All the cork roadbed switch pieces you want.

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hello all,

While I’m sure this is nothing new,I found out tonight. After goofing around placing track on the newly finished plywood jungle. I had a thought,glancing at my work bench and remembering the cork sheets I bought at good ole wally world.

I then proceeded to placing a already bought cork switch piece on the cork sheet.The cork sheets are 12"X12" and is the same thickness as the store bought stuff.

Sweet…don’t have to buy a ton of the switch pieces. Then after cutting five out of one sheet,I used my trusty dremel to bevel the sides almost like the store bought stuff.

Now folks I’ve heard over the years that model railroaders are most likely the most frugal bunch in a hobby.Thus I stand proudly next to the rest of yaz.

Happy modeling…

P.S

My wife is gone for three days!!! This means all the time I want working on my layout without being bugged.Should have pictures of the BOF up this weekend.

Patrick

Beaufort,SC

Dragon River Steel Corp {DRSC}

2

On my last layout, I used the following method to shape the cork beneath turnouts. The resulting “switchblock” consists of three peices. the “inner” part is a narrow triangle cut from cork sheet. The two “outer” parts are the regular halves of roadbed cork on either side of the triangle. Visualize the triangle as a wedge splitting the two regular roadbed halves.

The triangle piece is measured from the turnout’s:

  1. track center line at the end of the normal route
  2. track center line at the end of the diverging route
  3. the center line at the base near the throw rod, about an inch toward the the frog

Obviously the triangle is pretty narrow - which is good as you can cut alot of them from one sheet of cork. Since the outer edge of the roadbed is already beveled, no additional shaping is necessary.

3

I bought a few packs of that cork for mine too. Beats having to order on line or drive 100 miles.
It’s about 1/2 the price of Midwest cork too.

4

Mdiwest cork is .2" thick, not .25".

Sheet cork (cheap) comes in different thicknesses. That may be disconcerting, maybe not.

5

I only use Cork outside of cities and yards, or on about 30% of my track. Cities and yards are laid directly on soundboard. I’m not fond of the effect of cork in a yard. Looked at the rolled cork several times, thicknesses varied so I used some WS black foam sheet and hated it.

Just my 2 cents.

Joe