Hello all,
I am building my first layout and it is a small HO switching layout. I am using atlas code 83 sectional track and I have 11 turnouts in a relatively condensed area. Most of my sidings go into the industry, so I was wondering if it would be wise to ballast/weather the track without roadbed so I do not have to awkwardly raise the height of all the structures on the layout. Furthermore, if I were to not use roadbed, how should I secure the track to the plywood?
If your layout consists of industrial sidings and little main line you can get away without a roadbed. You can ballast lightly to give the effect of poorly maintained industrial trackage. There are several ideas on attaching track to a plywood base. You can use track nails or adhesive caulk. These topics have been discussed in detail many times here and there are as many ideas as there are model railroaders. However you fasten the track down initially when you ballast it will become firmly fixed by the ballast adhesive.
Joe
EDIT: Sorry I forgot to welcome you to the forum. Have fun!
On my current HO scale layout, I use HO scale foam roadbed from Woodland Scenics. If I build another layout, I have seriously considered using N scale cork.
That would provide a lower profile and a firmer roadbed than foam.
Rich
if your mainline to industries is heavily travelled you could use “n scale” cork and just use cardboard shims to lower track to plywood. and yes, you can just ballast the track down on plywood using wet water and white glue or matte medium. you can use track nails to hold every thing until glue sets. be sure all track works with no kinks and no derailments as it becomes semi- permanent when glued down .also, be careful when ballasting around turnouts.
On an industrial switching layout no roadbed looks just fine. The track and ties tend to be larger than true scale and stand up from the plywood far enough that when ballasted, with yet out of scale ballast, it forms a natural crown that can look like the track is sitting up on a small crown of land.
Secure the track to the plywood with latex caulk, diluted white glue, or nails. I prefer diluted white glue.
To help with noise isolation, and provide a bit of elevation, you can carve ditches and such into Homasote or cork sheet, using it under everything. Also, even with industrial trackage, height can vary. Your scenes may benefit from using roadbed in some areas and not others, and/or ramping down into some of the industry spurs.
On my layout I used sheet cork in the industrial areas and yards. Instead of ballast I used dirt (colored sanded tile grout) painted to match the terrain.
PS
MilwaukeeModeler,
I posted in Your first thread You started about the same thing.[sigh]
Which one are You going to answer…if any?
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
Thank you for the answers everyone!
As zstripe wrote, I accidently created this same thread topic twice. This website apparently has a rule where 24 hours must elapse before your first post can appear on the forum, so I unknowlingly made two threads wondering why I wasn’t seeing them!