I recently read a article on, Quiet roadbed. This is from the new book by Model Railroader called Realistic Reliable Track. While I really enjoyed this article, by Bob Kingsnorth, there is one thing that bothers me. Bob explained how he use different materials to deaden the sound coming from our model trains as they travel across said layouts. I’ve learn that yes you can become distracted by the sound of the wheels of an axle that is in need of oiling, or yes an engine that give off a unwanted motor noise as well. I have had these problems in the past, like all of us who has build a layout or two… Bobs solution he found after some test that was performed is a two layer combination, two layer being, a combination of say cork and foam camper tape. As well as of Flexxbed or homabed in this same combo. When I was reading this article my mind went into over drive, yes I thought this is a great was to kill all that dang basted noise!!! And then came the dreaded drawbacks, darn. One, the campers tape as Bob said is a soft material and it will have a bit of give when you run a train over it. meaning that it be hard to keep your rail joints in line, so as Bob recommends soldering them is the way to go. Two, nails and spikes will have a hard time keeping their place as well with any amount of flexing of your roadbed. Therefore he recommends the use of a flexible latex adhesive caulk. All of of this is good, all until you decide to lay down “Ballast”. Now we all know what happens when our raodbed flex, right? Yes boys and girls all of our wonderful work will flex right along with that campers tape combo… Can you imagine coming in on your layout and finding that all those days, weeks, maybe even years of ballasting work all crumbled because you decided to clean you track, Ouch!!! Well, I’m just saying…
There’s always someone out there on a quest to build a better mousetrap in this hobby. Even though proven materials like cork roadbed or homasote work just fine for noise reduction, there’s always that one guy that thinks he has a better way of doing things. (They even went as far to put a meter on the layout to measure the decibel level.) I mean, how loud can it be even running on bare plywood for Pete’s sake! Now i can see a problem if we were modeling a 1:1 jet airplane runway but it’s only the sound of little locomotives and cars running on little rails. It’s not an ear shattering din in the least.
I’ll just stick with my cork roadbed. It’s a proven noise reducer and the ballast stays in place once it’s glued down. Maybe he should invest in some ear plugs if the sound of that little model train running down the rails is too much noise for him…chuck
In part I disagree with Chuck, as I’ve had a very loud layout. My first attempt ever was cork over pink insulation foam, the foam supported by a framework. The trains were so loud over it that it made the sound locomotives sound even worse; there was a noticeable difference in sound when the trans passed over a bridge (they got quieter!)
Chalk it up to what you will, some folks have better hearing than others, but whatever makes your hobby time more pleasant is to me worth the investment.
I agree though, that cork or homasote over ply or a spline roadbed seems to be one of the better solutions out there. I’d even go a step further, and recommend homasote over cork (but that’s because I handlay, and the homasote holds spike great).
As in life, sometimes/often the solutions, and/or their unintended consquences, are worse than the problems they intended to fix.
Mark
A few thoughts from a speaker enclosure designer (also an HO modeler for 40 years):
Light weight bench work becomes a drum head, amplifying the noise of the train. Light, soft materials that can give at my touch or under the weight of a 3lb loco are not acceptable in my book.
This is why I have never liked the foam thing myself. My formula:
Tight, rigid, well constructed benchwork, that you can park a car on, with homasote or homabed, over 1/2" or 3/4" well supported plywood, or spline subroadbed, track glued to homabed with adheasive caulk.
Keep this in mind as well - any model railroad will be noisier until the scenery is built. Scenery, no matter how constructed, will strenghten the benchwork, absorb virbration and reduce noise.
The best speakers have heavy enclosures, the quietest benchwork/roadbed is no different.
Sheldon
“…Tight, rigid, well constructed benchwork, that you can park a car on, with homasote or homabed, over 1/2” or 3/4" well supported plywood, or spline subroadbed, track glued to homabed with adheasive caulk." Seems a bit overly engineered. The part about doing double duty as a car parking spot, I think.
Also, the “soft materials” reference and its giving under the weight of a three pound locomotive. I have plenty of those and have never observed any deflection or sagging on 1-inch extruded dense foam with plywood underlayment. Were you meaning polystyrene?
No. I understand many people like and have had good experiances with extruded foam, that’s fine. I don’t care for it. I was just relating what works for me and why.
As for benchwork strength, even though I now build in “walk around” style for the most part, I still want benchwork that can support me if it has to for access.
Sheldon
It is well-established in engineering that when two materials of different densities, or two of the same type of material, but different densities, are placed against each other in layers, that they will absorb or dampen vibrations much more effectively than they would separately.
In my other hobby, astronomy, a problem in portable telescopes is that it can sometimes take many long seconds for vibrations resulting from brushing against the scope, or focusing it more finely, to dampen out and for the image in the eyepiece to settle down. What we learned many years ago was to place hockey-puck sized disks between the ground and the bottoms of the legs of the tripods. However, the disks are really bowl-like shells of one material filled with a less dense and softer material. It works!
So, if you have spline or plywood sub-roadbed and a layer of homasote or cork between that and the upper plastic ties or fake ballast, you should find it quite a bit more quiet than without the intervening soft layer. Adding yet another, maybe softer, layer could be counterproductive, as our new originator has found.
-Crandell
I come from New Zealand and am building my first layout. I didn’t think to use roadbed and I wish I did. I have seen many layouts with cork roadbed.
On another note, doees anyone of their know of a great way to clean dirty track???
Sure, you can buy or make a cleaner car. There are also Centerline Products track cleaners. Atlas has a gizmo that cleans and vacuums the tracks.
I use 600 grit sandpaper, and many use the Bright Boy large white rubbery pencil eraser thingy. Others swear that isopropyil alcohol and elbow grease does the trick.
Paint thinner works okay, as does lacquer thinner, but I don’t use them due to the fumes.
Still others swear by polishes that you use to clean automobile alloy metal wheels. After that polishing action, you can also use a steel washer/spacer and rub the rail tops along their lengths doing a “gleaming” action to make them very smooth and shiny. Those who have used the combination of metal wheel cleaner and the steel washer process swear their track cleaning became a once-a-year process, if even that frequent.
To find the many threads dealing with track cleaning, type that into “Community Search” in the right column on this page. You should find tons of 'em.
-Crandell
Hi from belgium,
I never try to get sound down on my layout, but I beleive it’s not very noisy.
Even I model in Nscale more of my track is laid directly on plywood of 18mm, in the new parts I now use the 18mm thick plywood but with a cork roadbed.
I didn’t notice any change in the noise probably because of the thickness of the plywood which absorb the noise.
Second I never glue any piece of track on the roadbed but spike it whit pins; in fact cloths pins where the head is cutoff. It’s make a invisible fix of the track.
Using flextrack I solder only two track togheter and left the next join unsoldered for expansion or contraction. I put feeder on each rail.
After all is cheked and cheked again, I painted the track and ballast it. Using white glue for ballast secure the all track to the plywood or cork.
I spike the turnouts just on the last ties and always in the exterior of the rail not inside to avoid to deform the track; I do the same with the flextrack.
If you need to make a change, just mist the area with warm water; it’s will dilue the glue and because of the fastennig I use, just lift quietly the track and it comes loose.
Marc
Before starting the tracklaying, I built two 4’ test tracks to compare noise levels. The test track structure was:
- WS ballast secured with Modge Podge over…
- Atlas code 83 flextrack on…
- Caulk on…
- cork roadbed
- caulk
- 3/32” cork underlayment
- caulk