an oscillating tool with a flat trim bit to carve the foam. It does a great job but it will vibrate the layout some. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Not used on train layouts but other foam based objects. There are other means of cutting foam. A friend took a soldering iron gun that looks like an electric drill but with two outlets to attach the metal loop that gets hot. He replaced the solder tip with a course wire loop that got hot. There are tools like that for that job. Pricey! At a machine shop they used an angle grinder, used to sand and polish large items, and mounted the blade from a table saw. Cut like using a chain saw. Wouldn't want to go that route alone. Rich
Had the same problem, it looks good, but it is almost impossible to have a flat surface underneath the rails. I stripped all I could strip and replaced with cork.
