I am a bit baffled at the continuing interest in using a hot wire to cut the WS Foam Track-Bed. I cannot see it working effectively since the hot wire will melt the foam. A boxcutter works perfectly well to make clean, exacting cuts.
Rich
Has anyone tried using a matte cutter, either with a straight or ‘circular’ blade?
With a little care you might make the blade angle adjustable to realistic ballast prism or subgrade angles…
I used it on my corner module. All I used was a pair of scissors. But I’m just a simple kind of guy and trying not to make things difficult. I suppose you can hot wire it or razor saw maybe even a high tech laser. Make it as difficult as you like.
I still have some of the stuff and won’t be using it except for packing or fill for a coal load.
Pete.
The real problem with WS roadbed is you can’t sand it to fix transitions.
The problem I have is while the ballast dried you can clearly see where I had weight on the rails and the foam compressed. There is undulations in the track. They haven’t caused any problems but looking around the curve you can see them.
Pete.
For years, I used Woodland Scenics Foam Track Bed on my layouts. But, I went with cork on my latest layout, and I like it much better. It is firmer than the Foam Track Bend which is too spongy by comparison. In hindsight, I believe that Woodland Scenics Foam Track Bed is a poor choice for roadbed.
Rich