Bachmann n scale track grey bed absolutely necessary?

[trainstrainstrains]

As you will see from my worries I am a total newbie to n scale. I just ordered a fair amount of BACHMANN NICKEL SILVER EZ TRACK on grey bed. It appears it is only sold with the grey bed. I would prefer not to use any track bed at all. Have I wasted money on the grey bed? Is the grey bed glued to the track or just on it? Must I use it?

[spookshow]

The plastic roadbed provides the rigidity and connectivity that allows one to reliably run trains on the track. There are plenty of other brands of track that don't come with built-in roadbed, but that sort of track requires that it be glued/nailed in place (otherwise it moves around, the rail joiners come loose, etc).

Products like Bachmann EZ Track, Kato Unitrack and Atlas True Track are designed for people who want to quickly get to the "let's run some trains" stage of the game (and not have to deal with gluing down roadbed and track, soldering rail joins, etc). That's why it's a popular inclusion in trainsets.

I've never used EZ Track, but if it's anything like Unitrack, the ties are going to be part of the plastic casting that includes the roadbed (and with the rails then clipped to the ties). So, no, you couldn't really separate the two.

Cheers,
-Mark

[brokemoto]

You can not separate the track from the roadbed on the EZTRAK without damaging one, the other, or both.

As far as I am aware, the only track that B-mann sells these days is the EZTRAK.   If you go to shows you will see some vendors' selling older B-mann sectional track without the roadbed, but that stuff is long out of production.   You might even see some NOS at some hobby stores, as well.   Some might even sell it online or on sites such as FeePay, Etsy and others.

There are others who sell track-cum-roadbed, as Spookshow has indicated:  Atlas and Kato.   I think that TOMIX sells it, as well, but I am not sure.  The B-mann, Atlas and Kato are not compatible with one another.  While both the B-mann and Kato use code eighty rail, the joining systems are different.   The Atlas uses code sixty-five rail.

There are more than a few out there who sell just the track.   You can anchor track directly to the base, if you must, but there are advantages to using roadbed.  I am aware of cork and a foam type roadbed, but there may be others out there.  To use the cork and sectional or flex track, first you lay the roadbed, which you can glue or nail down, then lay the track, which also you can glue or nail down.  At some point, you also add ballast.   You can add ballast to the track-cum-roadbed, as well.  In fact, dirtying up the track-cum-roadbed and adding ballast makes it look less like a model railroad and more realistic. 

Advantage number one of roadbed is that it looks more realistic.  If you look at the prototype main lines and even many of the branch lines, you will see that the tracks sit on something that looks like built-up earth with sloping sides and rocks everywhere.  The earth  is the roadbed, the rocks are the ballast that keeps the track in place as the trains run over it.  You might not see so much roadbed on very lightly trafficked branch lines, short lines, trolley lines or logging/industrial railroads, but even most of those do some sort of grading for the roadbed.

Advantage number two is that the roadbed absorbs much of the noise and vibrations that come from our model trains.

[Desertdweller]

If you don't like the color of the EZ Track roadbed, why not paint it?

Les

[trainstrainstrains]

Track with foam stuck under it is surely very nice but definitely not my cup of tea.  l have found out doing a little research on the net that I am not alone in this. Research that I should have done before committing to buy. I am in the process of returning the ez track and switches before they arrive. Many people prefer to work with flex track for various reasons. I sympathise with those who prefer flex track. Since Bachmann makes many a wonderfull thing  but  flex is not one of them I shall atempt to start a thread in nscsle.net on help choosing track and live or dead frogs or switches for n  DCC.
Thanks everyone.
PS   
I have started my first thread in nscale.net under trackage.