Has anyone here used the Woodland Scenics foam track bed before? And in your opinion is it better than traditional cork (for noise, etc).
Also has nailing track down becoming more of a thing of the past and gluing more dominant?
I was experimenting with a small N scale layout and glued myself, but find that if you need to remove track you usually end up destroying it.
Any takes?
Thanks,
Joe
If you use clear latex caulk sparingly, you should be able to remove it with no problems.mh.
We use only the Woodland Scenics foam roadbed now instead of cork at our HO scale club, and I used a mix of both on my HO scale home layout.
The foam is easier to work with, but if you accidentally mash down on it, it doesn’t recover.
Absolutely no nails anywhere – latex caulk for both the roadbed and track. Black caulk to stick the roadbed down and gray caulk to fasten the track.
Hi Joe,
Yes I use WS foam roadbed exclusively and echo everything cacole said.
I’m in HO but when transitioning to spurs I use N gage and from there to the layout top if I choose to do so. I find that the “softness” of the foam makes these transitions easy. My trains run quietly but I can’t compare this to cork since I’ve never used it.
I have had no problems with WS foam and have no reason to try anything else.
Happy Railroading
Bob
Joe,
I noticed that you are relative new to posting and am offering you a suggestion. The subject title is important to attract responses. Your question is about WS Foam roadbed and nailing. That should have been the subject title. The more you can relate the title to your question the better the responses will be.
Also on the right side of the page is a search community block. If you type your your question there for example “Cork vs WS foam” or a variation of this you should find a lot of past discussions.
I don’t want you to think I’m a smart a_ _ I’m just trying to be helpful.
Happy Railroading
Bob
Bob’s comments are good advice - and I will add that its also to one’s benefit to post your questions under the proper category. Yes, I confess that even with my 2000 plus postings, I have made a similar “mistake” more than once…
I am currently building another HO layout, and am using cork roadbed for the main lines, and strips of sheet cork for the yards/terminals/sidings. On this layout I am affixing the cork to the wood base with caulk (as opposed to nails), and it works quite well. However, I much prefer using the little black track nails to attach track to the layout. This of course won’t work well if the nails don’t hit wood, so keep that in mind.
Hey, this Forum is the greatest, and it will surely help you a lot - and you may be able to help others too!
Mobilman44
I used the WS foam for a friend’s layout and didn’t like it at all, although his layout was on extruded foam. It just seemed to me to have a very temporary feeling to it. We glued it in place but spiked the track - he wanted the option to possibly rearrange the trackplan, so I guess “temporary” is a good thing. [swg]
For my own layout I used mostly cork roadbed, glued in place with yellow carpenter’s glue, and the flex track spiked in place. In some areas, the track is spiked directly to the plywood sub-roadbed. The track stays where it’s supposed to be, but the nails can be pulled easily for minor adjustments or major relocation. Transition from cork to plywood was easily accomplished with coarse sandpaper.
Wayne