Plymouth Foam Sill Gasket for roadbed

[chuck geiger]

Don't know if anyone has tried this or there is already a thread. I did search before posting. $4.99 for
a roll. Looks like a candidate for roadbed for my new layout. It will need to be cut for single track down
the center and don't know how well it will bend without notches cut on the curves,

[robert3985]

I would stay far away from it. 

What's the advantage other than the price ( with more work for you by having to slit it down the middle) over traditional methods?

Since your track, and what it's laid on, is the literal backbone of your layout, why scrimp?  It's just looking for trouble.

Additionally, "foamy" roadbeds allow track to flex vertically when the track is cleaned.  The soft roadbed allows the track to naturally flex particularly at the rail joints, which eventually expands the rail joiners and oxidizes soldered joints on the rails, leading to both electrical and mechanical joint failures.  Not something you want to look forward to.  This excessive flexiness also allows ballast to chip away from the sides of your track, making for really bad-looking trackwork after a while.

The softness of foam roadbed or its equivalent also exists in the horizontal plane, so both mechanical and soldered joints are required to support the track alignment much more than track that is laid and glued to more structurally robust roadbed such as cork roadbed.  Cork roadbed allows individual ties to do what they're supposed to do without much vertical or horizontal motion when the track is glued to it.  The horizontal instability of foam roadbed just exacerbates the joint flex problem, while cork minimizes it.

Additionally, if you're nailing your track down (I don't know what brand of track you're using) the soft, foamy roadbed will squash under the pressure of the nails and push the track up in-between nails, making for bumpy track...not something you want.

As always, I recommend using Midwest Cork Product N-scale cork roadbed...GLUING it down (not nailing), then sanding it with a home-made 8" sanding  block and 220 grit emery cloth....then GLUING your track down to that.

In my 30+ years of layout building experience, the best roadbed is cork, having far fewer problems that anything else in N-scale and is relatively inexpensive, readily available, easy to work with, relatively stable (if you have no intent to constantly pull it up or re-use it), readily available, easily glued to and easily sanded.

Finally, several model railroaders I know and work with, use HO scale cork roadbed for their mainlines and N-scale roadbed for mainline sidings, yards and branchlines.  This makes the mainlines prototypically higher, which is a good effect if you're striving for track that looks prototypical.  Low-use track would have no roadbed for three levels of ballast thickness.

Once again, my advice is to use Midwest Cork Products Cork Roadbed.

[Kisatchie]

I would stay far away from it. 

What's the advantage other than the price ( with more work for you by having to slit it down the middle) over traditional methods?

Since your track, and what it's laid on, is the literal backbone of your layout, why scrimp?  It's just looking for trouble.

...Additionally, "foamy" roadbeds allow track to flex vertically when the track is cleaned....
...my advice is to use Midwest Cork Products Cork Roadbed.

I couldn't agree more. I tried Woodland Scenics foam roadbed for a very small diorama once. The foam was so squishy, the ballast cracked when I picked it up and my fingers pushed on the rails.


Hmm... Kiz, the Hulk...

[Dave V]

I couldn't agree more. I tried Woodland Scenics foam roadbed for a very small diorama once. The foam was so squishy, the ballast cracked when I picked it up and my fingers pushed on the rails.


Hmm... Kiz, the Hulk...

QFT...  Woodland Scenics Trackbed is very easy to work with, but that's all it has going for it.  Its squishiness means you can have significant vertical deflections in track, it causes problems with maintaining intentional superelevation, and as Kiz mentions, ballast adherence.  This material looks equally squishy.

For my extension and retracking, I've stockpiled a significant supply of Midwest cork.

[mmyers]

Too soft for road bed. Works great under sill plates.

[chuck geiger]

Cork is my friend.....

[chuck geiger]

Dave I am a few hours drive from you now, we need to hang. We've talked
about it for years.

[Dave V]

Dave I am a few hours drive from you now, we need to hang. We've talked
about it for years.

Can't have been too many years...we just moved here in 2013!

[chuck geiger]

Meteorological Maverick when you were in Nebraska.

[rschaffter]

Aside from its softness, since it's polyethylene, white glue won't work well for attaching track or ballast.  If you want to lower your cost, you could cut strips from sheet cork for roadbed.  It can be gotten in rolls at the craft store...

[tom mann]

At any point in the last 5 years, it seems like Vollmer has been a few hours from every single member here.

[Dave V]

At any point in the last 5 years, it seems like Vollmer has been a few hours from every single member here.

True dis.  Except now I think we'll be in Colorado for a long while.

Convince me why I shouldn't scrap the Pennsy in favor of the D&RGW Tennessee Pass line.   



...and if I did, I'd use cork rather than foam roadbed.

[Nato]

          "Cork +" I have been modeling in 9MM OOO / N scale so long that there was no N Cork Road Bed. I bought Atlas HO Cork Bed and with the help of my dad cut it down the center and carefully beveled the other edge to give the slope on either side. Never got around to usuing this,the last layout I had before current one in the 1980's I purchased European Mosemer Foam Road Bed. This was gray colored not as squishi as todays foam beds, the bedding for switches happened to match the Trix switches I had on part of the layout. In one area where I had about a 14 radius curve the track actually super elevated  (much to my suprise). No I did not glue the foam bed down, it came with no sticky backing,I just used track nails (spikes) through the holes in the ties to secure after the road bed was slipped under the track. The track had already been nailed down so I pulled nails on verious sections,sliped the foam under and renailed. I never balisted this track to me the gray foam bed looked enough like balist to my then 20 year old or so eyes. Nate Goodman (Nato).

[C855B]

... cut strips from sheet cork for roadbed.  It can be gotten in rolls at the craft store...

Or hardware/home improvement stores. Think gaskets and bulletin boards, and if you need 55-gallon drum quantities, floor underlayment.

But truth be, we've discussed this before - these industrial/alternative corks are a grade or two below Midwest cork roadbed. The finer cell size of the Midwest corks isn't nearly as prone to shrinkage or drying out. Besides, Midwest cork has that great "hobby shop smell" that evokes so many fond memories.