I am looking for some advice on track roadbed. I have a 4x8 L shaped shelve layout that I think I should put some roadbed down for. I understand that to make it look right I should put a strip under all of the track, but I am curious if it makes more sense to just buy sheets and cover the whole shelve area. Any advice one way or another? thank you.
Get a roll of Woodland Scenics Foam Track Bed.
It is tapered on the sides and looks pretty good.
The roll is less expensive than the sheet, and the sheet is not tapered.
Rich
Railroad tracks are elevated to allow proper water drainage. That is why they are elevated. When building a model railroad, we try and simulate this elevation or raising the track off the table / layout surface. That is why we use a pre-made roadbed under the track. It makes it easy to do. And, it is only the tracks that are elevated, not the surrounding area. There is no other reason to do it other than to make it look real.
The only time you will find tracks right on the ground is in a yard or industrial area.
The exception would be yard areas and sidings which often are at ground level. In that case you have to transition the track down to that level.
I prefer to use cork roadbed over Woodland Scenics foam track bed. I can sand down the cork easily with my orbital sander when making transitions to ground level trackage.
Craig
I suggest using cork roadbed instead of the foam type. I find that the cork is easier to work with and doesn’t melt away and poison you when your soldering iron accidentally touches it.
Am old geezer. In HO 50+ yrs. on/off Presently model some parts of an actual 1:1 east-central NH shortline on my small, a-t-r, freelance HO switching layout-in-progress. Old line in question [Suncook Valley; now long-gone] had NO defined ballast, almost anywhere along it’s 26 mile r-o-w. Cinder ballast was very intermixed w/surrounding landscape material; ties tops sat level with same. Since I still use Homasote-on-plywood, yours truly can just spike my Peco code 100 flex directly to it and ’ ballast ’ accordingly w/cinder color material. Since it IS prototypical, if anyone were to model any laid-back switching shortline this way, they’d save some $ for other layout stuff [Hydrocal, decoders, couplers, etc.]. Am just presenting an option I use and like, to new modelers, who may have a small layout budgets. And, anywhere on a layout, where floodwaters could cause future troubles, r-o-w can be modeled the conventional way, w/plenty of drainage. TTFN…papasmurf
Prototype trackage is elevated above local ground level and ballasted for drainage - even in places where rain is a very rare event. That is what we modelers are simulating with various kinds of ballast formers.
While it isn’t immediately obvious, yards are also ballasted and fitted with drainage systems to keep the ground from getting watersoaked and soft. Of course, when a cash-strapped line starts deferring maintenance, the drainage arrangements under yard trackage are usually among the first things to fall off the bottom of the budget. That’s why some videos showing Conrail trains pulling out of yards look like WWII North Atlantic convoys setting out in the teeth of a Noreaster.
On the model front, I carve my roadbed out of fan-fold underlayment (thin foam). I don’t care for the WS product, and cork is a non-starter here in the Dessicated Desert.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I agree with richhotrain, get yourself a roll or two of Woodland Scenic foam roadbed. It goes down easy and I did not have to cut any of it when I did my curves. I used a glue gun ( Low temperature is a must if you are using this product) and it was a snap. I prefer it over cork, but that’s just my personal opinion.