Roadbed

[Cody J]

I found this roadbed but I don't know how to work it when it comes to doing the turnouts:
http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/mid/mid3015.htm

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Cody

[ryeguyisme]

you can either A:buy the seperately sold molded turnout roadbed or B: practice your precision with an exacto Knife and cut and shape the pieces right(which I do) which alot cheaper to do

[Chris350]

B: practice your precision with an exacto Knife and cut and shape the pieces right(which I do) which alot cheaper to do

This is really the easiest thing to do once you've done it once or twice.  Just use the turnout as a pattern.

[OldTimer]

First:  Decide if you are going to glue or nail down the roadbed.  Gather the tools you need to attach the roadbed to the table--either a tack hammer and small nails or Liquid Nails for Projects, a small putty knife and map pins. 

Second:  Examine a piece of the roadbed.  Notice that it is cut diagonally down the middle.  That inner diagonal cut makes the sloped outter shoulders of the ballast profile.  The two outside vertical surfaces butt up against each other along the track center line.

Third:  Place the turnout where you want it.  Mark the centerlines of both routes by making dots with a pencil between the ties.  Pick up the turnout.  You don't have to, but it makes it easier to see what you're doing if you connect up all the dots that you made between the ties.

Fourth:  Separate a piece of roadbed into its two halves.  Pick up one of the half pieces of roadbed.  Cut it in half so you have two 18" pieces.  Attach one piece to the table with the vertical edge along the center line of the straight route.  Take the other 18" piece and attach it along the center line of the diverging route. 

You now have sort of a cork "Y"  Our next job is to fill in the middle.  If you don't have it at hand already, get out your Xacto knife and put a sharp #11 blade in it.

Fifth:  Cut the other 36" half in half like you did above. 

Sixth:  Take one of the pieces and lay it along the other side of the center line of the straight route.  Where it meets the other piece of cork in the crotch of the "Y" let the pieces overlap and with your Xacto knife, cut throuh both pieces of cork.  Lift up the piece on top and you can remove the piece underneath.  If you did it right, the top piece will fit right in the hole.  Repeat for the other leg of the turnout.

Seventh:  Sand the roadbed on top to remove irregularities and round off the top of the shoulder.  Sometimes a ridge of cork is at the top of the shoulder and it will make it difficult to ballast if you don't get it off now.

I never get it exactly right, but the ballast will cover a multitude of sins so I've learned what's good enough.  This takes longer to discribe than it takes to do it.  Practice is the secret.  Kalmbach publishes books for beginners that have pictures of how to do this.  Atlas used to have some excellent books, too.  Good Luck.
Old Timer 

[Doneldon]

DON'T cut through BOTH pieces of cork or you'll have a hole in the middle of your roadbed.  You can either cut the top piece in a straight line to match what you've already laid and then drop the cut piece right down to the top of your table or sub-roadbed, or you can cut a wedge out of the bottom piece that's shaped like the "excess" of the new piece and then drop the new piece down.  If you cut and remove both pieces you'll have a void.

[OldTimer]

I guess I didn't explain that very well....here are pictures and a lot of other good advice.

http://books.google.com/books?id=9JghMSZG6AQC&pg=PA17&lpg=PA17&dq=cutting+cork+roadbed+for+turnouts&source=web&ots=ZiuTAVxnPR&sig=PfuaLPgMa2O4G9cugtCECCqi-vo#v=onepage&q=cutting%20cork%20roadbed%20for%20turnouts&f=false

That's all one url.  Just copy it and paste it into your browser address bar.  You'll have to scroll up to get to the beginning.

[Joe Satnik]

Dear OT,

Thanks for the link.   

Regarding the roadbed section,  Figure 10 shows the cork half-strips narrowing to a sharp point when making a turnout pad.   

Pointed cork bed is fragile, and hard to cut correctly.

I prefer to notch out the vertical edge of the outside main half-strip cork, to allow room for at least 1/4" wide blunt (squared off) ends on each of the 2 inside half-strips.  The outside divergent half-strip remains whole (no notches). 

Once you've trimmed a working turnout pad, trace the finished pieces onto card stock to create patterns.  Use/save the patterns to cut more pads. 

If created with a left turnout, mark the top of the patterns with an "L", flip over and mark the bottoms "R".  Also mark what size turnout, e.g. "#4 Atlas".

Hope this helps.

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik