For the top of new benchwork, I’m planning on using half inch plywood and then half inch Homosote on top of that. Then, my cork roadbed would be installed on the Homosote. Is there a problem with this approach that I need to be aware of?
Mike
Nope.
Done that several times.
Some people swear by 3/4 ply but as long as you have supports every 16-24" you should be OK. the more plys you can get in the plywood the better.
Dave H.
Hi venckman
No problem that I can see. as this is the thickness of chipboard and canite that I use.
I do support it every 12 inches and make sure the legs are well braced and end up with a very rigid and solid base to build on this is a good thing
No matter what with or how you build your bench work, the end result needs to be a rigid and solid foundation to build your railway.
This is were your good track work that doesn’t do funny things later partly comes from the rest is care and patience.
If there is a large tracked area like a yard, Grand Central Station or Loco depot it can get a bit heavy, but then I take it you are building a permanent layout.
Even if you have no plans to extend the layout make sure you can they tend to grow after a while.
Also make it in easily separated sections so if you move house it can be easily moved without too much carnage and reassembled without a lot of difficulty, the track at the joints can be fixed up with the scenery after the move better than going back to ZERO operations because of a move meant the layout became history.
That’s my 50c on it
regards John
If you have homasote you don’t need cork roadbed. Homasote is primarily used if you want to handlay track as it hold spikes well without the difficulty of driving them,say like into plywood. Conversly if you use cork roadbed you don’t need the plywood. You may want to go 5/8 ply as a tradeoff betwwen 1/2 and 3/4.
Hi reklein
I would argue that regardless of the foundation method is, cork or other road bed is necessary to get a good ballast profile.
Nothing I can think of defines the track type better than its ballast profile and ballast type
Nice deep well shaped ballast main line not easy to do without the cork
Yards can be done with a sheet cork where the ballast is less pronounced but the need is to keep the rail hight the same.
Branch lines can be done with cork to get a neat ballast profile but can have some smaller and more variable quality ballast and perhaps a few weeds
If it is a seasonal branch line ( grain in season sort of thing ) add more weeds to the mix and set the speed limits real low perhaps using double width “N” cork for the lower profile needed
regards John