So, why DO we use cork?

[x600]

The smell of cork roadbed in the morning smells like victory. Yes it does bring back memories. My son loved the smell when we were building layouts.

Ahhhh, the smell coming out of a freshly opened box of Midwest Cork.

Greg O.

[CBQ Fan]

I just ordered a bunch of HO cork for my mainlines!

[thomasjmdavis]

The real answer to "why do we use cork?" is really pretty simple. At least for me.  I've tried other things such as wood roadbed and that Woodland Scenic foam stuff. and double sided foam tape.  But truth be told, I haven't found anything that works better than cork, even stuff that is more expensive.  So, if it is relatively cheap, works, has worked for tens of thousands of modelers for the past 100 years, the better question might be "why wouldn't we use cork?" or "why does anyone use anything else?"

[robert3985]

The real answer to "why do we use cork?" is really pretty simple. At least for me.  I've tried other things such as wood roadbed and that Woodland Scenic foam stuff. and double sided foam tape.  But truth be told, I haven't found anything that works better than cork, even stuff that is more expensive.  So, if it is relatively cheap, works, has worked for tens of thousands of modelers for the past 100 years, the better question might be "why wouldn't we use cork?" or "why does anyone use anything else?"

+1   Well said.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[rslaserkits]

Does anyone that was in HO Scale remember the Cal Scale wood track bed?

I still have a pile of it if anyone wants it
rich
www.rslaserkits.com

[Bruce Bird]

On mainlines I used the uncured butyl rubber- forget the brand name.  Using a roller you can put superelevation in to curves, and even pull and stretch it to ramp down to sidings.  After the track is placed, I used an Xacto blade and trimmed the angle for the shoulder right off the edge of the ties.  That eliminates the super-wide issue that Ed mentioned with cork.  Makes for more realistic ballast cross sections.

I also remember talking to the Reid brothers about the CV and they mentioned they used this for roadbed, and they thought that the flexibility of the base helped prevent track kinks and whatnot with atmospheric changes.

Now for large yard areas the sheet cork from Menards/Lowes/Home Depot was used because, well, I HAD to put something down because that's what you do, right?

Bruce

[wazzou]

On mainlines I used the uncured butyl rubber- forget the brand name. 

Bruce

AMI?

[CRL]

AMI instant roadbed looks like rubber electrical junction tape.

[w neal]

My problem is that N scale cork is too wide and yields an unrealistic "shoulder" of ballast before it drops away.

[ednadolski]

My problem is that N scale cork is too wide and yields an unrealistic "shoulder" of ballast before it drops away.

You can make your own profile with some of that lightweight spackle compound.

Ed

[wazzou]

You can make your own profile with some of that lightweight spackle compound.

Ed

Or cut it along the straight edge to narrow it or sand the shoulder which should be done regardless.

[NtheBasement]

Or cut it along the straight edge to narrow it or sand the shoulder which should be done regardless.

I found it easier to cut it after I glued it down.  Otherwise it flexes sideways as you cut.

[randgust]

Still a cork guy, but only on main lines.

I'm seeing some AMI comments and that reminded me of one of the biggest layout messes I've ever seen in my life, pretty much a fatal.

My friends basement-sized layout in N - the one that had the 100-car coal train on it behind 2-8-8-2's - was all on AMI instant roadbed.   Needless to say he had a LOT of track, I remember that a lap around his layout took like 8 actual minutes at about 45mph track speed.    He had it pretty much sceniced and operating.   This was pre-DCC, and he had all the blocks on rotary switches for up to maybe 6 cabs - what a nightmare that was.....

But what got him in the end was the fact that the AMI stuff a) dried out   b) shrank  c) created reverse superelevation on sharper curves   d) broke loose from the plywood unless thoroughly spiked down (which he hadn't, he totally relied on the stuff like adhesive).   His entire main line just went to complete crap after about six years (including ripping ties loose from flex track) and he just gave up, eventually tore it down.   When he moved to another house his next layout was all cork on my urging.   Until Jerry Britton's atlas C55 switch disaster, that's the biggest layout I've ever seen done in after construction by a product fail in place.

Maybe they changed the product, and maybe there's a better way to use it, but if you've seen something like that happen, hard to forget.   

I've had cork shrink as well, which is why I glue mine down to the subroadbed instead of just tacking it down like I used to with track nails.   But I've never had it get so bad it destroyed the track laid on it.