Okay…after I’ve got a table down, what is the best recommendation for laying the track? I’ve heard cork, foam, additional plywood etc. There will be some elevations I tend to make/rise out of some type of foam. Any suggestions would be great.
Also, if you have the choice of running flex for a straight away or a simple 9" straight piece, what is best? I’m guessing the flex for fewer breaks in the track, but a straight piece would be more solid. ??
Thanks!
Flex all the way Allen. Fewer joints and you can make whatever curvature you need. It is solid enough. Glue roadbed and track with cheap caulk spread thinly with a putty knife or old credit card.
As for track, you should lay it on either WS foam roadbed or cork roadbed or camper top gasket roadbed or homemade road bed … (get the idea). Now the roadbed gets laid on wood or foam - whichever you prefer. Personally I used foam in most places on the layout (but not all). Also used foam over cookie cutter plywood. Extruded foam lets you cut, carve, saw and melt land shapes below the surface as well as making rises. It is very versatile.
Do some searches of the forum for “roadbed”, “foam”, etc and you will find some great information and a lot of opinions too.
BTW: 
to the forums.
Karl
I myself would put a layer of Homasote over the top of the plywood I assume you used for the “table” we like to call it bench work. Then you can put down on top pf that either Homabed or cork roadbed. Homabed is roadbed made from Homasote. I use nothing but flex track for the entire layout with the exception of a few little pieces in hidden staging and crossings. I strongly suggest you pick up the new Realistic Reliable track publication just out by Model Railroader. and even some of their other books on basic model railroading and track work. Trust me when I tell you the money and time you spend on research before you lay your first section of track will be the best money and time you ever spend. It will save you a pile of money from making mistakes.
I am unclear of your meaning when you use the term “table”, and then ask about plywood. What surface, if any, have you to work with/on at present?
I will assume you have a plywood surface. I would strongly advise you to “play” at laying flextrack in different configurations for the next few days or a week. Find out how it goes. Wire it up with some temporary feeders and run a train back and forth when you find a track configuration that you like. Teach yourself that tangent track is the exception on a real railroad, except for maybe on the prairies or along straight lengths in the hills and along river banks. Mostly, though, the tangents merely connect all the radius track.
Anyway, for your changes in elevation, the first thing to not forget is that you will need a vertical curve into the grade getting you to the height you envision. An abrupt change of grade doesn’t work, so you will need space to transition from level track into the grade…and also to transition out at the other end. So twice the space for vertical transitions for smooth running. What’s left is your grade length.
People use all sorts of methods to build smooth grades. You can purchase graduated lengths of foam piers to form your grade, or build them out of bits of scrap wood. Many of us force them by bending 1/2" plywood that has been well anchored at the bottom. That bending also provides you with the transition I just mentioned, and does it automatically. You would reverse the process and anchoring at the top of the grade for the same reasons.
You can also rough in a form, mostly filled with, say, drywall scraps, and fill the rest of the volume with plaster of paris or drywall mud. You could even use gravel or garden soil and just impregnate it liberally with a watered down glue mix to harden it. The fill methods add weight to th
hi Allen,
I am not sure what you mean by table. Lot of newbie’s are building their table first and think about getting the grades in later.
The old way is building a frame with L-girders and use cookie cutter and risers for the subroadbed.
The new way is building a flat top table first and built your grades with layers of foam, or buy commercial grades by Woodland Scenics.
The nice thing about a cookie-cutter based layout is, you don’t have to worry about vertical easements.
Since you glue your track to the subroadbed you do not have to worry at all. Building with flextrack is easy, but both on woodworking and on laying tracks you’ll find some really good books on the market. have a look at the product section of our host.
have fun, keep smiling
paul
I’d look at using one of the “click track” lines out there. Atlas Truetrack is good but only has curves up to 24"R and No.4 turnouts, but on a small layout that would work fine. It’s also code 83 so it will look good too. Kato Unitrack is probably the best as far as quality, it uses a narrow-profile code 83 that is very realistic. Both of these use the roadbed to represent ballast.
Bachmann EZ-Track uses code 100 but they have the biggest variety of curves and turnouts, including DCC-equipped ones. On their track, once in it’s final place you do need to add ballast to it. That’s a little more work, but may end up looking more realistic because of it.
