I started laying my roadbed for my train yard the other night and I looked at several photos of other yards. There seems very little variation in roadbed height in the space between the different tracks.
Do people use a lower roadbed for yard work? I don’t remember reading anything about this, but I may have missed that detail.
~Thanks as always
~Don
I went to 2 train yards before i built mine. One yard had alot of space between tracks and the roadbed was distinctive, the other was the opposite, close tracks and roadbed blended in so i used the latter to save room.
Most yards tend to be pretty uniform in height, which is why you can buy flat sheets of roadbed material to use in them. You can introduce slight variations in rail height by using shims under the ties if you want something other than a completely flat surface.
In the flooring section of Home Depot they sell cork off a big roll you can buy as much or as little as you like. I used it for a yard on my last layout. My current layout all yard track is laid directly on the Homasote.
Since I’m using the Woodland Scenic foam roadbed, I am sticking with their products. But what I am doing for sidings is using the N scale roadbed. I use the HO under the main tracks (layout is HO). For my yard area, instead of running a strip under each yard track, WS sells 2 sizes of wide sheets of their foam roadbed, this is what I will put down under the yard area, also using the N scale version so that the yard tracks sit lower than the adjacent mainline. It may not be exactly prototypical, but the heigh difference is noticeable but not ridiculously large, and it’s easy to sand and compress the material to smooth the transistions - you do NOT want the siding to suddenly drop down.
–Randy
I, too, use different heights, to closely match prototype (although somewhere there is a prototype for anything we can dream up) I use HO cork for mainlines and passing tracks, N roadbed for other sidings and the A/D track. Yard and industrial tracks I put right on the surface whether plywood or 2" rigid foam board. I use a minimum of 12" to slope from one level to another, slightly rounded at top and bottom by shimming. 'hope this helps clarify it.
RR’s kept the track and road bed pretty flat in yards so that the guys hooking up the different cars to form trains could move around the yard in as safe of manner as possible. They would often use cinders in the yards for ballast.
I wonder how they deal with drainage.
Anyone know? [8D]
Good tips johncolley, rrinker thanks.
Randy,
How’s the woodland scenics roadbed working out for you? Does it ballast well? And what are you using to ballast it?
John,
The only transition space between the mains and the A/D track is the turnouts. That isn’t exactly 12" you recommend to do a transition. Or do you put the A/D half way in height between the main and yard tracks?
It’s been working great, easy to cut and fit around turnouts and so forth. I haven’t ballasted any of the real layout yet, but I did try it out on my test module, usuing Woodland Scenics medium ballast and a mixture of 70% rubbing alcohol and white glue, and it came out great.
–Randy
The yard I look at in downtown St. Louis every day always has big pools of standing water all over the place for several days after each rain. [V]
Make sure that your yard is not only flat but level. You don’t want your rolling stock actually rolling. Also, your turnouts don’t work very well if they are on any kind of uneven surface.
Best roadbed is still cork. While the foam stuff is easy to work with it will compress and even disintigrate on layouts over time. Typically the glue (I use Matte Medium) and ballast take over to hold the rails in place. Good luck.
Yes, the A/D track is next to the main and the taper comes after the crossover to be the A/D track in the yard direction and the drill lead in the other. The ladder and runaround tracks come off the lead. which is tapered to table top level.
As long as the yard is not on a grade, many rairoads will have a dip in the center of the yard ‘bowl’ - this keeps cars from drifting out on the lead or main track. My yard(all 4 tracks of it) is a little lower than the mainline. I used 1/4" Homabed for the mainline, and the standard 3/16" cork roadbed for the yards and the sidings. I lay the Homabed about 12"-16" into the siding or yard, then but up the lower cork to it. I use a ‘sureform’ tool to sand down the Homabed so I have a nice transition to the lower track. This really looks nice for passing sidings. I also sand off the ‘ridge’ on the bevel of the cork, rounding it.
Jim Bernier
[quote]
Originally posted by mrkimparker
Best roadbed is still cork. While the foam stuff is easy to work with it will compress and even disintigrate on layouts over time.
[quote]
I hope my WS roadbed wont disintigrate I’m using it everywhere?
Ken.
I don’t see this stuff drying out and cracking, at least in my lifetime.
CORK is prone to drying out and getting crumbly. But I think this is more of a problem with newer cork - I have some stuff that’s over 30 years old that was stored in an unheated/uncooled attic and it still bends nicely. I have some stuff that is < 10 years old that was always kept in the same environment as people in the house, and it won’t bend - it snaps off. Go figure.
–Randy