I’m looking for a good reference on laying a track right-of-way. I’m not too happy with how mine is turning out… I seem to be over-ballasting and I’d like some tips on making ditches and other right-beside-the-track scenery. I model modern n-scale and I feel n-scale cork is just too wide. has anyone tried using half of a strip of HO cork for N? HO cork is a little taller and may provide the height for high-ballast of modern railroads. Just curious…
JKROFT
I am running HO scale and didn’t like the cork for this application. Transitioning cork roadbed to an area that does not have a roadbed, I think looks terrible because there is such a deep drop because of the difference in height.
I am doing a shelf style switching layout so most of my track is being laid on foam. The portion that I did cork was done using cork sheets from Lowe’s. It comes in a 4’ x 18" wide sheet. It is about $9.00/roll. The thickness is about .040 to .050. You may want to use multiple layer of this cork to get the desired height.
I cut it to the width I needed (about 1/4 inch extending beyond the ends of the railroad ties. It is designed as liner material for cupboard drawers. It has a self adhesive material on the back side and all you have to do is peel it off and stick. However, what I did was peel off the protective paper and put a thin coating of foam adhesive then set it in place. To cut curves I slide the cork sheet under the track and roughly traced the curve onto the cork with a thin point magic marker and cut out the curve. It gives the mainline just a slightly higher elevation and allows for better transistioning between non-elevated track.
Larry
Check with California Roadbed ( http://www.calroadbed.com/ ). This is the company that is currently making the Homabed product. They make N scale “mainline” roadbed that is .218" high and “branchline” roadbed that is .125" high. Since they are make-to-order, they could probably give you a .240" high roadbed in N scale widths too.
They say that their N scale roadbed is a scale 10 foot wide at the top. This sounds correct since ties are generally 8 1/2 feet long so this would be a scale 9 inches on either side of the tie.
They also offer both the conventional 45 degree and a 60 degree bevel for their roadbeds. The 60 degree bevel is a gentler slope and look more accurate to me.
Good Luck,
-John
Here is a photo of the roadbed on my layout
interesting… much thanks for the info guys
This one’s pretty good.
It’s almost a specialty book.
The first half of the book covers trackwork. The second half is devoted to 17 topics covering neat details that are found on real railroads and will improve any model.
Karl