I’m building a new pike rather large this time so obviously looking to control cost where ever possible. I am using open grid bench work with spline roadbed and the red rosin paper scenery method. Homasote seems to be the standard but I’m thinking it’s going to be a giant pain in the butt. Messy as all hell when you cut it and then you have to paint both sides to seal it and then use patching plaster in between etc. but you guys all know that so my question is does anyone have any alternatives to using Homasote? Cork isn’t an option for what I’m doing.
I was thinking something possibly like foam core board which runs around $18.50 for a 4x8 sheet. Lite weight, should have good sound deadening qualities, and you shouldn’t have to seal it etc. So anyone have any ideas? Remember think cheap…
When building my current layout I was looking for a cheaper alternative to the foam roadbed I used last time and with none of the drawbacks associated with cork (it dries out and gets hard and brittle as well as acting like a noise amplifier when it gets that way). As I was walking through the local home improvement store I spotted something that might work, and even better, it was out of season so it was on sale!
I use a foam base with my roadbed and track secured by the latex caulk. For roadbed I use rope caulking. It comes in a roll about 15’ long, and it’s perfect width for HO scale track right out of the box. Since I model N, I just tear it along the already formed centerline and I get about 30’ of roadbed per box with no waste. The advantages are that it never dries out, so it’s always soft and pliable (absorbs sound!), it can easily be molded to any curve radius you want, it’s easy to cut with just a xacto knife to form turnout pads, crossovers and such, or you can use a wallpaper roller on it to flatten it and make trasitions in rail heights or lower passing sidings in just a few seconds. As if that isn’t enough, the latex caulk holds well to it, but you can still slip a putty knife in there and take up the rails without damage if you need (Spread the caulk very thin with a putty knife when you lay it down and then lay the tracks and use some canned goods laid lenthwise along the tracks to hold it while it sets up). If you get it in the off season like me you can often find it for a buck or two a box. It comes in gray and brown that I’ve seen, though other brands may come in other colors.
I use homasote and like it. It holds nails very well (much better than cork) but a sharp chisel pulls them easily for relocating track. It is available everywhere and is relatively inexpensive. It deadens sound nicely. But, I NEVER cut it in the layout room …always outdoors or in my woodshop which has an excellent vacuum system. I use poster-board patterns for all the curves and turnouts I need and even use a router table to cut a 45 degree chamfer on the edges. I have not tried the knife blades with a jigsaw (sabre saw) which is probably worth a try. I have never found it necessary to paint, seal, or otherwise treat the stuff. Just glue it (Carpenters glue) to whatever base you are using. When you ballast the track and scenic the ROW it probably gets pretty well sealed, on the upper surface anyway. Homasote will dull blades rapidly. If you use a good bandsaw, save an old blade for this use only. Happy railroading.
Yup Mortite is very similar if not the exact same stuff as that pre-ballasted roadbed that Wlahters had a while back I believe it was from a German company. I actually have a brand new box of it some where. I see you applied itright over the blue foam. I am using spline sub-roadbed but your set up has givien me an idea. Maybe I can use strips of the blue foam in place of the Homasote. I have used regualr stryafoam cunt ona table saw in the past for siding roadbeds so this maybe doable.
You can buy soundproofing board at large lumber yards, softer than Homasote and musch cheaper (under $10 a sheet), would probably be just as messy to cut.
Why are you sealing the Homasote? I’ve been using it for decades from Houston to Omaha and have never “sealed” it. I have painted it for scenery and aesthetic purposes.
By the way, blue or pink foam does not “deaden” sound when you run a train over it. It is actually noisier.
I have been using foam tape – the stuff used between the bed of a pick up and a topper. Stuff works great and is easy to use. Cheap too… There was an article in MR awhile back about it. I think it was authored by Chuck Hitchcock, but I am not sure. Be careful when laying it so you don’t stretch it; just let it lay where you want it without pulling it. Once down you can pull it up and relay, but once pressure is applied, it will stick very well. Once it is down where I want it, I run a roller over it to secure it to the board. To make curves, you will have to take the backing off so it will bend without kinking. The other benefit is it is quieter than cork too!
Why homasote??? Generally people use homasote when they are going to handlay track. I’m not sure it is worth the hassle otherwise. I use it and am not fond of it but I like it for the way that it holds spikes. I have done some handlaying so it meets my needs in that area.
The biggest issue besides making a mess while cutting it, is the uneven thickness that most sheets seemed to be plauged with. This necessitates sanding to get an even surface. Nothing more annoying than to spend hours and bucks to get a smooth, flat sub roadbed and then put uneven, lumpy homasote down. Then you have to spend lots of elbow grease and make another mess to get back to an even track laying surface. Try to pick the most even sheets to minimize this.
There are lots of opinions about this product. Most of the big league railroaders I know use it. The other options are spline made from soft wood (very nice but expensive, at least here in the west) or Homabed (a milled homasote product, also nice, also expensive). All of these are good options if you are going to handlay track.
If you aren’t handlaying and are looking for a road bed profile, what about wood lath strips like Dave Barrow is using on the Cat mountain?
While cork is generally disdained for some reason, I have never experienced it drying out to the point where it was an issue. You are going to cover it with glue and ballst anyway so you will have a solid mass holding everything together. I had cork on the old layout for 10 years, no problems…
I did a little test section this afternoon out in my shop about 4 feet long with the spline sub roadbed and the Homasote roadbed and then layed some flex track. It seemed to bend real easy but it was not totally flat. I kind of took Howard Zane’s Que on this from reading his book. being as it’s not perfectly flat when the trian runs over it you get that rocking and dipping motion. Not exactly every one’s cup of tea but it gives a real train look to it thats for sure.
I recall reading that article about using topper tape it might be worth investigating thanks. If not for nothing I’ve learned one thing with all this gray hair I have is that I built a small test section as mentioned. I use it to try different scenery techniques, roadbed, track laying, switch machines, etc. It’s a lot easier then laying sitting on a creeper seat under the layout or putting stuff down making a mess and then ripping it out.
As far as painting both sides to seal it I have no experince with it but that was advice form a model railroader I know and respect his work near where I live. We have what you might say is a bit of a humidity problem here in New Jersey. So being in places like Texas etc. you have the advantage of a nice dry climate where here in the summer time we swim through the air at times. My train room well this one for now is all heated and air conditioned etc. but I guess he just likes to play it safe.
I always pictured Texas as a hot dry place, well I guess it comes down to a matter of personal preference then because your right so you seal the Homasote and the bench worl absorbes the moisture. I think it may be because the Homasote is a paper based product and tends to absorbe it faster or something like that. It really isn’t that bigof a deal I was just going to lay the pieces on some saw horses and hit them with deck paint or somethign I had laying around with a roller. Just one more step
