I’m modeling an HO scale, freelance, midwestern town layout. The layout runs point to point. It’s 2 feet wide and twenty feet long.
Do I really need to lay roadbed?
I was thinking of ballasting the track straight to the plywood. The trains will really just meander through town and stop at the local feed store and the grain elevator on the way out of town. I’m not really concerned with noise reduction. Since it’s a small midwestern town, there will be no elevation changes and groundcover will cover most of the layout. The town is modelled on the front edge, so there won’t even be a main street per se.
I’m not really a rivet counter, so I’m not trying to win a contest here. I just figured it might look better being flat.
Assuming that your tracks will not be in a street, no, you don’t need roadbed. But as pointed out above, you may be surprised at how much noise you’ll get.
Also, in most places, what looks to the casual observer to be flat land actually has some slight variation. How are you going to fini***he area next to the track?
You might try a thin layer of foam sheeting, even the 1/4 inch type, under both the track and some of the adjacent ground. Then you can have some areas slightly below track level, others at the same level, still others slightly above. You’ll be surprised how much better that looks. It may also be easier to apply ground cover, especially shrubs and trees.
I have a suggestion and admit I am in the minority but what else is new! I personally don;t care for cork roadbed. At 1/4" thick it is way too high for HO for me. For years I have put down a sheet of homasote over plywood and then ripped cheap paneling into 1" wide strips for roadbed. Worked for me for years and deadened the sound pretty well. On my new layout I am going to try a different route. I am going to buy a roll of 1/16" polethylene floor underlayment and hot glue it to the plywood. After the rails are laid I am going to remove the poly where there are no tracks. I believe this will give superior sound deadening and maximize realism. One roll is about 100 sq. ft. and is about $30.00 so one roll should do a lot of area.
I was down this path two months ago, roadbed or not? After reading many replys I drove 45 miles and bought the woodland’s foam roadbed. Since then, I have pulled up 1/4 of my layout and put the roadbed underneath and put track back down. It coast anywhere from $7.49 to $9 for 24 feet. To me It was well worth it. I’m very happy with my decision. Hope this helps.
It would cost you all of 24 hours to lay 24" of track the way you’d like to do it, including letting the ballast dry, as well as placing 24" of track on either side, but with some form of roadbed. The next day, when it is cured, hook up power and run a loco and two cars along the length You’ll know where you’re headed soon enough.
I will tell you what I used for trackbed on one layout if you don’t laugh. What we called linoleum. It used to be used as a floor covering. Since that layout was built at a time we had just put down some floors, there was a bit lying around. I cut it to the right width then tacked it down with the bottom side up. Worked very nicely.
I think the material has gone out of fashion, so maybe there are no offcuts around.
I did track and grass on bare plywood as a teen, and it looked very unnatural, especially the grass. It didn’t look like Indiana flatlands, it looked like planar plywood with green dust on it.
One sheet of quarter (actually 3/16") inch luan and a jigsaw will knock out a lot of roadbed quick and for low cost. Cut with the blade on a 45 degree angle and you have a nice shape for a ballast embankment. Some variation in the terrain is a big plus. Even small dead flat areas look unnatural. Plaster cloth on dead flat plywood, same deal. You could get random variation and still maintain midwestern flatland by trowelling spackling compound first, and smoothing it with a 1 to 3" brush dipped in water after it just begins to set up. Then you’d pretty much have it all. A two to three foot high embankment fo the track grade, drainage ditches on either side of the track, and back up to a very gently rolling flatland everywhere else.
