Our club is about to embark on major renovation of a large modular layout. We will be replacing old foam roadbed (not Woodland Scenics) which has seriously deteriorated with something. Some argue for cork, others argue for Woodland Scenics foam which is manufactured differently than the stuff which failed. Whatever we use has to stand up to the abuse of movement and temperature shifts. I’m interested in hearing what others have experienced particularly with modular layouts using Woodland Scenics roadbed.
I left cork behind for the Woodland Scenics roadbed long ago. It’s just as easy to lay, doesnt need to be sanded, doesnt get brittle as it ages, and is quieter. The off-set is that it is almost 3 times as expensive.
I’m laying cork right now which I bought from MB Kleins for a dollar per section - it’s working great - easy to work with, tacks down nicely with Atlas track nails - its very easy to work with and a stable product. Aslo, I’m not made of money so I can’t afford 3x cost on layout products, especially if some traditional lower cost products work very well.
Maybe cork is old school to some, but it works excellent for me, plus as a bonus I can lay it right on the center line I drew and then the track as well. The brittle issue is only a problem if you are using cork left over from years ago, and only if you need to curve it alot. I have some 15 year old cork I still had and actually it was fine for the straight area’s or gentle curves. I don’t see the big deal about it getting stiff over time - its’ generally going to stay where it was put - so that isn’t a problem. If you have pieces of unused cork or reusing cork that is many years old, it will be stiff but if you are not curving it much - thats not a big deal. And it’s cheap enough at a dollar a section if you want to ditch the old cork and go with fresh.
I have a pretty good sized layout and all of my roadbed is Woodland Scenics Foam. I like it a lot, no brittleness, no deterioration after 11 years. The one caveat: if you nail down your track as I do, be careful because the foam gives, so if the drive the nail too deep, a depression will be created.
Rich
I was part of a travelling club. We used nothing but cork, starting about 25-30 years ago. The layout spent as much time in a dark green trailer as it did inside.
After 15 years the cork had causes no problems, and some of the temperature swings were considerable.
Dave
The WS stuff is unforgiving. The cork you can sand, gouge and fill if you have a problem and you can separate the track from the cork a lot easier than the foam if you use caulk to attach (why would you use anything else).
I HATE the Woodland Scenics squishy foam crap. It’s impossible to sand/plane/rasp into a perfect shape for a tracklaying surface, which can be done easily with cork. Bonded ballast can be cracked if an object like an uncoupling pick pushes on the roadbed, or if you accidentally lean on it. I’ve seen many a module or display with the ballast cracked off large areas of the WS roadbed. When a local shop got a display from WS to advertise the product, I noted that it deteriorated quickly as customers touched the roadbed and ballast broke away. Properly ballasted track on cork or other firm roadbed can survive similar abuse virtually wothout damage.
Hello All,
When deciding what roadbed to use I finally opted for the Woodland Senics Foam in 24-inch strips over cork for my HO layout.
It too can be split down the scribed center line for placing on curves.
Where I live the relative humidity is about 20% year round. During my research I became concerned about the cork deteriorating in this low humidity.
The base of my layout is Blue foam. Another concern of mine was how to adhere the roadbed of choice. For ease of use I settled on silicone caulk.
Easy to apply with a caulk gun and 2-inch putty knife. Run a bead of caulk down the center of the roadbed, spread a thin, even layer with the putty knife, wipe away any excess caulk from the edges and place. There were times that my placement was not exact. Before the caulk had set I simply repositioned the road bed and tacked down with 2-inch “T” pins. Most of the time I tacked the track directly on the roadbed and made any adjustments before the silicone set. After 24-hours of curing time I removed the “T” pins, replaced them with track nails and ran some trains before ballasting in the final position.
Relatively inexpensive installation and when I needed to reposition the foam roadbed before ballasting the silicone released with no damage to the base or roadbed.
For longer sections it is also available in 24-foot rolls. For yards and larger areas sheets are available.
But, like every other topic on these forums it’s a personal choice.
Personally I chose the foam over cork and have had no problems.
Hope this helps.
WallyD.
I retired my modules a couple of years ago after more than a decade of doing shows in every concievable weather situation. They had been stored in the back of a pickup truck with a cover on in sub zero temps, rain, snow, blazing heat, and high winds more times to count. The modules with the WS foam roadbed had cracked, peeled, split and dipped. The modules with cork have stood the test of time and few to no repaires needed. Ballasted sub roadbed should never deteriorate. Why the WS foam stuff gave me issues is beyond me.
My old clubs layout was 45 years old on visible cork road bed and little ballast. It was housed inside a 105 year old baggage car with no climate control. The old cork was still going strong when I left five years ago.
Pete
I used the WS foam roadbed on my layout that is 25’X18’ and love it. It’s been down 7 years with no problems at all. I have had no issues with ballast breaking off of the foam. It is so much easier to handle than my old cork roadbed. Go with WS Foam roadbed, you won’t be disappointed
My modular club has been around for 10 years. I’m a charter member and I’m still on my original module. Most if not all of our members have used cork, without issues. My original and subsequent modules have been built of 1 x 4 lumber of good quality, with joists 16" on center. Subroadbed is 3/4" birch plywood, and cork is glued and screwed to the joists. Once the cork is installed, I paint every surface of wood, plywood and cork to resist expansion and contraction due to humidity changes, which are considerable in our neck of the woods. I adhere track to the roadbed with latex caulk.
