Today I am starting on the sub-roadbed on my moduler layout, I am using 1/2" plywood on 1" X risers,to support code 83 track on cork roadbed. My question is how wide should my sub-roadbed be ? 2 1/2" or 3" ?
Thank You all in advance.
Ron
It can vary, much depends on the area you are modeling. Look at the terrain and you will see places where it is flat quite a ways from the tracks on both sides, other places the slope is steep one or both sides. In the west you see photos of trains going along the edge of a rock face, with the roadbed just a little wider than the tracks,train nearly scraping the rocks on one side and a huge drop on the other. I’d say if you started with 3" strips and varried from there you wouldn’t be too far off for most areas of the country.
Good luck,
Richard
Ron, I used 1/2" plywood for my subroadbed, using the open grid benchwork. I used 1x2"s for my risers. I cut the strips 2 1/2" side. This is just slightly wider than the cork roadbed. If I had to do it all over again, I would have followed Linn Westcott’s advice and attached 1/2" cleats to the tops of my risers and screwed them to the subroadbed from underneath. When you attach the subroadbed from the top, guess how big a pain it is to find screws should you need to change something. In latter stages of my layout, I tilted the risers slightly in the curves to superelevate them. It doesn’t take much. I mean you don’t want your curves looking like the Daytona 500.