The advantage of using one of these types of track is you can lay the track out flat on plywood (or whatever you have) and run trains. You can try different track configurations and see what you like. Once it’s the way you want it, you can add Woodland Scenics Subterrain foam risers and inclines (grades). Generally you’ll want to use at least 2" risers under the track. That allows you to have scenery below track level, like a river under a bridge, without needing to cut up your plywood…you don’t lower the plywood base, you raise the track.
BTW it isn’t just for “newbies”, I’m using Kato HO Unitrack on my new layout, and I’ve been in the hobby since 1971.
Thanks guys for the info. On the flex subject, do most use it on turns as well? I’ve got three 180 degree turns on the table that I could use all curve pieces to make a “perfect” half circle. ???
hi Allen
Flextrack can be formed into perfect curves. Buy a good book; look at the product section of pur host.
Paul
Allen, the reason it is highly recommended that a modeller get used to using flextrack is because it adds so much freedom of arrangement for the person using it. It takes some getting used to in manipulating and shaping it, but so does anything else in the hobby. Track ballasting, for example, only looks good if done well, and same for weathering of structures. Model kits can be thrown together, but they will look as if they were thrown together almost always. Once you have learned how simple flextrack is to use, there will be no turning back.
As for a perfect curve, in models as well as the real prototype, the perfect curve is almost always eased at each end so that rolling stock, engines, and their human contents don’t get thrown to one side when they train enters a curve sharply. So, the train actually gets accelerated gently into the radius by an ever-decreasing radius easement that ends with the tightest portion at the apex of the curve, and then the train is eased back to tangent track once more. Your precurved sections don’t permit the easing effect, whereas flextrack does that automatically, as you will see when you being to play with it.
-Crandell
There are two ways of sticking track down. Nails or latex caulking compound (glue basically). Nails make it easy to change the track work or fix a kink, they just pull out, whereas glue is messier to undo. Glue will hold track down on things like foam that don’t take fasteners, or plywood which is so hard the little bitty track nails bend over when you try to drive them in.
Roadbed’s main reason for existance is to simulate the ballast bed of the prototype. The full scale roads put down a layer of crushed stone raised up from the ground to let the rain run out rather than puddling up and rotting the ties. In HO we use cork or soft pine or Homabed or camper tape to simulate the look of the prototype raised ballast bed.
If you want to secure your track with nails, you want something that will take the nails. Homasote is the traditional material, it’s a soft gray sheet good make from old newpaper. Comes in 4*8 sheets and many folk use it for the table top and just nail the track down on it, no roadbed. Works. also deadens the sound of the running trains.
Second solution for nails is put cork roadbed under the track and nail into and thru into the under lying plywood or homasote. This gets you thelook of a well ballasted track and the nails do go in, although the cork doesn’t hold nails all that well.
Third solution for nails is soft pine roadbed. I cut my own pine roadbed from 3/4 inch boards with a band saw. Cheap and the nails hold perfectly.
Then you can skip the nails and glue the track down with latex caulking compound. Then you don’t really care much about the roadbed or the table top, the caulking compound will stick to anything.
Flex track reduces the number of rail joints. Each rail joint is an opportunity for a derailment or an open circuit. Laying flex track calls for a straight edge to get the
Has anyone ever used a thick cardboard for the road bed? Seems like this would hold a nail to some degree but more so it’s cheap, available and easy to cut. ??
I would not recommend cardboard; it does weird things when it gets wet, for one, and it is not sufficiently dense to provide either a solid enough roadbed, nor will it hold nails well if you find the need to use them at times.
-Crandell
Well your sort of on the right track (no pun intended) there’s a product called Homasote typically sold in home centers around here Home Depot carries it. It’s compressed paper and glue. It’s sued as sound proofing and in some cases wall board in the construction industry. You would glue Homasote down with yellow carpenters glue to your “Table” or bench work usually on top of plywood.Do to the density of the product it takes track nails or spike excellently, you can push them in with a pair of plierswithout hammering or drilling etc. The big draw back in using Homasote is it makes one heck of a mess when you cut it on a table saw, so it has to be done outside.
Taking this a step farther there is a product call Homabed where Homasote has been milled and cut into roadbed strips for you with little knife cuts placed through out called kerfs. These give it the ability to bend without breaking. Even though it’s a fine product and I have a case of it siting on the floor of the train room right now I am not sure if I would recommend it for the beginner, but you can buy a sample and see if you like it.
If your looking to save money and no dust etc. I would say cork roadbed is the way to go.