I haven’t had any distortion of track or problems with ballast.
Based on experience with some members’ modules, I would caution against using thinner than 1/2" subroadbed,however.
That’s the thing, there’s no need to rasp WS foam roadbed, it’s manufacturered to much tighter tolerances than cork, and it’s already flat with a broken edge, not that ragged edge you get when seperating cork, which indeed needs to be sanded down, or else you end up with edges that stick out throught he ballast. Or have to use WAY too much ballast to make sure it’s buried. Sanding the endges down to make a clean break on the edge is definitely the thing to do with cork.
I’ve used both, seem to work equally well. With a base of extruded foam, the WS was much quieter. Ballast didn;t crack when I pressed down on the track with more than normal force. Maybe if I leaned my entire weight on it - but that would also bend Code 83 rail. I lost the piece I had picked up to test alongside homasote and cork, or in various combinations with those - heck the quietest option might be all 3 stacked together! I don’t nail track any more, haven’t for years, so there’s no issues with pushing it down and squashing the foam, causing a vertical kink which is a sure way to have derailments.
And it does sand - you’re not going to be able to take it all the way down like cork, unless you are extremely patient, but I used a combination of shirt cardboard and WS N scale roadbed to set my sidings lower than the main on my previous layout, and sanded it a bit to make sure it was all even.
Nice thing about WS foam is you can get those big boxes of it and lay long strips with no seams. Turnout fitting is like cork without the special turnout pads, but the foam cuts with a #2 blade easier than cork.
It all works, so try both.
–Randy
As a follow-up to Randy’s comments, I have considered using the N-scale foam on my next HO scale layout. The N-scale strips would be too narrow, but I would cut sheets of N-scale to fit HO scale track. Some will say that the profile of N-scale roadbed would be too low, but the lower profile would help to hide the edges without having to use too much ballast as is the problem with the HO scale foam.
Rich
A few things…
I sand, rasp or otherwise clean up the surface of the roadbed to account for any small irregularities that telegraph through the cork or Homasote from the subroadbed under it and/or the adhesive used during installation. I also use a belt sander to ramp down from thicker roadbed on the main to lower sidings and industry spurs. No amount of tighter tolerances with regard to foam roadbed thickness can address these issues. I prefer having something solid for such treatment.
The ragged cork edge where the pieces split is a non-issue for me. I trim it off with a pass from a utility knife and it’s gone.
I use Flexxbed vinyl roadbed. It’s one-piece, curves easily, and is gray in color making it a good base for ballast. It’s absolutely smooth, uniform and dimensionally stable so requires no preparation before laying the track. It’s available in different heights (1/4" and 3/16" in HO) making it easy to lay track on different levels to simulate mainline and sidings. It’s also available in sheets of varying thickness for yards, industrial areas, etc.
I nail it to my benchwork with #19 x 5/8" wire nails and then affix my track to it with Atlas track nails. I prefer this method of attachment since it makes track layout changes easy to accomplish.
Some of you may know this product in its original formulation as Vinylbed but it has been superseded by the improved present product. If interested, go to the Flexxbed website at Hobby Innovations for more information.
This has been my experience with cork as well. I’ve seen the foam products and stayed well clear of them. Obviously some people for their own reasons like them, but like Rob, I prefer something more solid and workable with conventional tools rather than a squishy soft surface to lay track. Folks can read the comments in this topic and judge for themselves. What I do find pajorative is when people refer to a good product as “something they left behind a long time ago” as if it is passe and no longer relevant. Not so - based on my experience and some with a lot more experience and talent than I - cork is still a good workable product for subroadbed.
I’m surprised that no one has come up with a product that combines the advantages of cork and foam without the disadvantages of either.
Rich
I really don’t see any disadvantage to cork. It’s economical, very workable, and if you don’t like old stiff cork, just buy some new fresh cork - it’s cheap. (where is my staples button? =D)
I was referring to others comments about cork. It can and does become brittle, it needs to be sanded to shape, etc.
Rich
Both are straw arguments and easy to address:
Since cork is inexpensive, just buy new cork - brittleness is NOT an issue. Yes, it does become brittle with age, but like I said, if you get new cork, it is flexible and easy to work with. Once it’s down and in place, the brittleness also isn’t an issue - it’s in place and stable. If it’s painted and ballasted, you aren’t going to re-use it so the whole brittle argument is totally moot. If you have old brittle cork, throw it out and buy new - it’s cheap. Problem solved.
At minimum, you don’t need to do much to shape cork, maybe a quick pass over the edges with a sanding block and it’s good. Cork is easy to shape if you need to do that. All I do to shape my cork after it is tacked down is to run some ~200 grit sand paper over the edges to round it a bit and make it even on both sides. That takes just a few minutes. Cork is also easy to trim or cut for turnouts etc with a box cutter or X-Acto. Basically its a very easy to work with product. No “real” disadvantages IMO, no re