I’m getting ready to lay ~300 linear feet of track (HO), and I need some roadbed material. The primary choices are Midwest Products’ cork, or Woodland Scenics foam-rubber roadbed. MB Klein sells them for roughly the same price. Are there any clear advantages of one type over the other?
Thanx in advance…
I have used cork roadbed and homasote as roadbed, nailing or stapling it down on my personal modules and my teenage home layout. I have had no issues with cork over time. The homabed degraded after twenty years (ok, I have too, but at least I am still kicking…).
There is a trend towards gluing roadbed/track down now, and I think the foam/rubber products work best with glue.
I have built a couple of railroads for others using the Woodland Scenics foam sub roadbed and rubber roadbed; using hot glue and their white glue products. It worked.
But it is not my preference. If and when I ever build something for myself, it will be cork based.
Woodland Scenics advertises that their roadbed is “sound and vibration absorbing”. The only problem with that is that real trains are not very quiet in my experiences. You can also make your own roadbed, as a guy wrote about doing in a MRR article not too long ago.
Just my two cents.
sfb
I prefer teh WS foam roadbed. For larger areas, such as under switches or yard areas, I use teh craft foam in 8.5x11" sheets from AC Moore’s.
I perfer foam-rubber over the cork since it seems easier to work with.
OK I guess that settles it! Thank you everyone for your replies[8-|]
My recent tracklaying in N code 55 has inclined me to use foam for everything but turnouts, where I’ve used cork. I’m sure that greater precision in my trackwork would help, but aligning the turnout and Bullfrog switch machine and cutting rail gaps for DC blocks and so on all require a firmer base than foam provides. I have enough trouble with lateral displacement; I don’t need to have the sponginess of the foam preventing me from keeping correct vertical alignment as well.
Foam, on the other hand, is a bit easier to work with if you’re going to depress a siding slightly below the main. And overall it seems a little faster to lay down with adhesive caulk. I guess I’d do the math and see if the difference in price for 300 feet would get you more than a burger and fries, and go with that.
I am using cork for the main line and Woodland Scenics on spurs and yard,And Woodland’s do say it is sound absorbing but it is not as cork is better .Now i do not glue nothing down so that is i guess is why the foam is not absorbing.But i like both.
I have used both cork and foam on the same layout. With no ballast, the foam absorbed the sound much better.
With ballast and glue, it was a case of six of one, half dozen of the other. They both make a lot of noise. The glue essentially turns the roadbed into a soundbox. So it’s entirely a matter of personal preference. They are both easy to work with.
-Jason