Hey I was wondering what are the pros and cons of Cork road Bed vs. Foam?
Wich is more expensive?
Wich blocks noise best?
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DO you mean the Woodland Scenics roadbed that looks like cork but is foam? That’s what I use and I have no noise complaints. Big advantage over cork is that it comes in long 24’ rolls so you can lay long continuous runs with no deams.
–Randy
I used both on my son’s layout. the WS foam roadbed is better with the sound. but once ballasted, they were pretty much the same.
I do the WS foam too. Only complaint is that it is a little soft so you may need to spike some turnouts to avoid vertical movement with sensitive DCC sound locomotives. But it looks good, is quiet, and comes in sheets as well as 24’ rolls.
I much prefer foam, however cork is easier to work with, it is more flexible etc.
Foam you have to cut it, meassure it, etc etc.
But for me foam is the way to go because it deadens the sound much more.
I have a plywood benchwork, I lay 1 inch extruded foam on to that, then I add foam core ussually for the roadbed. Foam core is expensive and found in art stores or office supply stores.
It is 1/4 inch thick and I use it to make buildings, mockups, for my road bed etc etc.
I hope that helps.
SO how do you get away without cutting cork? Both cork and foam need to be cut to fit turnouts and so forth. Cork cuts witha few passes of a hobby knife. I cut my foam with a small pair of scissors.
–Randy
I use cork. I bought some of the WS foam, but it’s too expensive.
I bought two rolls of cork, each of a different thickness ( one 1/4" and one 1/8"). The rolls are 4 feet wide. I cut 5/8 strips of cork from them for my roadbed, and lay two together for a single track. The 1/4 thick stuff is for mainlines, and the 1/8 stuff is for yards, sidings and what-not.
Cork is much cheaper in bulk than in precut strips (then again, you have to cut it into strips when purchased in bulk).
niether. I may be old fashioned but I use homasote. because of how much I move I want to be able to “Easily” recycle parts from layout to layout. I don’t glue track down so Homasote is perfect for me. Also I do a mixture of handlaying and flextrack and haven’t found anything that holds spike better than homasote.
Another vote for foam here. Sure it may cost a little more, but it is well worth to us when you look at what we think are the advantages. 24’ rolls go down super fast. Quiet. Looks Great. Reusable. We use latex adhesive caulk to attach it to foam subbase and track to foam.
Same for me. I recently moved and was able to salvage ALL of my track and turnouts using homosote as a base and spikes. I had 6 curved turnouts on my previous layout and at $25 a pop that was quite a savings right there. My new layout is basically a shelf layout so I’m using homasote for the yard and then the precut homabed stuff for the mainline elsewhere. BUT out of the half a dozen or so of the hardware stores we only had one that carries the homosote sheets in 4X8. So it’s gonna depend on where you live too. Homasote isn’t cheap either, but if you’re only building a modest size layout, at $27 a sheet its not too bad.
I’m using foam on extruded (pink) foam. I find WS foam roadbed to be quieter than cork by a bit. I’m doing a small (2-ft X 7-ft) N-scale switching layout, so cost has not been an issue for me.
Cork on foam will hold track nails but I doubt that foam on foam would, so I use caulk to adhere the roadbed to the foam base and also to adhere the tracks to the foam roadbed.
I have never cut foam core with scissors. I can’t even imagine getting anything like a straight line that way.
Cork is easier because it flexes. With foam I have to calculate the curve, draw it out on the foam core, then I use an exacto knife and cut it out while also trying to cut a slight bevel for the ballast.
Even straight lines you have to mark them out. Then using a steel ruler and knife, cut out the foam. I don’t see cork being that hard.
You just cut the cork to length and that’s it. Cork can move around curves or straights with ease. And you don’t have to cut the cork to the right width either. It is ALREADY the correct width.
Foam core, of course you know this, is not the right width already. Seeing that it comes in sheest of 20 inches by 30 inches and is 1/4 inch thick [though some differ slightly in thickness].
So I don’t see how you can say what you did.
I see major differences between the two products.
Cork is definately easier. Foam [sometimes] can look better.
And sometimes I don’t use anyhing.
Example; check out ‘laying the track’ section on my website.
I hope that helps.
I just lay my track down on pieces of styrofoam sheet. Works good for me.
Ive used both on portable modules. My spikes have been working up in the foam and also the foam tends to launch your ballast across the room . I like the cork cause you can change the thickness easier from main to branch line. Just my opinion.
Ahh, your talking about that foam core kind of poster board like stuff. I wouldnt use that for roadbed, what we are talking about is cork roadbed vs squishy black foam roadbed. The foam roadbed is cut to width but I think it is in one piece instead of 2 pieces cut lenghtwise like cork is. That means it is easier to make curves with cork because the individual pieces are narrower.
Joe said: Ahh, your talking about that foam core kind of poster board like stuff. I wouldnt use that for roadbed, what we are talking about is cork roadbed vs squishy black foam roadbed. The foam roadbed is cut to width but I think it is in one piece instead of 2 pieces cut lenghtwise like cork is. That means it is easier to make curves with cork because the individual pieces are narrower.
Aha ok now it akes more sense. Yes I am talking about foam core, poster board, whatever it’s name is where you live.
I completely forgot about that awful sticky stuff. But yes some people seems to like it. Personally, if I could only choose between those two I would choose cork.
The foam they are talking about is Woodland Scenics foam, which is a soft foam (not sticky) molded to roadbed shape. It flexes fine and is easy to work with. The sticky stuff is AMI Instant Roadbed.
I’ve used both cork and WS foam. I like the foam a little better because of the 24’ rolls. You can make a lot of progress very quickly with a couple of 24’ rolls, a tube of latex caulk and a beer or two.
WS Black rolled foam: Easy to put down and take up, looks finished before you ballast, very quit uisng my home brew for glue. (Does not like Alcohol as a wetting agent at all)
Cork, Model Power, very rugh cut, needs sanding to look good has fark color and looks OK before Ballast, a little noisey compared to WS Black using same glue
Cork Midwest, Very nice to work with, no sanding and is again almost as quit as WS black.
I have all of the above installed:
In the yards we used 12x12 wall board cork squares. Easy to use, VERY $$$$ paints well and looks OK, Fast wasy to do a large yard. Used teh WS Black flat sheets MODERATE $$ looks well does not paint well at all.
Hope this helps.
We did use Lates Caulk to hold down the roadbed and my home brew on the tracks.
Is foam roadbed really quieter? When you ballast the track you will end up with a solid layer of ballast that will bond the track to the subroadbed thus negating the noise absorption benefits of foam?
I make my own roadbed using 3mm closed cell foam sheet I cut it into half width strips. Nice and flexible but firmer tham regular open cell foam.
In my case yes I do use a homebrew glue that stays flexable and has very little tendency to transmit souund.
The test so far on 30 ft of track is very good. (Only 720ft to go LOL)