I’m planning an open-grid layout, and wondering what material to use for roadbed that can be used w/ hand-laid turnouts. I have some old homasote, but not enough for the whole layout and I know of no nearby source that sells homasote except as a special order.
Has anyone tried cork on top of luan playwood. I assume luan is soft enough to push spikes into?
I’m also wondering if ties and cork alone would be enough to hold spikes if glued on top of foam?
Hi Greg
Cork and luan plywood is fine. I have even spiked rail on cork and pink foam. After it is ballasted and glued it is solid as wood. As long as the tie does not split you should have no problems. Lately I have been going the CVT ties and bonding the rail with contact cement. I love the look of the tie plates. It also goes a lot faster and I still get the hand laid quality with no expensive jigs or tooling.
Pete
Here in the Dessicated Desert cork is a non-starter. My hand-laid turnouts are laid on (from the top) medium balsa ties, a layer of grey latex caulk, card stock (about like cereal box stock, but white,) another layer of caulk - and foam. The spikes are small-diameter, and don’t split the ties. The file-shaped rails aren’t soldered together until my designated derailment checker has been through both routes in both directions at well over track speed.
I’ve had turnouts built as described in service for three years, operated over almost every day, and they are totally trouble free. When I have had to pull a spike, it wasn’t easy. The caulk seems to grab on like a self-sealing tire. The ties and especially the card stock provide good lateral stability. Considering the temperature extremes and very low humidity in my non-climate-controlled garage, I’m very happy with the results.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
You can also do “Homabed” which is milled Homasote. It comes in 2 thicknesses. I have used it instead of cork and prefer it to cork. Since it is Homasote it is very easy to spike into and holds spikes well.
I too use homabed, in fact, used it before the California company bought it out, so have a history with it back into the 80’s. I lay all my track on it, and the scratchbuilt turnouts that I have especially liked it. Have about 20 of the scratchbuilt out of a total of 200 plus turnouts. I learned to build them as part of the NMRA MMR program, and they have given better service than the commercial ones.
Bob
I’ll throw my hat in the ring for Homabed as well, best stuff since sliced bread as far as I’m concerned. You get all the benefits of Homasote without all the ungodly mess. The first section of my new layout was spline subroadbed cut from 3/4" pine shelving with Homasote and then Homabed roadbed. The second section whihc will be under construction as soon as my order of Homabed arrives is 3/4" birch plywood subroadbed with Homabed roadbed. I myself have shied away from hand laying the track work and went with commercial flex track and have just recently started hand laying the turnouts on the main and branc lines using the Fast Tracks system.
Only the roadbed material matters - your spikes shouldn’t be long enough to penetrate the tie, the roadbed, and then into the subroadbed. If they are, your spikes are way oversize.
I’ve used cork for roadbed under handlaid turnouts - and saw the cork crumble and disintegrate after a few years in Northern Virginia without air conditioning (not a dry environment!).
I’ve tried redwood for roadbed in a display case, and found the hard spots in the grain and glue curling a higher percentage of spikes than I would like. Luaun plywood and pine roadbeds also curled more spikes than I would like with their hard spots.
Of the materials I have tried for roadbed, Homasote is by far my favorite. I drove 65 miles each way for my last batch. 2nd would be Upson board or Celotex - both are sometimes sold as Homasote or Homasote equivalent. But they are not as good.
An HOn3 modular group in Northern California has been using door skin (1/8" thick veneer) glued to foam as a very satisfactory roadbed for handlaid track. I’ve never tried it, so I can’t comment. Chuck’s method with card stock seems like it would work pretty well, too.
just my thoughts and experiences
Fred W
I’ve used cork as roadbed. You can buy cork with different density. I would use the more dense cork. It will hold the spikes.
Usually I glue my track and turnouts to the cork but sometimes I use spikes too. E.g. at my Silver Creek for the third rail (dual gauge). Track is Central Valley track.
Wolfgang
Just a note that seams to be forgotten, cork is not the final item, ballast is.
I don’t know where you are, but here in Northern VA, Home Depot sells “Homosote” back in the plywood area and the tag even says “Homosote” right on it. From memory I think its about $23 bucks a sheet or thereabouts. Perhaps if they don’t stock it where you are they can at least get it to you easily?
