Should I use 2 inch foam board of homasote before I put my track down. If I use foam board down how will I screw down the track.
Use Homasote unless you plan on gluing the track to the foam board. And use the Homasote brand rather than other similar products. I have heard may sad stories of those who used the latter. Homasote is great since it helps deaden the sound while easily holding track nails. If you don’t want to see the track nails, remove them after you have ballasted the track.
Good luck!
Skagitrailbird is right on with his answer–be sure and use Homasote and not a substitute. I made the mistake of using a substitute with my older layout, and it turned out to be a mess after a couple of years. I built my present railroad with 2" Corning foam on 1x3" bracing about seven years ago, and it works fine for me. Light and sturdy–and I have a fairly large garage layout. But actual Homasote has proven to be extremely dependable for a base. It’s pretty much a personal choice.
Tom [:)]
Lots of options, not one answer fits every situation.
If you are going to handlay your track, use Homasote definitely.
If you are going to use flex track or prefab track then you can use plywood, Homasote, foam, or cork (or vinyl) roadbed on any of those.
If you use plywood ot Homasote you can use nails to hold the track.
If you use any combination of the above you can use latex adhesive caulk (not silicone) as a glue to glue down the cork and/or the track.
Homasote will absorb water, so it’s not an ideal base if your layout is in anywhere where it might be exposed to high humidity. Foam, on the other hand, will not have anything to do with water, and is ideal in these situations.
I’m curious, what exactly are the disasters you’ve heard about using the “other” substitues to Homasote? Since I believe they are all made the same way from the same type materials with the only difference being the density (Homasote is denser and therefore “less” quite) I’d like to know.
Mike
I have no personal experience with anything other than Homasote but, if my recollection is correct of stories I have heard, substitutes are not made of the same materials (Homasote is recycled newsprint) nor are they as dense. Thus their “sin” is that they don’t hold track nails well.
As for Homasote absorbing moisture, there is probably some truth to that but it is sort of a “so what” since tests by both the manufacturer and others indicate that moisture absorption does not materially change the dimensions of the product. Wood probably expands and contracts more with changes in humidity. My home layout and that of the club I belong to are both in spaces with significant humidity changes and have suffered no ill effects from same. I do highly recommend “sealing” the Homasote with latex paint before laying roadbed and track. This won’t keep moisture out but it will greatly reduce the amount of dust the product otherwise seems to “exhale.”
I have never tried gluing track down with latex adhesive caulk. I have heard some people rave about doing that but others curse it, primarily due to difficulty of lifting the track to make changes. The latter may have much to do with how thinly the adhesive was applied but, again, I have no experience with this process.
I have no connection with nor interest in the company that produces Homasote. I’m just a very satisfied customer. It’s quite easy to fully press track nails into it by hand (I use a nail set with a dimple in the end into which the track head nail “nestles” but I push them into the Homasote by hand in order to not bend the ties so much that the track goes out of guage) and they can be easily removed to make changes or for cosmetic reasons afterr ballasting.
On my last N-scale layout I used Homasote glued to 1/2" plywood with yellow carpenters glue as my sub-roadbed. Contrary to what has been posted in the past, I expeienced no problems with the track because of expansion or contraction of the Homasote because of temperature or humidity changes. This may have been due to the fact the Homasote was glued to the plywood and/or the layout was in a climate controlled basement. I did not do anything to seal the surface of the Homasote. I agree with the other posters that if you need to be able to nail or spike your track to the subroadbed, as in hand-laying track, you should use Homasote. If you’re using commercial flex track and turnouts and plan to glue them down with latex caulk, I’d use the extruded foam insulation board (blue or pink).
The biggest problem I see with Homasote, based on my experience, is the mess created when you try to cut it with a sabre saw. The sawing will create large quantities of dust that will go everywhere, including into your lungs. If you decide to use Homasote, I strongly recommend that you do the cutting outside or in a place in which the resulting dust can be easily cleaned up, i.e., not in the house. Also wear a dust mask to keep the dust out of your lungs. You may read that you can reduce the amount of dust while cutting Homasote by using a “knife” blade in your sabre saw. I tried this and found that, while it did significantly reduce the amount of dust created, it also took forever to make the cuts.
Bob
I applied my cork road bed directly to foam on my current test layout, and as a result of the noise, I will not be repeating this process on the final build. I am planning instead on using plywood and homosote for the subroad bed, and stacked foam for terrain featurs inbetween.
