What is a good way to transition from cork roadbed to the base level, for example, if I am transitioning from a ballasted roadbed to a flat yard or industrial area? Or am I better off building up the flat area with sheet cork?
If you are on foam I lower the cork into the foam.
The invisible man has become quite proficiant at these.
Caulk makes a good filler and leveler for any errant gouges.
Ah, I needed to think outside the box. Instead of trying to shave down the cork, I need to dig into the foam. (And, yes, it is installed on foam.) Brilliant! Thanks!
According to a friend of mine who built on foam, he found that tapering the cork down with a sanding block was easier than digging out the foam precisely. But whatever works for you.
I use door leveling shims to ramp down. They are about a 2% grade and can be cut to match the hieght of the road bed. my Subroadbed is plywood and have a few sidings that are directly on the ply. This is how I ramp up and down from the roadbed to the subroad bed.
Even easier with a tabletop or stand alone belt sander. The belt run AWAY from the operator, so it’s safe so long as you’re cautious around power tools. Here’s my method…
I leave the cork unseparated , as when it’s tapered there’s little reason to worry about keeping the beveled edges.
I take the foil aluminum duct tape, the kind with the peel-off backing sheet, and apply it to one side of the cork. If it’s too wide, trim the tape first, as you don’t want overhang.
With the sander belt running, lay the untaped side of the cork on it. I used a flat board to apply pressure to the foiled back of the cork evenly. The cork comes right off, only light pressure is needed and keep checking as it’s easy to go too far! Sand until you have a nice taper. To get the full length of the cork on the belt is usually not possible, so the free end away form me is drooped over the stop bar at the far en of the sander as needed , then drawn back onto the belt as you work it down.
When done, carefully peel the tape off, starting from the thicker end.
I wrap a piece of #34 garnet paper around a scrap of 1"x2", and in a minute or two, the cork is tapered right down to the plywood, without creating a lot of dust in the layout room. The residue is useful for ground cover, too - I have some saved for future scenery projects.
In the photo below, I used two layers of cork to lift the track up to a lift-out at the layout room’s door:
Wayne
Instead of trying to sand down the cork, I use wood shims from one of the big box home improvement stores. The thick end is usually too thick, but they can be cut to length, and they make a 1.5 to 2 percent grade.
I build up a ramp between different heights, like between a mainline and a siding, by layering masking tape of shorter and shorter lengths. Works great!
I lay the track and let it find its own incline from the cork down to the base, then I just ballast it in place. The ballast is actually being used as ballast. Works great and is easy.
I rasp the cork to rough shape and then sand.
Surform Shaver
http://www.amazon.com/Stanley-21-115-Surform-Shaver/dp/B00002X1ZH
Taper the cork roadbed. Takes only a minute or two.
I would go with the sheet cork, or perhaps just buy a piece of 3/16 foam board from a craft store. Once you start running trains with nice, free-rolling metal wheels, you will discover that they run down the slightest slope all by themselves once uncoupled. So, it’s adviseable to keep your trackwork as flat as possible, particularly if you’re planning to use magnetic uncouplers and/or to spot cars using Kadee’s “delayed uncoupling” method.
No ramps or shimming here. I simply mount the sub-roadbed at the appropriate height so that the track transitions from the cork to the other surface, such as homasote directly.
Near the far end of the right hand grade, there is a transition from cork to homasote over the wood. That module is currently removed while I’m doing work on the second level opposite.
Instead of cutting the shingle to gain the desired thickness, sand a transion off the thick portion. This will give you the proper thickness and provide a vertical transition.
Any slight hollows in the lowed easment can be done w/ cardboard shims or just do a quick “base’ ballasting” the secure the track.
When I transition from cork to the yards on my layout, I prepaired for this by raising the subroadbed up to the level of the cork. I used a sheet of Homosote as the yard’s roadbed. Generally, real railroads do not ramp down or up to their yard levels so I attempted to reproduce this. It was really easy to do; but, you did need to think ahead to get there.
+100 I think you said it better than I did above; you are basically building your base so that the top of cork = the top of homasote (or whatever surface you are transitioning to). That way no ramps. Ramps are only needed when it wasn’t planned during construction to transition to a roadbed that is a different thickness. As NP2626 noted, if you plan ahead, no ramps are needed.
I will play devils advocate here and certainly stand to be corrected on this. I spent a lot of time visiting rail yards when I worked. I did notice that yards had a slight slope at the ends, I was told this was to prevent runaways. Maybe this is old school as some of these RR facilities have been around a long time. Also I thought yards/sidings were lower just to save cost, as a high performance track/roadbed system wasn’t required for yard tracks. I wood think standards might vary depending on the terrain the yard was in, say moutain vs: prairie? Just asking.
The runnaway explanation doesn’t make sense but anyway, you don’t really need a justification to use ramps, anyone can build their model railroad the way they want.
I’d still go with NP2626 and say that yards don’t have ramps unless your talking about say a hump yard (which isn’t the case). But if the benchwork and base are already down and you don’t want to change that and need to change elevations for the track, then a ramp would be necessary. From a design stand point, I avoid them. I do shim things in places to make everything even but only tiny amounts, like 1/64 or at most 1/32 of an inch.
Maybe you’ve looked at different yards than I have. Almost all secondary trackage I’ve seen, be it sidings, spurs, yards or what-have-you, are at a somewhat lower level than mainlines, with the amount of level change being dependent on individual railroads’ standards and the ratings of the tracks in question. Mainlines require a deeper base to provide more stability and robustness than secondary tracks, where speed limits are lower and track alignment isn’t usually as tightly controlled. Weedy old branch lines may be a big exception to this, just because they have little if any difference between “mainline” and secondary track standards.