John
Homabed worked fine for me, and I hand laid all of my track and built the turnouts. Has all the advantages of homsote and none of the mess… which I had with an earlier small layout. They have notched lengths for bending for curves as well as the straight pieces. I used their turnout base as well.
Have fun… Hal
The Homosote Company is in New Jersey!
U.S. Mail
Homasote Company
PO Box 7240
West Trenton, NJ 08628-0240
If you can’t find it with this info …
Where to buy Homasote … http://www.homasote.com/WhereToBuy
What does CVT ties mean? Thx Mike
Pre-California company Homabed roadbed (made from homasote) atop plywood:
More than thick with steep slopes now: it is no offered in two thicknesses and with two slop angles as well as vertical sides.
Easy to use, more consistent in thickness, and a lot less messy to deal with than homasote, but quite a bit more expensive.
Mark
When I first built my original 4x8 layout, I found a great old book about trackwork and it said one of the best roadbeds for handlaid track was clear white pine, so I decided to give it a go. Of course, that was nearly 40 years ago and it was easier to get good, clean lumber without knots and other flaws. And, it was a good deal cheaper. The pine was just right for the Code 70 spikes and after ballasting the track and using a white glue/water mix, the ties actually form a slight rust coating that not only looks weathered, but helps hold the spikes amazingly well. I’ve never had any problems with that track. I’ve never had any go out of gauge, which is amazing considering the age.
However, later as I found less time to work on my layout, I switched to flex track on a Homasote base. I used a 1/2-inch plywood/Homasote combination and it’s been good for me up to this point. I also did some handlaid track spiked on Homasote and it worked well in my situation. There have been some instances where I had track go slightly out of gauge, but nothing major, mostly around switches where I probably did some work that maybe caused the rail to shift.
As far as locating Homasote, we still have places in our region Oklahoma/Texas that sell Homasote, so it is available. One of the earlier posts gave their Website that includes a locator and that is how I located it the last time I needed some.
Good luck.
Joey
If you’re ONLY handlaying your turnouts, then theres a few favorable options.
First, are you going to be building them at your workbench, or in place? I build mine at my workbench and then install them.
The easiest thing I’ve found to do is simply buy the appropriate thickness basswood pieces that match HO roadbed width (dimensions escape me now). This wood is stiff enough and resilient enough to form a secure and firm foundation to build upon, in addition to being soft enough for spikes to go into (duh! Because most wooden ties are MADE from basswood!)
You could use it for whole sections of track, but I imagine it would be a little more annoying.
Regardless, I have also handlayed into cork. Its not the most favorable option, but it can and does work. If you want to use cork, then you’re going to want to use CVT tie strips if you can.
CVT is Central Valley’s plastic, pre-formed tie-strips. They basically take the rail off of flextrack, and then upgrade its details with tie-plates and other stuff. Its got grooves to hold and guide the rail, and its spikeable and glueable. Its also got clips or hooks on the ends so that you can link up as many tie-strips as you want (they’re about a foot long each).
Also, you can get them in mainline, branchline, or in-between tie spacing.
I went to the homasote website and looked for dealers within 10 miles of ZIP 08873–do you mean to tell me that narry-a-one of the thirteen dealers listed doesn’t carry homasote?
This may be a crazy idea, but I’ve been thinking of eliminating spikes. Turnouts can be made with Printed Circuit Board strips insulated in the middle with the rails SOLDERED on (in FastTracks jigs). Straight sections can also be soldered, maybe only every 6th or 8th tie. No spikes, no melted plastic, no ripped out rails when cutting gaps … and on any roadbed. The only drawback I can think of is unsightly solder bumps (but maybe soldering the rail bottom instead of side would work using resistance or solder pre-forms).
Any thoughts on this method?
I don’t think its crazy. I myself have been giving enormous thought to using this method. I have several concepts for laying track I want to try before I make a final decision, but all of them include using pc ties to make / hold the gauge. I’m leaning very heavily to using Central Valley Tie Strips and turnout kits. Modified “Joe Fugate” style-- there’s links here and on that other site-that-cannot-be-named for how-to’s and pictures and opinions of that style of trackwork and turnout construction.
John