Foam Maybe?


Topherisme

Chris wants more hobby time!!!
Didn’t think about it, but I work in a sea of foam that might be usable on layouts. I am eyeing foam that is 2 mm (5/64) for possible super elevation and as a yard base. If you guys want to check it out let me know, maybe I can send samples to let you experiment and see if you can find a use for it. Pretty sure 2 mm is thinnest, but I can get stuff a little thicker. Some is soft, some more rigid, so might be something useful to you. If you want to know more let me know and I will get some info for you…
 
It might be useful as plain roadbed, say between the sub-roadbed, such as splines or lengths of thin pine, and the ties. Sometimes trains get noisier than we'd like when they move, especially at passenger speeds. I prefer my rails mostly silent and enjoy the other train sounds, the clickety, the squeal of the flanges, brakes, chuggs and chuffs, bells, that sort of thing. Metal tires on metal rails can get noisy when the vibration gets amplified by the soundboard construction of plywood, as an example. Some use cork, some use foam, some use Homabed, and some use nothing. Believe it or not, the quietest I have found so far is..........wait for it.......drywall. Dead, stinkin' quiet. A very close second is any bridge suspended between two abutments. Amazing.

About super-elevation, yes, it can be overdone. About 1/16" is max, and it still looks too much in some head-on photos. On the real roads, super more than 5" is comparatively rare unless the curves are severe and the speeds have to remain high for some reason. That comes to 1.4mm, which if you mock it up temporarily and plunk a locomotive onto the rails, you'll see is quite pleasing and more than enough. There is also a danger to making super too much on our lightweight rolling stock and our very tight curves...it's called stringlining, where the cars all want to lift out of the rails and form a tangent.
 



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