Track laying question

[Lifted06Titan]

My benchwork is plywood with 2" foam boards on top. I am using cork roadbed underneath my tracks for mainlines and such, but for yards and sidings I don't want to use cork. Someone told me to just glue the track straight to the foam but I was wondering if it would be better to put a layer of plaster cloth over the foam board first. Anyone have any other suggestions?

 

[psychobeagle12]

I would lay it right on the foam, no plaster cloth. I would say if you want to you can paint the foam underneath the track so that it is not pink in case you miss a spot with ballast but I would just go right on top of the foam.

 

[Lifted06Titan]

Awesome, thanks.

 

[Dameon]

You buy rolls of thinner sheets of cork at most craft stores. It will still raise your tracks a bit, but will not be the high ballast of mainline.

 

[Iron Horseman]

My benchwork is plywood with 2" foam boards on top. I am using cork roadbed underneath my tracks for mainlines and such, but for yards and sidings I don't want to use cork. Someone told me to just glue the track straight to the foam but I was wondering if it would be better to put a layer of plaster cloth over the foam board first. Anyone have any other suggestions?

Laying it straight on the foam works fine, but be aware of the noise factor. Me and a friend made a set of modules to run at the shows. I used roadbed he glued the track directly to the foam. Other than that they were identical. So we go to show and set up. This is the first time we have ever set up. So the first run the train goes over my modules 18 feet worth and then it goes out onto his. Suddently there is a loud clatter and I crammed the throttle down thinking the whole train had derailed and was on the ground. It wasn't. It was fine. After running around a while we determine that the foam acted like a giant drum head magnifying the noise of the train. I was amazed at the sound deading the roadbed added. We "fixed" the problem by adding a second thick skirt around the inside bottom of his modules.

 

[Selector]

It will be a lot noisier placed directly on the foam, but if you use a soft caulking such as DAP Alex Plus with Silicon, you will find it a lot quieter. What I can't tell you is how that compound reacts, if at all, with styrofoam.

Home Depot sells a roll of semi-clear rubbery material embeddded with cork...it is a sub-flooring with a plastic sheet base to it. I use the DAP and cut strips of this sub-flooring for my roadbed. It is cheap, I think $35 for a good sized roll that will last you six layouts.

Or, go to your carpet installers nearby and ask them if they have bits of rolls of the blue or yellow vinyl underlay, the 1/8" thick stuff. Same thing, cut the 17/16" wide strips to place directly under your ties, and fix those strips in place with an acrylic latex caulk or the DAP Alex Plus with silicone if it will not eat the surface on which you smear it. And in any case, do smear the caulk very thin. Press firmly and squirm the strips back and forth, sideways, to get the layer firmly smeared and adhered to the underside of the strips, too.