Does anyone out there have some information about when cork roadbed might be available again? Is the Woodland Scenics a reasonable substitute?
I was not aware it is not available? I used the Midwestern brand found at my LHS.
Hi Harold, Midwest Products has been around for at least 25 years that I know of and I use their cork roadbed all the time and buy by the case. I usually get mine from Caboose Hobbies in Denver but in your neck of the woods you have many suppliers. Try MB Klein (Model Train Stuff) etc. Their are so many store’s to buy it from. Do a search on the net for Midwest Products. Doug
Resaon I ask is that a few months ago it wasn’t available anywhere. MidWest doesn’t have it stock - neither does Caboose or MBK which is where I bought my last case. My LHS doesn’t have any either so don’t know if the supply problem still exists or if it just a fluke. Anyone know?
There’s a good chance that they’ll be shipping roadbed again soon, if they haven’t already. Midwest was waiting on a shipment from overseas of the cork used in the roadbed, supposedly in June, IIRC. There’s at least one previous thread here discussing this. You might try direct contact with Midwest to see what the status is.
Midwest’s website is still showing out of stock: http://www.midwestproducts.com/store/product/e191a37d-a166-4392-9808-ffe0e4c0c001/HO_Cork_Roadbed_5_Pack.aspx
If you’re referring to the soft foam product, my opinion is that it’s not. A friend used it on his layout, and while it seems to work okay, I found it very unlike cork with which to work. The layout was topped with extruded foam, and we glued the roadbed to the foam, then pinned the track in place (latex caulk may have been a better choice). The combination of foam products offered very little grip for spiking track in place, although it did allow easy re-alignment where required. Until we ballasted the track, maintaining track position was difficult. I would suppose the caulk to offer a more positive attachment, but think that it would be permanent once set - in other words, re-aligning the track before ballasting would be impossible without ruining the foam roadbed. If you like working with the cork version, my guess it that you’d be better off waiting for it to become available.
Wayne
Wayne, That is exactly what I thought and you confirmed my opinion. I looked at it and I questioned its ability to hold a spike. The good news is that I think I located a case of cork at a real out of the way shop about 30 miles from me. I do hope the supply issue gets resolved sooner than later.
I use Woodland Scenics Foam Track Bed throughout my fairly large layout. It is easy to shape although, as Wayne indicates, it doesn’t “hold” the shape very well. It is dark gray, nearly black and that makes it hard to conceal with ballast. But, the biggest problem with the foam track bed is that it is too soft so that if you are not careful, especially if you nail your track down as I do, it is easy to create humps and valleys with your track and to pull the track out of gauge. The use of foam track bed is especially troublesome under double slips and double crossovers because it is not sufficiently firm and stable and, as such, it does not support large pieces of specialty track particularly well.
I am likely to switch to cork road bed on my next layout.
Rich
LION does not use roadbed, but mounts track directly to the Homasote sub bed. Unless you are modeling a modern well graded railroad it is mostly not necessary.
I was in Hawkins Rail Products in Lafayette, IN a couple of weeks; he seemed to have lots of Midwest HO cork in his inventory.
Interesting store; wish I could have spent more time there. Lots and lots of good stuff.
Edit the double post. I have tried Woodland Scenics foam roadbed, not for me. But then again, I have yet to convert to adhesive based roadbed/track attachment…
10/4 Rich.
The WS product is too soft, the black color is a pain and in n gauge I feel it is too wide.
Used cork on my new project and like it much better. At least it can be adjusted a little here and there with a sanding block.
scookam.
Amen to that! That place is a 2000 square foot slice of heaven.
I had 8 cases of it on back order since about January of this year. I called Midwest almost every month and was told it was a result of cork shortages. They expected a shipment by summer and I finally received my shipment a few weeks ago. Now it seems, Atlas has thrown a wrench into my progress. I can’t get a second case of Code 83 flex! My track gang is currently sitting on a siding, twiddling their thumbs in camp cars…
~Kris
Both those items are available on e-bay, just saw them as I need some cork too and the track was for someone else.
Glad to hear the cork roadbed is available but the Atlas issue could be a while longer. Can you substitute the ME track? It’s actually a better looking product but may not mesh well with the Atlas if you have already headed down that road.
I use WS foam roadbed…I find it easy to work with…I glue down my roadbed and track…but as someone mentioned here in an earlier post …I also use 2" foam for my layout base…the foam on foam is a problem with noise…but I just use flex track and do not hand lay my track…if I build a new layout I`ll probably use homasote roadbed.
My local hobby shop here in ct is having a tough time getting backlog in , Seems like cork road bed has become a very important commodity, no idea why