Cork road-bed/underlay

[jward]

The same applies to using homasote - it shrinks and swells and should be sealed.

No.  Homasote is really stable.  If you are having problems with track buckling etc., then the issue is with : -

1)  Track with no expansion joints.

2)  Benchwork expanding and contracting.

3)  Poorly laid track.

It will not be with the Homasote.  The stability of Homasote has been mentioned many, many times in the hobby magazines and it's available on the manufacturer's website.

Cheers


Roger T.

woody is right and the magazines are bs. I suppose that if you are building a layout in the laboratory conditions that model railroader has homasote would be as stable as anything else. but most of us don't have the time or money to invest thousands into a train room before we ever lay track. in the real world, where temperature and humidity can be a problem homasote comes up short. I have seen the buckling problems first hand, and the swelling as well. they are real. a while back when I inherited my grandfather's 1950-1960s era layout I tried to relay the track on the existing homasote, after I had sealed it with latex paint. I replaced the old brass, fibre tie flextrack with new handlaid track. knowing homasote did not hold spikes well enough to work, I used pc board ties with the rails soldered to them every 1 1/2 inches. I would up having a lot of problems with track buckling, especially in one area where the layout butted up against an outside wall. the track would actually buckle enough to break the solder bonds with the ties. I methodically went back section by section and replaced the homasote with white pine planking, and the problem went away. the conditions in the layout room remained the same, the only thing that changed was the replacement of the homasote.

for this reason, I will never use homasote on a layout again. regardless of manufacturers and model railroader hype homasote is not suitable for layout use in areas of high humidity and temperature variations.

[Trainman203]

After a while you figure out where the magazines are pontificating.... like "switches" being called "turnouts"...... When was the last time you heard a train crew say "got a lot of 'turnouting' in the next town."

[jbrock27]

the magazines are bs.

Speaking of 'real world' and of magazine "bs", I have read in many publications, such as magazines and books "avoid S curves!!"  You yourself and others on here have echoed the same warning.  Yet, the more time goes on, the more people I come across that have S curves on their layouts and report no running or backing up problems.  This includes 22"R curves and 6 axle diesels and passenger cars.  So...(and that does not mean I would not avoid them or that I would promote having them, but...)

Have anything to add Re: cork road bed?

[Trainman203]

I used EZ track on most of my mainline and passing tracks because, as I've discussed before, I wanted a layout up and running fast, and I did it within 3 or 4 days.  

But I did use sheet cork and cork roadbed under yards and some spurs and found 1) it must be very, very well secured to the underlayment  and 2) it must be sealed.  Otherwise you will watch the track visibly hump up while scenicking with ballast or weeds.  

One thing about EZ track is that the molded ballast is 3/32" higher than the cork product.  I thought I'd like the realistic slope down into lesser  trackage, but it proved to be annoying when using delayed-uncoupling with free rolling cars.  Physics on thr prototype do not translate well into the model railroad world..... with car weight/momentum, smoke, etc.

I do have an unavoidable S curve in one place.  If I'd used flex track instead of EZ track it would have been less pronounced.  Operationally it is no prob, but it just looks wrong.  It's behind some buildings when normally viewed so that helps.

[rogertra]

After a while you figure out where the magazines are pontificating.... like "switches" being called "turnouts"...... When was the last time you heard a train crew say "got a lot of 'turnouting' in the next town."

I agree.  When was the last time you heard a railroader and I mean the guys who actually run the trains and maintain the track and not those guys who wear a suit and work in an airconditioned office, call a switch a "turnout"?

Answer?  Never!

Cheers


Roger T.

[jbrock27]

Thanks TM.  Just to be clear, my question was for Mr. Ward-it's why I led off with quoting him.

[Trainman203]

Ok.  Forgive me.  I am old(er)  and not so good at how forums work.  Ie did not know for a long time that CAPS MEAN YELLING. 

[jbrock27]

No need to beg forgiveness my friend .  Just wanted the record to be clear .

[RAM]

Well it is more like in Nextville we have 4 setouts and two pickups.

[jbrock27]

I wish I could understand half of what you say (post).

[electrical whiz kid]

Jeffrey and others;

There is a product I once saw in MR called 'Micore'.  This material is supposed to look like homasote, but that is the last I had seen of Micore.  I asked around lumber yards, got a funny look.  There had been several methods and lots of different materials approached since I started playing with choo-choos, for my opinion, that "phantom line" by Gar Graves a number of years ago was tops.  It was pricey but good.  The school called Culver Military Academy  in Culver Indiana, had a layout-and this is the stuff I believe they used.  I had the privilege of seeing it in 1967.

Rich C.

[Trainman203]

Woodland Scenics (I think) makes some  kind of rubberized roadbed. Gonna try that stuff on the next layout.

[jbrock27]

Yes they do.  There have been posts about it on this Thread previously (as well as a multitude of other Threads and in other places).  It is more on the squishy side than cork.  I would not suggest it over cork.  This is just my preference and opinion, obviously.

[Trainman203]

How about rubberized sheets for the yard, they make that, don't  they? Wouldn't the glue and ballast make it stiff in the end?

[jbrock27]

Don't know since I don't use it.  But for Yards, I have seen folks use full, wide sheets off a cork roll as a road bed under several yard tracks.