Cheers
Scarpia,
How was your foam supported? I’ve read in this forum that if the foam is not adequately supported, e.g., glued to plywood, that it can act like a drum head and produce a lot of noise.
Bob
Foam will act like a ‘drumhead’ if not secured to either the sub-base (if you’re using one) or the cross-bracing (if you’re just using the foam for a base). I attached mine to the cross-braces with Elmer’s Carpenter glue, and experienced little if any noise. Also, as my scenery progressed, the noise level was further reduced. On completed sections of the my HO scale Yuba River Sub, all I can hear are the wheels going over the track-joints when I’ve got the sound turned off.
Tom [:)]
If you are going to use Homasote, you will want to have something like 1/2" plywood under it. It will sag(even on benchwork laid with 16" centers). 2" foamd will require less bracing underneath. We used 1/4" plywood under our 2" foam.
Myself - I used 1/2" plywood on 1"x3" framing every 16". On top of that I used ‘Homabed’ pre-cut roadbed from California Roadbed Company. Homasote can be very messy to cut(as bad or worse than cutting foam). Homasote comes in 5/8" thick sheets. If you use it, ‘glue & screw’ it down to 1/2" plywood so it will not ‘move’. I built a layout in the 60’s that used sheet Homasote(it was all the rage back then). It is great stuff if you are hand-laying track, but that may be the only advantage. And as mentioned, you might want to ‘seal’ it if you are living in a humid enviroment. The current layout used 1/4" Homabed roadbed on top of 1/2" plywood. I use 3/16" cork roadbed for sidings/spurs. The Homabed is easy to work with, but the price is higher than cork.
Jim Bernier
Mine is not glued to the sub structure. I take it from Tom’s post that doing so can eliminate the noise; I’ll take that into advisement.
There is still the issue of mounting switch machines, etc. I also used the WS risers; while it worked well for my application, I think I want something more organic than the set slopes these provide, from reading I’ve done, I think the plywood over riser cuts seem easier to bend and flex in a natural manner than foam.
The foam is great for scenery sub structure though. I’m planning on this stage to have my “ground” level track on at least a 2 inch riser so that I can have easy sub-level terrain as well.
Homasote is a roadbed material; foam is a scenery medium.
You could conceivably use both.
Mike - hopefully I will not have to change this answer any time soon!! [sigh]
But my Lowes did not have Homosote brand but something that was called “construction board” I think, 1/2" thick and very cuttable. It has not sagged yet [:-^] and I have screwed in a MicroMark switch machine and it seems to hold OK. But I have not worked the switch yet.
If that fails, I think I am screwed as this is a shelf supported by L-brackets and 1x2". [tup][tdn]
My foam experience is like Tom’s. I build a basic grid of 1x4’s, with crossbraces on 2’ centers. A 2" thick piece of pink form was glued to that with yellow glue. I think part was Elmers and part was Titebond because I ran out of one or the other and had a bottle of the other product on hand. My track was laid on Woodland Scenics foam roadbed. The roadbed was fastedned to the foam with latex caulk, and the track to the roadbed with the came caulk. It was not by any means noisy, there was no rumbling or anything.
Now, some areas of the country have issues with gettign the foam, also the pink foam from Owens-Cornign comes in various versions - There’s a 150, a 250, and a 350 at least. It could be we all aren;t using the same thing, depending on what’s sold at your local place of purchase. The information is on the O-C web site, but I think the number is the max pounds per square inch the foam can withstand without deforming or puncturing. Thus the higher numbers would likely be more dense. Density of the material certainly will have an effect on the sound. I’m pretty sure what I got from my local HD was the 250 version. Results may vary, but I’ve had great results using foam and I am using it again for my new layout. Plus it’s very dimensionally stable.
–Randy
I have found that you can Google Homosote and find a dealer in your area. Lowes or Home Depot should be able to special order Homosote brand. Peter Smith, Memphis
Every menards i’ve been in carries homasote. If there is a loews and home depot, there is a menards nearby 
Pretty much not so outside the Midwest. No Menards within 600 miles of here. At least. We do have both HD and Lowes however.
–Randy’
There is one thing to look out for when using Homasote that no one has mentioned yet. All the pieces I’ve ever purchased seem to be thinner on the long ends than the nominal 1/2 inch thickness. I think this is a result of the manufacturing process, but I’m not sure. It is not an obvious thing, but if you happen to butt up an end from one piece with a side from another, the thickness discrepancy becomes apparent.