Hi I was planning on laying down cork roadbed and i had a question. I am putting the cork on plywood and I was wondering when I put it down it would elvate the track however high off the plywood, then if i put my roundhouse at the end of a section of cork wouldn’t my train run into my building? Since the building sits flush on the plywood the track is elavated cause of the cork so the building isn’t tall enough, how do i solve this proublem?
Thanks, Farmkid
Simple, Build a FOUNDATION under your round house OR use a LARGE flat piece of cork in that area. You can use CORK FLOORING for the yard area and just BLEND the cork road bed in to it. Last opyion is NO cork road bed in the yard (bad looking). Look at pictures of rail yards and you will see the different heights of the tracks. I am sure other will chime in. This is my $.02
Best bet, use homosote for yard trackage and when you transition to mainlineadjust the plywood base to make and even transition to the cork. For example, if the homosote is 1/2" and the cork is 1/4’“, adjust the transition between the homosote and the plywood so the plywood is 1/4” below the level of the homosote.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but, you wouldn’t want the track leading up to a turn table or round house to be elevated up on road bed. Isn’t it more prototypical for those track to sit right on ground level?[2c]
I just build my entire yard / engine service area on a sheet of cork. I can trim it down where I need a slightly lower-than-track area, but mostly the entire area is flat.