Laying rail directly on the substrate...


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OldGuyHO

Member
I've seen some people laying railroad directly on their base, without track cork or anything that would give the ballast slope.

Our model is an association short line connecting a large consolidated company to secondary manufactures. I know that rail off the mainline is not usually ballasted as high, so opinions??
 
In the latest Model Railroader it addresses this issue. It's more of an era-specific answer than preferences and had a lot to do with the economics of the day. If there's $$, then ballast was plentiful. If not, that's an area that the railroad skimped on to save $$.
 
Railrunner130 said:
In the latest Model Railroader it addresses this issue. It's more of an era-specific answer than preferences and had a lot to do with the economics of the day. If there's $$, then ballast was plentiful. If not, that's an area that the railroad skimped on to save $$.
Click to expand...

Do you know which article? Page? I've read the July issue and didn't find any such discussion. I appreciate any guidance you can provide.
 
Even for the sake of appearance, I would recommend some sort of underlayment between the substrate and the track, if only to cut noise. If nothing else, perhaps a thin layer of mat board. (This presumes the substrate is plywood, etc.)
 
I'm on 1" of foam over a hollow core door. I can add sheet cork over that if necessary. I'm really asking about the modeling aspect of not having the shaped cork that gives a high profile on what is really a large branch of the mainline.
 
I found the discussion on line at Model Railroader. I'm talking about the prototypical vs practical aspects of laying track without any cork "riser" underneath to bring the track above grade. For me it's practical because I don't have to line up the track cork, switch pads and the track and turnouts. Just looking for opinions.
 
Sounds like you're having a battle between what you would rather do and what you feel or know you should do. As you have foam base, noise shouldn't be a problem. Prototypically, raised ballast (and how high) will depend on amount of traffic and tonnage the track will carry including the size/power of locos.
 
As mine is an industrial switching layout, I am just laying track directly on the board (MDF). Not much fresh ballast will be visible as the whole area will have a 'well used' look!
 
As the whole area will be covered either with ballasted track or roadways/scenery, etc. I don't bother to seal it especially as the glue, paint and scenic materials will cover everything.
 
You need also to look at the age of the track i seen photo of track that was ballasted and over the weight of the trains the weather and ground sedeling have flating the ballast out in place where the track was barely use the track was under the ground and they had to bad order the spur till it got cleaned up and raised and repacted
 
Don't think it is on this forum, but a layout "Winter in New England" has some stunning 'tracks in the mud'. The builder is a genius!
 
For my main line track, I have used Homabed, but whenever I have industrial track, I will always bring the track down to my base, which is plywood. I try to keep my track as close as possible to prototype. Passing sidings are usually on a lower grade than the main line trackage. Both of my yards have been brought down to the surface of the layout.

In this picture, you can see the switcher dropping a quarter of an inch (the thickness of the Homabed) to the surface of the plywood.

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In the second picture, this track (hand laid) is in a yard, but it is ballasted.

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In my final yard, all of the track is mounted right to the plywood surface.

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Noise was mentioned. For main line running one might be concerned about noise. That's one reason I like the Homabed. For spurs, sidings and yards, I don't noise would be a problem as speeds are, or should be slow.
 
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The Los Angeles Junction Ry ties & rails were put down on the dirt w/ no roadbed except only where dips in the topography required it. Even the ballast looks like an afterthought!
 
Thank you, your opinions are what I needed. And, thankfully, laying the track (for which all turnouts, leads and following tract are soldered together awaiting only the electrical leads to be soldered in) will be a matter of flipping it back onto the module, moving it around to get alignment with the one industry on this section, and glue it down. Happy joy for me. (I'm considering putting down roll cork which is about 40% as thick as HO scale cork roadbed, but I think that's not even necessary at this point.) This switching layout is for my enjoyment and that of my two older grandsons, so contest worthy, it ain't.

Thanks again.
 
I used 1/4” thick 2’ x 3’ cork sheets for roadbed on my layout, then I carved areas for the main lines, yard etc to avoid tension in the cork.

For my yard I going to shave 1/16” … 1/8 “ of the cork to lower it a little bit compared to the main line and to create a bowl so cars do not roll over to the main line. I considered laying out yard on the plywood directly but rejected that idea and decided to also use cork. I was concerned about the noise and even if the noise level is not high it would sound strange if I had a train coming through the yard and the noise pattern would change. Has anyone observed that “noise pattern changes” problem or I am making this up? Time will tell if extra work worth it or not.

http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/...g-cork-track-bed-using-cork-sheets-and-router

Slava
 
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I'm in the same situation. I have 1-in foam glued to hollow core doors and I've been debating about roadbed. I used regular HO cork on my previous shelfie and I thought the contour was way too high, so I used an electric hand sander to knock it down and make ramps down to spurs. Now I'm debating using N-scale cork versus cork sheet from HoPo versus laying the track directly on the foam and contouring the foam a bit.

Since this is a low speed (modern) industrial branch, I'm not worried about high ballast profiles or large changes in track profiles. I've read a lot about noise with track directly on foam, but I'm not convinced it would be an issue for me. Probably ought to run a bit on foam and see what it sounds like...
 
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I'm going to build on a 3x6 plywood base. I was going to use cork, but since it's an industrial switching plan I'm going to lay my track directly to the ply. I'm still thinking, but I'm liking the idea of it looking like a shoestring operation, so ballasting and other things will have the appropriate appearance.
 
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