What material is everyone using going from a cork roadbed on the main line, to no roadbed on sidings, yards etc?
you can just use some cardboard like I do. just stair step it down and when its covered with ballast nobody will know.
HO scale?
Woodland Scenics inclines or wood shims from Home Depot or similar home improvement store. The wood shims have to be cut to length and several of them in any package are unusable because they are cut crooked, but they’re cheap, plentiful, and come 10 or more per package.
In some area I just let ballast fill in under the track and then apply glue.
Those wood shims are not very long though, so the dropoff may be abrupt.
Rich
Shim Shingles.
There you go!
Now i’m fairlly new at model railroading but why wouldnt you just use cork for all the track? Because it’s expensive?
On the prototype, sidings and spurs are usually graded lower than the main line. On the model, this height difference further enhances the idea of a “lesser status track” and just looks a bit more realistic. Also note that sidings and spurs may well be lighter weight rail. Say you use code 83 for an HO scale main line, while sidings and spurs might be code 70, or code 55. This also heightens the impression of what the main line is. Given the cost of track work, the cost of cork roadbed is not the issue here.
When going down from cork to foam I cut out the foam and lower the cork into it. If you are on plywood, and if you’re handy with a mallet and chisel (a lost art) you could do it the way I’ve done, but into the plywood. Caulk is a good leveler and fills any errant gouges.
!http://i493.photobucket.com/albums/rr298/BATTRAIN/DSC04823.jpg
Brent[C):-)]
Allen, my yard is on 1/8" cork, so the transition is about 1/8", I used wood shims and have no problems. DJ.
!(http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm237/GrampysTrains/Yard Scenes/P1040207.jpg)
I use HO cork for mainlines and N cork (3 strips wide) for sidings and spurs. I make the transition with a belt sander, and do not employ shims. Quick, easy and the vertical curves end up nice and smooth.
I use a length of cork, glued to the plywood roadbed. When the glue has dried, it takes only a couple minutes work, using coarse sandpaper, to taper it down to the plywood.
Here, the track under the loco is directly atop the plywood, while just out of sight around the corner, it’s on full-thickness cork:
Full-thickness cork under the mainline in the foreground, and cork tapered down to the plywood just before the turnout in the distance at right:
Wayne
Wayne,
What portion of your layout tracks are laid directly on the plywood surface?
Yards? Sidings?
Rich
This may seem like a radical method but I can assure you that it works. This is not original with me as I read it on the forum several years ago.
I lay the flex track from the main to the layout top. After, yes running trains on the tranisition I secure the track at both ends.of the transition. Later when the track is ballasted I stuff ballast under the track and that is all that needs to be done. The flex track may bend from side to side but it doesn’t want to bend up and down and will support a lot of weight.
In the picture below I had trouble with derailing and in this case I had to elevate the outside rail. This is the first time for that.
Give it a try and you will like it
Bob
hey, this must not be rocket science since almost everyone has a different method and they all work!!
i prefer to taper the thickness of the cork down with a shure-form plane. it looks like a little grater and is made by stanley tools. they are at all hardware stores and are rather cheap. one thing i noticed in using this method over the years is that the higher grades of cork roadbed, such as midwest, are tougher and need more effort to grind them down. the cheaper stuff is softer and cuts a lot easier.
grizlump
Rich, while I answered this question in our “conversation”, this for the benefit of others.
Most of the mainline and passing sidings is on cork, although all of the track shown below, including the mainline, is directly atop the plywood.
In this photo, the unballasted main lines to the left are on cork, while the siding at distant left and all track on the lower level is directly atop the plywood.
All staging tracks are also directly on the plywood. While these are visible and in the same room as the layout, they are not switched during operations, so the rail is not painted nor is the track ballasted. Cars are cycled on or off the layout between operating sessions. There’ll be another staging yard constructed above this one, to serve the north end of the line (accessed from across the aisle).
All industrial spurs are directly on the plywood, save, of course, for the short transition down from the level of the cork. In the photo below, the main line, on cork, splits in two, then, another track splits off in the foreground. This one leads to the turntable and servicing area, and is dropping down just beyond the turnout’s guard rails. The track leading off from the far main also begins to drop just beyond the turnout, and is down to plywood-top-level before it reaches the turnout by the boxcar,
Superbe, do you mean that you lay the track and run trains without anything supporting the track in the transition?
LOL
That seems to be what he is saying, at least until the ballast is applied.
Rich
That is what I thought he was saying. I might try it on one of my sidings. There is something appealing about letting nature do all the work without having to sand a shim or a styrofoam incline, cut cardboard, fiddle with whatever to get the transition just right.