Anthony, Homasote is both a brand name and a product as far as I know. Only the Homasote Corporation makes homasote board, along with a few other products made of the same material. It is a wood-fiber product made from laminated compressed newspaper, a little denser than cork, but holds track spikes a lot better. It also has sound-deadening properties if installed correctly. Model trains running on a dense roadbed (wood) tend to turn the layout into a sounding-board that amplifies the sound of the model motor and gears. Homasote is able to deaden this effect, but is not so soft as to be unsupporting of the track or other details. Using the wrong glue for ballast can spoil this benefit, however. It is not self-supporting and will sag over time unless supported by a wood under-roadbed. In the US, it is available from the lumber yard (often special order) in 4' x 8' sheets, 1/2" thick. The modeler must cut the Homasote into either strips or sheets for use on the layout, supporting it with spline roadbed, sectional roadbed, plywood sheets, etc. It is easily cut by a circular saw or table saw, but creates a LOT of "sawdust" in the process. It can be cut to contour on the table saw before installing on the layout, or with a utility knife on the layout before track is installed. It is also marketed as "Homabed" by a model railroad company, pre machined similar to cork roadbed ready to lay on your solid roadbed.
I build all of my special trackwork either in place with spikes on wood ties, or on the workbench with printed-circuit-board ties. The Eshelman technique is OK too. All methods require the rail to be pre-bent for anything more than a normal curved track, and even that may require pre-bending depending on how heavy a rail you are using. My code 55 and code 70 rail doesn't need pre-bending for 24" radius curves. Code 125 probably would. I haven't read any of your previous posts, so I'm not sure where RSA is, but if you can get S scale models, you can probably find either homasote or a suitable substitute. Just don't try particle-board. Darrell S --- In [email protected], "Anthony Isaacs" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi all, > Thanks for all your replies. > My question about pre-bending rail comes from my notion that > special trackwork is best constucted like the sort of kit trackwork > that Eshelman used to sell with clips or metal strips soldered over > the railheads, and then gauged when finally on the ties/roadbed. > What is Homasote, it sounds like a trade name? We probably have > something similar in RSA, is it like 1/4" thick coarse paper. Why > use it? Paul mallery in his Trackwork Handbook advises against the > use of a soft roadbed, if that is in fact what Homasote is. I do > remember John Bortz's track as being quite noisy. > Another thought about a previous string... Why S? I think that S > is just such an eyeful. It just so takes up all your field of > vision from a couple of feet away. And then the numbers thing that > I don't think anyone mentioned. 1/4 of 1/64 is 1/256 which is so > close to 1/250 . So 4 thou = 1/4 inch and if you switch between > inches and metric 256 is just as close to 10 X 25.4 (the conversion > between inch and mm ) so 0.1mm shim is 1/4 plate and "S"o on. Had > to get that of my chest. > Chow for now, > Ant. The poll results are in....... To REPLY to the list, use REPLY ALL, to reply to the sender, use REPLY. I do NOT know if this works on all e-mail software, but it works on some of the most common ones. For those of you on DIGEST mode, all REPLY messages go to the list. Change your membership, change your message settings, use our CALENDAR, view shared files or photos, view the list archives, GO TO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
