Cork vs. Foam vs. Homosote - Which is your preferred roadbed and why?

[N-gager]

I"m just thowing this in because I don't see much mention of foam and that was included in the original post.

Built my layout in the basement but it's heated and cooled and has a dehumidifier.

I started construction in Jan 15.

1/2 inch plywood, 1" green extruded foam + 2" foam over that. I used a few pieces of Woodland Scenic incline and finished the inclines with plywood with foam risers. The upper elevation of the track is 4" higher than the foam base.
Everything worked well with the exception of the highest elevation level (which is 2" of foam). That section (including the mountains - foam construction) is what I call noisey compared to the rest of the setup.

The upper platform (moutain support) acts as a sound board and amplifies the train noise (the mountains reflect more of the sound). It's set-up as a mountain pass.

The lower section (glued to the plywood) is fine noise-wise.

As for spikes - didn't use any. Hot-glue holds the track down but I'm using EZ track.

Only thing I would change (and still may) is the upper track curve (mountain pass) that is the elevated mountain pass.
Thinking about undercutting the track area and putting in a rubber base to help deaden the sound.

Time will tell if I goofed somewhere, but I'm pretty sure the foam is going to be stable.

 

[logandsawman]

I got a photo showing where I put brads in with the flex track on curves. Honestly, this track wanted to go straight in the worst way and I had to stagger the joints this much and use the nail to hold them. The holes in the ties are where the nails were, I pulled them out with a pliers.

The raduis is 22" here and this is an industrial part of the layout. I used natural ballast. The arrows are where the joins are, no soldering. You can see I slid some ties under the joins to give some realism.



Over years of time I question how glue can hold this track in place, unless it is the ballast that is really holding everything.

 

[BN8002]

That 'foam board' is an interesting idea.

I was planning on using some of that in the construction of the walls and roof of the 'shed' to house the multi-deck, around-the-wall layout,...just in case the shed had to be acclimatized at some point down the road. One distributor of these 'Handi-house sheds has indicated that this 'insulation board will also provide for a good solid backup for the really thin metal siding normally used in these sheds.

I looked at Home Depot recently and I believe I saw 1/2 inch and 3/4 inch insulation board, but don't recall 1 inch material.

What side of the insulation board did you place against the plywood?....metal-foil side or other? ...or did you remove reflective foil as not needed in this
instance?

And your claim is that this insulation board does not change shape/dimension appreciably with humidy/temp ??

I jsut went out and measured it and it is about 3/4"..I thought it was 1". I actually used some of the leftovers to insulate a dog house. When I bought it, I was only able to find it at lowes and the lowes closest to me didn't carry it. I had to go to another one about 15-20 minutes away.

I Put the metal foil side against the plywood and secured it with liquid nails foam board glue. I then glued my track straight to that. Any points where I had a joint, if there was a mismatch I used that stanley suroform to level everything out.

And yes, that has been my experience with it. I have not noticed any changes due to humidity or temperature. My track has been glued down for about 4-5 years now and I haven't had any problems with anything moving.

I just found an old piece in my garage and here is the website for the manufacturer. http://www.rmax.com/products/residential/rmatte-plus-3/

and here it is for sale on home depots website http://www.homedepot.com/p/Rmax-R-Matte-Plus-3-3-4-in-x-4-ft-x-8-ft-R-5-Polyiso-Rigid-Foam-Insulation-Board-W-N5075X/100317820

What I really liked about this stuff as well, is that I was able to use push pins to secure the track when I was first laying everything out. And I actually still use push pins to secure my buildings to the layout. I just put them in on opposite corners and put the building over them and its pretty stable.

If you lean an elbow into the stuff, it will leave an indentation in it. You have to put some force into it but it seems to only deflect in a small concentrated area, because I have climbed onto the layout and rested my knees on the board and have been ok, but if I put my full weight on one knee it will leave a divot.

 

[Cjcrescent]

I would prefer to use homasote, since I do handlay my track. But, for all intents and purposes, it's hard to get here. There's one place in town that sells it, and it's almost $80 a sheet. What I use as a substitute, is plain insulated sheathing. It holds spikes as well as homasote, and it's really cheap, at $6.00 a sheet.

It does take some sweat equity to get to a usable size, and it makes almost as much dust as homasote, but it is very good as a roadbed material.

 

[number9]

Not to hijack this thread, but I note that no one has mentioend the woodland scenics roadbed, which I have purchased enough of to do my entire layout. I am reading this thread with much interest, as I have not started anything yet (no bench work). Was this a bad choice? I get the feeling I should have gone cork or homasote (I have never even heard of homasote before this thread).

