How do you form cork when laying under turnouts and diamonds.Do you use the sheet cork and set the turnout on top to cut or and any other way.Thanks.
There are several options.
There are pre-made pieces of cork for different size turnouts turnouts.
You can use sheet cork and cut your own.
What I am apt to do is to use the regular cork roadbed for the outer two pieces, one following the straight side of the turnout, the other the outside of the curve. I bring another long piece in, taper the end and fit it in place for each leg. then I use scrap pieces to fill any remaining gaps. You could also use caulk or other filler.
One thing you should do whatever way you do it is paint the cork a color close to your ballast color either before putting it in place or at least before you lay your track… Makes it easier to lighty ballast your turnouts and not have the cork show through.
Good luck,
I used to just cut it. Overlap the pieces, and cut through BOTH - that way you get a tight joint. A box knife works well for this, a #11 Xacto is too small, for HO anyway.
Now I’m lazy, I bought those turnout pads from Midwest for all my turnouts. They still need cutting, because they are sort of a one size fits all. ANd simply butting the cork up against the straight and diverging routes does not work - it still overlaps slightly at the ‘frog’ area and needs to be cut to fit.
–Randy
For turnouts, I cut a triangle from sheet cork that represents the “inside space” as if you just layed all the outside peices. For #5 and #6 turnouts the dimensions are 7.5" long and 1 & 1/8" wide. With this length I still need to bevel the inside peices at the V junction, but this step can be eliminated if you cut longer triangles.
Jim
I use regular cork roadbed. I just go as wide as I have to, and after it is caulked down, cut it to shape and size. Sometimes I leave a larger area and cover it with Ballast. Just so the turnouts and areas around them don’t all look the same.[:)]
Brent
get thee unto walmart. they sell bulk packs of cork squares that are nearly the thickness of most cork roadbeds. you can shim with thin cardboard if necesssary. just trace the outline of the outer contour of your turnout on the cork and cut it to suit.
the cork grain is coarse compared to roadbed but it has worked fine for me.
grizlump
Thanks everybody,hope to here more.Thanks.
That’s funny; I went in the opposite direction.
I tried a few of those pre-cut turnout pads, from a couple different manufacturers, and NONE of them lined up right with EITHER my turnouts OR the cork roadbed.
So now, after laying the “outside” cork roadbed strips for the tangent and diverging tracks, I just overlap the “inside” strips and cut them with a sharp utility knife. I’ve found that a small but sturdy metal straightedge makes the cutting easier. I can knock out a better-looking section of roadbed faster and easier than I ever could with all the trimming and sanding you need to do to make those pre-cut pads “fit”.
Oh, and I have a 60-degree crossing on my layout, too, and used basically the same method. It worked out very well.
I guess I don;t worry about making sure the track is perfectly lined up with exactly the same number of millimeters of roadbed showing on each side of the ties. The pads work well with my Atlas turnouts, they are too long but I don’t see why you’d have to trim them, they provide a takeoff point for the track continuing on either side and also it keeps the track joints at the turnouts from being on top of roadbed joints. Little gaps don;t bother me either, once ballasted you’ll never see it.
–Randy