I just returned from Home Depot who is listed as a distributor for Homasote. They are supposed to be able to special order it, but I couldn’t find anyone who knew anything about the product. It did not show in their in house special order search engine either.
The real question is, what is the newer alternative to Homasote? I hand lay my track and the density is perfect. It has to take and hold spikes well. Anyone hand lay their own track with a different material with good results?
Hi
At the Home depot here where I am they have it cut in strips about 3" wide by about 8’ would be good for lamenated type const. It was next to the drywall and concret ***. like tie bolts for concret finshinf tools Roy
I use Woodland Scenic’s foam roadbed. Works very well, cusions the track, and is a natural black color so no painting before ballisting!
…but does it hole spikes for handlaid track? It would seem that foam would be too soft to hold spikes.
Try http://www.homabed.com/ for homasote roadbed.
Eric… No, WS roadbed won’t hold spikes. By the way neither will the extruded foam which many guys are using for benchwork, contours, etc. I don’t know if you’ve tried it, but the Homasote website has a dealer locator… http://www.homasote.com/where.html
I’m glad I don’t use homasote. I just did a dealer search for my area and the nearest one is over 40 miles away!
On the handlaid track Yahoo group, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/handlaidtrack/, there has been discussion of roadbed for spiking into. Membership and a search might be worthwhile if you truly want an alternative to Homasote.
Homasote is available pre-cut in curvable strips called Homabed. Homabed gets rid of the dust from cutting, and provides consistent thickness, for a price.
Some have used soft wood or luaun plywood quite successfully. My personal experience is that both are not consistent enough, and that “hard spots” WILL be encountered that will curl your spikes unless you pre-drill.
Another user reported very good results with Vinylbed, which is made from recycled and ground up rubber, not foam like Woodland Scenics and competitors. I was going to give it a go myself - still may - but another user reported inconsistent composition setting up hard spots like wood.
There is another theory that probably is quite reasonable in S and larger (don’t know about HO and N, and I have NOT tried this yet) - let the spikes hold the rail to the ties, and the glue hold the ties to the roadbed. If you follow this thinking, then the extruded foam would be a good roadbed if you don’t compress it spiking. The issue changes from the spike-gripping of the roadbed to the spike-gripping of the ties. If the HO scale-size or near-scale spikes from Proto87 stores are used, the spikes may/may not be going into the roadbed anyway.
As electflr said, the only Homasote I’ve seen in Home Depot in the last 2 years (they used to carry 4x8 sheets years ago) are the 3.5 in x 10ft strips used for formers in pouring concrete. They are located over in the concrete section but are not in all stores.
As for getting service or an order from Home Depot, I thought that was forbidden in California by a law that also included Lowe’s. My understanding is that the “Zero Service” law was passed to provide dignified and guaranteed employment without expectations to al
Yah and my local dealer is just 3 miles away!
And everyone wonders why I use homasote!
Although it doesn’t hurt that the owner of the building supply is a modeler himself.
BOB H - Clarion, PA
Homasote.com is the home page for the product. They list Home Depot and Lowes as the only two outlets here in Las Vegas by special order only. I really do want the original 4X8 sheets if I can get them. I have a large room layout to do and things like Homa-Bed are too pricey. That is why I am looking at what alternatives may be out there as well.
I have hand laid track including scratch building turnouts, crossovers, etc. for many years and have not had luck with ties having enough material to hold spikes reliably without the roadbed. The person who taught me hand laying of turnouts used white pine, but that is very difficult to get quality kiln dried straight material and very expensive.
The search continues.
comserv
Have you tried the Home Depot at Lamb Blvd just south of Charleston? Last time I was there they had 4x8 sheets of something that looked very much like homasote.
My alternative to homasote for hand-spiking is to replace the ballast former with sheet balsa - not practical for hand-spiking all the rail on a very large railroad, but works for turnouts, yard throats and other specialwork. Balsa is cheaper at craft shops than it is at LHS.
Good luck!
Chuck (who hand-lays turnouts on wood ties, and uses concrete-tie flex elsewhere)
Look in the phonebook for a shop that specializes in plywood. 4x8 homasote isn’t a commonly used building material. HD orLowes for that matter would prolly have a tough time ordering it ,if it isn’t the stuff they use for expansion jints in concrete. In the Spokane area a company called Windsor Plywood carries it. I know that doesn’t help you much but it would be an example of the kind of store that would carry that stuff. Its tough to cut and messy too. The 3" wide stuff is definitly useable and you can curve it in the flat mode by cutting half way through about an inch apart and alternating side to side. I made about 200 ft of it for the club I used to belong to. The payoff is its really nice for spiking to if you are handlaying track.
California Roadbed, ad in Model Railroader, provides homasote in precut roadbed strips, 33" long… as well as pads for turnouts, and flat sheet for yards. Strips are offered in two angles for ballast on the sides, and two thicknesses for main yards and spurs. A little more expensive, but I found them to be wonderful over my plywood subroadbed for the rail I’m handlaying. Precut avoids the messy sawing and cutting from sheet homasote.
Hal
you also might want to call around to some of the local lumber yards. They may not be “authorized dealers” but thats usually where I find homasote. Just look for the lumber yards in the phone book and call around.
I found that cheap pine board like that found in 2x4 studs works ok for me. I have used 1x2’s of cheap pine that works.
Stephen