I’ve read many opinions concerning what types of spline roadbed material to use. I will have several 24" radius curves on my new HO railroad with the average being approx. 30" radius. Flex track and cork are what I am considering and I have the tools to cut just about anything. What are your opinions?
Michael
Splined roadbed is difficult to construct accurately unless you have a thickness planer to flatten the curved material after gluing up. I tried it once and said never again.
I instead, cut my roadbed from plywood. There is some waste here but the resulting roadbed is flat. You are probably using L girder or open benchwork to support the roadbed. Have you considered “cookie cutter”?
BB
Howard Zane cut all of his sub-roadbed from 1"X12" X 12’ pine. He said he got 72 strips (3/16" or 1/4" X 3/4") from one board. That is cost effective. Howard used the spline and spacer method. You can see him demonstrate how to make spline and spacer sub-roadbed in the Allen Keller video #12
There are several different ways to do spline roadbed.
You can laminate 1/4 in masonite strips using hot glue guns. Makes a very hard surface you can’t spike into.
You can laminate Homasote strips using drywall screws (no glue required). It gives a very flat surface, no planing required and you can spike into it. For 24" radius curves you have to screw the first piece of spline to a board cut to the radius.
You can laminate wood lathe in 1/4 in layers using glue.
You can use wood lathe separated by wood bloc spacers, then put homasote on top of it.
I have also see 3/8 in plywood cut into 2 in wide strips and then for curves cut slots 2/3 the way through the plywood on one side. Bend the curves with the slots on the inside of the curve. Then laminate/glue another layer of plywood on top of the first. You get a 3/4 in plywood surface with no waste.
Dave H.
I used masonite spline (alias Easyspline) on my last home layout, as described by Joe Fugate in Model Railroader back in 2000. I joined the strips with yellow carpenter’s glue and screws. I smoothed the tops with a Stanley “Surform” plane, then attached the track directly to the masonite with double-sided carpet tape.
The masonite made strong, stable, sound-deadening roadbed, and automatically included bent-stick easements in curves. I plan to use this method on my next home layout, with a couple of refinements such as using cork between the track and the masonite, and attaching the track and cork to one another and to the roadbed with contact cement instead of teh carpet tape.
I like 1/4" Masonite spline topped with 1/4" or 1/8" Homabed. Finishing the spline before adding the Homabed is a pretty simple process with a $15 belt sander I picked up for the purpose at WalMart. Check side-to-side with a torpedo level.
Compared to wood, Masonite curves more predictably due to its uniform composition. It also can turn pretty tight and will allow you to get the 24" curves. Some woods, like clear redwood, can be bent down to 24" or so, especially if you soak them in water before use. Also, when comparing to plywood, spline does a nice job of giving smooth vertical curves at the tops and bottoms of grades.
By all means get Joe Fugate’s Siskiyou Lines volume 2 DVD. He demonstrates an easy way to do spline roadbed…Not as hard as it sounds! He has 1/4" masonite ripped to 7/8" strips and shows how to do the interlocking joint with plywood, how to offset and add strips to the center one, how to finish off the top with a surform plane, grades, etc. Really a neat presentation!
Last fall at the Lakeshores Division, Niagra Fronteir Region, NMRA Fall Meet there was a fasinating presentation on using plastic molding strips (flat ones) available at most any home improvement store to make Spline Latice sub bed. It looked very easy to do, was very solid and did not have the holes that always are under where you want to spike track as it becomes a solid piece. He used a jig to bend and hold the strips in place while they were glued. Of course, I can’t find the directions that he gave out (saw them less than week ago - gremlins in my stuff again. LOL). I will try to find the article and repost.
I just finished my layout. Its 13’X25’ with a 2&1/2 turn8’ helix at one end. Its all made from 1x4 poplar ripped into 3/16"x3/4" Its a double main including the helix and it was easy using 3/4" spacers.Each spline was 12’ and I used a Piece of 4"PVC to soak the splines when needed. I attached 1/2" blue foam board to the splines with A.C mastic. I now have to attach Tortoise machines for tiurnouts and will use 3x3" x1/4 plywood pices attached to the bottom of the splines ,again with mastic adhesive.Since I am using code 75 Peco track ,the elevations and helix are flat. All radii are 24 and 26 ". All HO. It great
Joe mcDonnell]
I built all of my subroadbed with 1/2 plywood. Make sure that when you rip the plywood into strips to go with the grain or the resulting strips will sag requiring a lot of support risers. I bought a set of styrene templates from a company called EZ Model Railroading in Addison, IL. I tried to find them, but they are no longer listed. You can buy other templates from other companies I am sure. I rip the straight sections into 2 1/4 - 2 1/2 inch wide strips. The curves and turnouts were made from strips 4" wide. Using a table saw ensures that the ends are square. I use 8" x 6" sections of 1/2 inch plywood as splice plates. There was a thread a couple of months ago that said that ALL plywood has a bow to it. If you align your strips so that the bow is up (this will make the ends dip down at each end), it will make it easier to get the strips level at the ends. If you’re going to have tracks that cross over another track, make sure you use the bottom of your splice plates as the baseline for your clearance. Happy Railroading!!
Marlon
Hopefully this isn’t a duplicate – I just “lost” the forum in cyberspace.
The Nashua Valley Railroad Association’s New England Rail (September 2002 MR feature layout) has used spline roadbed on mainline tracks laid in 1978 and everything has worked fine ever since. The roadbed consists of 7 layers of 1/4" lattice board laid on edge with drywall screws (probably 2" or so long) inserted from the sides to hold everything together. Once the roadbed is assembled, a router is used to chamfer the outer spline on each side to a 45-degree “ballast shoulder” and a belt sander is used to smooth the top. Nearly all of our track is handlaid and this roadbed takes and holds spikes very well. It’s also VERY stable in all climate conditions (we do NOT have air conditioning or dehumidifying capability).
Our yards are plywood with a single strip of lattice board laid on its side to serve as a roadbed. This strip is glued to the plywood (with the help of some wire brads when needed) and both takes and holds spikes very well.
The primary issues we’ve run into are the cost (7 layers of lattice board can add up), the ends of the drywall screws (in most cases we’ve had to go in with a Dremel tool with a grinding bit to grind the sharp points off the screws), and when we did the big layout construction in 1978 we single-handedly disrupted the lattice board supply for all of eastern Massachusetts (not many people order 10,000 feet or more of lattice board at once).
Couple of interesting ideas
Have to remember this posting.
There’s a more recent thread about splines. You would never guess by the titile “Help on Illuminating Double Deck Layout” that it took a turn towards roadbed. On page 3
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/t/264923.aspx?page=3
As most of the posts in this old thread are by Anonymous, you may get more help out of the newer thread