 

[KB02]

Being a Woodland Scenics product, I can only assume that it will serve the purpose well, so I would certainly not worry about your purchase. I basically just started this thread because I at a point where I am getting ready to buy some roadbed material and I just wanted to see what people prefer. I had never heard of using Homasote either until I started looking for roadbed material and saw it on ebay. Now it's looking like the top contender for me due to the fact that I can buy one 4x8 sheet and make enough roadbed for my entire layout using nothing but my table saw and a little time.

 

[Cjcrescent]

Not to hijack this thread, but I note that no one has mentioend the woodland scenics roadbed, which I have purchased enough of to do my entire layout. I am reading this thread with much interest, as I have not started anything yet (no bench work). Was this a bad choice? I get the feeling I should have gone cork or homasote (I have never even heard of homasote before this thread).

Got a friend, who is a member here, and his entire layout is done with the WS roadbed. It was just as easy to use as the cork, and went down with some plain old wood glue. Once balleasted, looks and works just as well as the others. It's just not a good choice if you want to handlay.

Being a Woodland Scenics product, I can only assume that it will serve the purpose well, so I would certainly not worry about your purchase. I basically just started this thread because I at a point where I am getting ready to buy some roadbed material and I just wanted to see what people prefer. I had never heard of using Homasote either until I started looking for roadbed material and saw it on ebay. Now it's looking like the top contender for me due to the fact that I can buy one 4x8 sheet and make enough roadbed for my entire layout using nothing but my table saw and a little time.

Homasote has been used as a roadbed material for many years. I first read about it in a 1959 MR, but I'm sure that its been around prior to that. It's main advantage is that it hold nails and spikes extremely well, and it would have been my first choice for roadbed material except down here in the South, it's extremely hard to get and when you do find it here, its really expensive compared to other material.

 

[beiland]

Homasote has been used as a roadbed material for many years. I first read about it in a 1959 MR, but I'm sure that its been around prior to that. It's main advantage is that it hold nails and spikes extremely well, and it would have been my first choice for roadbed material except down here in the South, it's extremely hard to get and when you do find it here, its really expensive compared to other material.

Exactly what is homasote,.... and what was its intended usage in the building trades that it has managed to hang on so long??

 

[Cjcrescent]

Homasote basically is a laminated paper product. It's used for interior walls to deaden sound, (it's also known as soundboard). Its used in floors, ceilings, & walls.

You can read all about it here. The Homasote product would be the 440 Soundboard. http://www.homasote.com

 

[beiland]

I probably should have gone to look that up , but thanks for doing it for me.

It looks like they make no claims for its 'insulation' capabilities, so likely I would not chose this for my shed siding application.
http://www.homasote.com/faq.aspx

But back to the roadbed application, the claim would be that I might attach the track to this material and experience much less problems with expansion and contraction in a non-climate controlled train room such as an outdoor shed or garage room in Florida,...is that correct?

 

[beiland]

I would prefer to use homasote, since I do handlay my track. But, for all intents and purposes, it's hard to get here. There's one place in town that sells it, and it's almost $80 a sheet. What I use as a substitute, is plain insulated sheathing. It holds spikes as well as homasote, and it's really cheap, at $6.00 a sheet.

It does take some sweat equity to get to a usable size, and it makes almost as much dust as homasote, but it is very good as a roadbed material.

And what material is that specifically?

 

[montanan]

Here the web site for Homabed. It has about the same dimensions as cork roadbed. It's a quarter inch thick, as is the cork.

http://www.homabed.com/site/890800/

I'm like Carey. I live the stuff. Some of my track has been down for over 25 years and I have had no problems at all with it. I ran across it in an article in one of the model railroad publications when I was starting my layout and am glad that I did. The homasote it self isn't effected by the expansion and contraction but what usually is the problem is what the road bed is laid on. My layout was built using the "cookie cutter" method as I wanted to have the track have changes of elevation. I used 5/8 inch plywood for the base. Humidity is not a problem at all up here, but the temp changes are from probable 45 degrees in the trainroom in the coldest weather (minus 30 or colder outside) to somewhere in the high 60's even on days with outside temps in the 90's. No expansion or contraction problems at all.

 

[railBuilderDhd]

Hi LASM
I was watching your video here and I had to ask you, what size is your layout here in the video? The shape and size looks like it may be about the size I have to work with in my current room. I would love to get an idea of the sizes so I know from seeing this how it will fit in my basement room.
Thank you.
Dave

As far as attaching track to plywood, I use an electric drill and small brads with a finishing head. Special attention is necessary where two pieces of flex attach on the curved areas. Drilling a hole slightly smaller than the brad through a tie and into the plywood holds the rails firmly. There is a tendancy for them to want to kink (go straight) on their own.