Private track yards and local branches had very low roadbed usually sitting on cinder ash, sand, or similar. I was told they were flat because
yard crew had to walk between tracks. So climbing up and down roadbed embankments was not really welcome.
cheaper to maintain
If you insist on not using roadbed, my best advice would be don’t apply the track straight to the plywood. Grab some homasote and put that on top of the plywood. Then spackle your roads in place. From every picture and book I’ve read so far, this would be more prototypical of a small yard or abandoned/poorly maintained local line. It would not be used for heavy freight and big steamers/diesels. Critters and local switchers would be your best bet.
diffenately go with homosote or 1" foam on top of the plywood, you’ll still have a flat surface, but you can cut some contours for drainage and the like, plus details , fences, trees, poles, etc, will be a lot easier to put in. you may want to try “n” scale roadbed, lower profile on main,and let sidings lay on top of foam.
You may want to use N scale roadbed… It works well in HO where a lower profile is desired, like on a secondary, branch, or shortline. Using NO roadbed will probably cause you regrets down the road. Even sidings tend to have SOME sort of elevation above the local area.
If you don’t use roadbed, consider mounting the track on foam. It’ll help with the noise level AND it will let you carve drainage ditches on either side of your track.
I thought this was a very plausible idea so I tried it out tonight. For the most part it looks okay I think, but I haven’t tried cutting it away yet (following track laying). Where I went wrong was getting a little too eager to get the stuff stuck down and the hot glue very quickly melted through the vinyl. It will be simple enough to replace and I’m not worried about that…just an observation. On the other extreme I think I probably left a good bunch of it too long before sticking the underlay down. Not sure it’s really stuck. However, I am nailing through it to hold the track down. Was this your plan? Can’t use hot glue to stick the track to the underlay, the glue will just melt through.
Am I on the right track? Left track? Anyone else using this stuff?
My lay out as of now is cheap green carpet with no backing and the rails on top of the carpet. When i get a 25 freight train rolling around 60 MPH it sould like a real train from the wheels.
My next section will be around 6 X 7 and I will try ssome kind of bedding or a foam board under the rails.
If I use foam, will the spkies still hold hold down the track well? I run doubled headed Proto 2000’s or Atheran’s all 112 wheel drive so a little heavy. I have had spikes back out of the plywood the way it is now?
No. I’ve had track nails hold ok in cork glued to extruded (pink) foam, but track nails will not stay in foam in my experience. Use some sort of foam compatible adhesive like latex caulk or Liquid Nails for Projects (I think that’s compatible).
I’ve never tried nailing through foam roadbed (Woodland Scenics) into plywood if that’s what you’re asking.
Yeah, I tried putting track straight on plywood on an earlier layout in a yard area. No problems operationwise, track nails held fine, but it is really, really noisy to the point of being distracting.
I’ve heard that homasote is great for large areas like yours, but it’s not always easy to find, especially in small town building supply places. I used 12 x 12 x1/4" cork tiles glued to plywood for a yard in my current layout. Works the same as cork roadbed as long as they are mounted flu***o each other and glued down well. Might add up in price for a really large area.
Some slight elevation of the track above the “plywood plains” is desirable, otherwise your track may end up looking like it is the drainage channel if you build up any scenery around around it. There are several good ideas that others have shared for materials to raise the track slightly. Another idea, that I haven’t tried but may be convenient, is adhesive floor tile. If you get a plain vinyl tile with adhesive backing, you could cut it with scissors into sections or shapes to go under your tracks. I think that you can get basic tile for around a dollar for a twelve inch square piece. It should go down quickly and provide a slight elevation.
I am modeling an area where historic photos show almost no elevation of track above surrounding ground, so any roadbed, even n-scale, would be incorrect. I mounted my track directly on my 2" foam baseboard, except in an area outside this location where it would have been elevated, and there I used n-scal foam roadbed. Then I ballasted it and the contour look right. Not sure about noise, but I am going for historical accuracy, not sound levels. Have not run trains yet.
I had a wife that was almost totally deaf. yet she could hear the trains real good. Why? I didn’t use a roadbed of ANY sort. I just glue the track to the plywood.
For her it was great. For me and the nieghbours it kind of sucked. But I didn’t make it for them.
It will be very loud is what I am trying to say here.