I’m getting ready to start laying track on my HO layout. It’s going to have cork roadbed over half-inch plywood subroadbed. However, for yards and industry spurs I’m seriously considering laying the track directly on the plywood to save time and expense (not to mention the realistic lower level of these tracks). Is that a mistake? I know track on plywood will be noisier, but I figure that might not be such an issue with the low speeds used in yards and spurs. I’d hate to do all the work only to be miserable with the result though. Any thoughts?
Use the plywood, I did, only I used 3/4. If I were to do anything different, I’d use Homasote on top of the plywood. Plywood is good, but PAINT it first! I didn’t and that is a problem I wish I’d have avoided.
I tried foam and hated it, noisy and the 2" thickness made wiring a nightmare, much less trying to fasten wires to the bottom side. Thick Blue/Pink foam induces an echo effect I and some others find offensive. (I said some, never did I say all.)[8D]
I use plywood with white beaded polyboard on top. I lay track directly onto the polyboard. Haven’t heard a plywood rumble yet. If I want my yard tracks to be lower than the main line, I just cut a channel in the polyboard for the track to sit in (I use Bachmann NS EZ-track).
As Chip said, sheet cork is the way you’d probably want to go.
Go to any good craft store and for a couple of buck they’ll sell you a roll of thin (like 1/4") sheet cork.
Another way to go that I’ve seen is if you’re in HO, use N scale cork roadbed. There is a small height difference and you are still able to use it in the same manner.
Some yards are basically flat (see below), and sheet cork would model that well.
Other yards have a bit more drainage to them (see below), so the rails are set a bit higher then the ground, like the N scale cork would do.
(Admittedly this is a storage yard now, but it was used in regular service at one time.)
I use Woodland Scenics sheets of foam. If you have a large yard, you can find foam of similar quality at cheaper prices but for medium to small yards, it won’t break the bank. I use a chalk line to lay the tracks straight.
My advice is to experiment with a few of these methods on one long section and run a train along that straight section. You’ll be able to compare each one directly and pick the least objectionable one to you !
That is, rather than make one big mistake, make a group of little ones. That’s the nature of experimenting, and practicing your technique, – “etc., etc., etc.”
A chalk line?! Would you believe that in all the years I’ve been building layouts, I never once even thought of that. I’ll have to give it a try next time around.
As Joe-Daddy said, “Paint it first”. Any color will do but use one that matches your location of the railroad. Brown or tan is good and black will look like oil spills. Paint the underside white so you can see where all the track wires are when you trouble shoot with your trouble light. Have fun and Ain’t it great!!
Sorry I am laughing really hard here. Not because Jeff didn’t think of using them but how I used one once. I was aligning modules end to end to end. I wanted to make certain I got the links exactly right so that they would always go back together exactly straight. So I ran a chalk line from my study down our main hall which includes a portion of the dining room. Its chalk right, it will just vaccum up - right? WRONG - when I was done, put the modules away and got out the vaccum sweeper something in the red chalk had permanently stained the carpet. We lived with it for three months thinking it would eventually fade - not. We had to recarpet the hall, dining room, and study ($3200). So there is a big mistake I can tell you to stop from making.
Anyway, I just operated on a layout that has both main yards simply put on plywood. It runs well and doesn’t look bad. I didn’t notice a lot of noise. I still wouldn’t do it myself. As far as the noise and foam (extruded styrofoam that is) go, I haven’t noticed a lot of noise when I have the foam on a sub-roadbed. I notice the noise with foam when it IS the sub-road bed with nothing under it.
I used N scale roadbed under my sidings and yard - for the yard I used the sheets of WS foam roadbed instead of individual strips. I cut pieces from ceral boxes to shim up the N scale roadbed to meet the main so it wasn’t an abrupt transition. It’s enough of a difference that if you set a car on both tracks and look you can see it’s slightly lower. Maybe not exactly prototypical but it looks good.
Foam has the advantage that you can stick things in it. Trees, figures, etc. Yards are basically flat, but surround areas may change quickly. Foam can be shaped if need be.
The price is really dependent on where you live. In places where they don’t usemuch insulation, foam is very expensive. Around here, the only plywood cheaper than foam is the really crappy stuff that needs to be filled and sanded to make a smooth surface. Foam is VERY smooth since it’s machine-extruded. Plus it comes in handy 2’ wide sections - perfect for shelf and walkaround layouts.
My layout is also not noisy in the least. I simply have 2" thick foam glues down over a standard gridwork of 1x4’s. A chunk of foam supported on a pair of sawhorses - yes, that’s noisy.
Foam is pretty obviously not for someone who is handlaying track, unless you use PC board ties and solder the track instead of spike it. But that results in track that looks less realistic then commercial flextrack. But using commercial components - who needs nails? Caulk is where it’s at. [:D]
If you want to go all out you can do what Bill Darnaby did and make a hot-wire cutter to put in all the drainage ditches and so forth alongside the track. Not so easy to do with plywood.
My next layout may be even more exotic - since I will likely be in a place where I can’t cut wood I will probably use steel studs for the framework with foam on top. I don’t do L-girder because it is a waste of wood. Even without dragging out the power saw my open grid sections are nice and square, and I am certainly no master carpenter.
Tortoise mounts on foam are easy. Easier than I was doing it, too - so going forward I will use the new method I tested and found to work. Same old latex caulk again. I used it to stick a Tortoise right ont he bottom of the foam, no mounting plate of wood or other nonsense. And sure enough, it sticks - almost too good. I had to give it a pretty stiff jolt to finally break it loose, and it actually sheared off a layer of the foam, not the caulk - ie, glue was stronger than the materials being fastene