The ballast and glue will also help hold things. In fact, I often pull out the brads after the ballast is done.

In rural areas, with older grades, you will often find not much of a bed around tracks. Rural road crossings are much easier without the cork roadbed. In my layout where there is a lot of elevation change, several areas appear roadbedded because I cut the plywood for the incline to follow the track. That would be at the beginning and 4:07 of this video:

[video=youtube;8Ed695Y75JQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ed695Y75JQ&list=PLmDLuMmpivK4qL5eq3iyErQUVP25Dv2hK&index=6[/video]

Humidity will be a problem with wood shrinking and swelling, might also mess with some wood structures. We have a dehumidifier in our basement running most of the summer.

If you are building a modern layout with typical mainlines, a roadbed type base would be the most prototypical.

 

[beiland]

I prefer Homasote but have not been able to find it for years, so I end up using cork. I used the Woodland Scenics foam once and it worked OK, but I would like to have the option to spike or nail if I need to. I think it would be very difficult to hand lay track on the foam since there is not enough firmness to put in the spikes and, once again, the spikes would only have the tiny HO tie to seat themselves in. The foam is certainly not going to hold them.

I was looking for 'Homasote' at Home Depot here in st Augustine FL, and they seemed to not even know of the existence of such a product. Is it something that might not be utilized in Florida climate?

What specifically is Homasote? (sorry to have asked this question again. I see it was answered earlier)

The Home Depot did have a sheet product that was called 'Corkboard'. That could be cut into strips for roadbed. but I imagine there are a lot of different 'grades' of cork used to make these 'boards' ??
http://www.homedepot.com/p/1-2-in-x-2-ft-x-4-ft-Corkboard-Handy-Panel-HDP1224CB/204764503

Brian

 

[beiland]

I have used cork glued to plywood for four different layouts in the last 35 years without any problems. When my trainroom was in a non-climate controlled building (previous 3 layouts), here in Texas, (temperature range between 10 and 115) I didn't have any real problems. If I am laying track in hot conditions, I butt it together as a previous poster recommended. During colder periods, I use a business card as a spacer. I don't solder rail, however I attach feeders to every piece of track. I think that Homasote would work just as well but wear a dust mask if you use power tools to cut or shape it.
Willie

Is there a specific type of cork you have utilized, or have you had some experiences with several different types??
Brian

 

[beiland]

I would prefer to use homasote, since I do handlay my track. But, for all intents and purposes, it's hard to get here. There's one place in town that sells it, and it's almost $80 a sheet. What I use as a substitute, is plain insulated sheathing. It holds spikes as well as homasote, and it's really cheap, at $6.00 a sheet.

It does take some sweat equity to get to a usable size, and it makes almost as much dust as homasote, but it is very good as a roadbed material.

Just for clarification here, you are talking about using the 'plain insulating sheathing' (foam sheeting) as you would homasote,....in both a sheet form as in a flat area rail yard, etc, and in a strip form as roadbed in other isolated wandering mainlines ?

And since you would NOT be utilizing this foam board as the primary subroadbed, I would assume it would not be necessary to use the larger thicknesses?

 

[Iron Horseman]

I was looking for 'Homasote' at Home Depot here in st Augustine FL, and they seemed to not even know of the existence of such a product. Is it something that might not be utilized in Florida climate?

I think it is just that new materials are replacing it. I believe originally Homasote was recycled newspapers of which there used to be a lot of so it was really cheap. -- Bet many people don't remember the boy scout paper drives that used to fund their troops for the entire year. -- Anyway, as left-over news papers got more scarce (mid 1970s) the raw materials price went up, so did the cost of the final product. Seems like the last sheet I got cost a whole lot more more than the plywood. Price goes up, people find alternatives, product becomes more expensive and harder to find.

 

[KB02]

Ask them for "Sound Board" instead of Homasote. Same thing different name. Then again, I've got to Home Depot and asked for both names and got that Deer-in-the-headlights looks both, too.

 

[runaway_geep]

I'm going a little old-fashioned with my benchwork. Open grid benchwork with risers when needed. 3/4" plywood subroadbed, cork roadbed.

I had a lot of 3/4 plywood pieces salvaged from cabinets that I removed for layout construction. I also have a full sheet of 1/2 I'm going to use in the yard as it will cover the whole width and shouldn't sag (cross members at 24").

My local Lowes doesn't carry anything like homasote, plus I didn't have a way to rip it down anyhow.

Sent from my PantechP8010 using Tapatalk

 

[Happy Curmudgeon]

I've used Midwest Products cork since I started, never had a problem with it, but my layout is also inside the house so the temperature and humidity is fairly stable, it does the job and is easy to install.