Have you made spline and spacer sub roadbed? How dificult was it and how well did it work? There is an example of this method on page 51 in Model Railroaders book " How to Build MODEL RAILROAD BENCHWORK". Instead of a homeasote surface (difficuilt to find and assorbs moisture) I thought of using 1" foam. What do you think? I won’t be hand laying track on it.
What’s interesting about it is no waste of material ( I use the saw dust for compost in the garden) and lower cost than plywood cutouts. I recall seeing a video where a banjo picken fella showed how to build a spline and spacer sub-roadbed out of 3/4" x 3/4" (1 x 1 nominal) strips of wood ripped from 1" x 12" lumber. He used hot glue to glue the strips together because it sits up fast. Do you think hot glue is strong enough?
There have been several different materials used for splines; Masonite®, Homasote®, ¼" x ¾" ripped from 1 x X boards…I hadn’t heard of ¾ X ¾ before…
I haven’t used hot glue, and am more concerned about strength than speed (I have plenty of clamps), and use yellow carpenter’s glue usually Elmers or TiteBond.
Lath strips usually 3 (more for double track larger scales) turned on edge - the splines - with small short blocks of wood - the spacers - glued in between to maintain the distance between the splines and provide lateral stability. Advantage of the system is that you can curve it to match any radius and it is very economical of materials and is reasonably strong. Disadvantage is that you are doing a lot of glueing and need a lot of clamps if want to do a lot at one time. Frquently it is used in combination with other methods where it is used on curves and plywood/pine board is used on tangents.
Enjoy
Paul
You’re right, the strips are 1/4" x 3/4". Anything thicker than 1/4" would be hard, if not impossible, to bend. The spacer blocks are 3/4" x 3/4" x 3/4". I stand corrected!
quote]Originally posted by nfmisso
I haven’t used hot glue, and am more concerned about strength than speed (I have plenty of clamps), and use yellow carpenter’s glue usually Elmers or TiteBond.
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Yeh, I don’t think I should trust hot glue. A few hot days and things might come undone.
The strips are bent to form curves and lay flat just like plywood subroadbed. The risers adjust the grades. I don’t think it would be any more difficult to bend up or down then 3/4" plywood.
Did you ever see welded rail being laid? It bends vertically quite a bit over long distance. The spline or any other thick sub-roadbed should give a naturaly smooth vertical rise.
G.