Hi Jack and Other Esteemed Colleagues, I have used Homasote on a bunch of layouts. Some were for me and some were for others. I have also used cork. On the portable Royal Palm and Loxahatchee Central, Brother Milo Rodriguez and I used cork over Homasote.
Here is what I have found. Homasote on plywood works very well as roadbed. Cork is not required. The Homasote must be sealed using a coat of latex paint or it will respond to changes in humidity and mess up the track geopmetry. It holds track nails or spikes well and for the long-term. Some of my friends choose to hand-lay track (ugh, that is not for me.) They universally prefer Homasote. Part of the reason is that Homasote is about 1/2 inch thick (it varies board to board and end to end). Cork is normally about 1/4 inch or less. With cork, the spikes or track nails need to penetrate the plywood below. Homasote is very quiet. It does an excellent job of deadening the sound of passing trains. Whether we use cork or Homasote, we lose some of the sound-deadening properties when we bond the ballast to it and the track. That is, the glue and ballast rocks conduct sound far better than the cork or Homasote. That is the price of the good looks to be had from ballasting. Right now, I have inherited a fairly large sheet of cork material from a model railroading friend who made his last run. I'll use it since I have it for my next layout. If I was starting with no inventory, I would use Homasote. Some of the mess can be reduced if we use a utility knife to cut it. It takes some elbow grease to score the cut over and over, but, there is no dust that way. Curves are tougher than are straights. I use a power saw in the garage for most curved cuts to limit the mess to one area. Good Luck, Bill Porter > Group, > On my last layout, I used homosote glued to 1/2" plywood to deaden the > sound. > On top of the homosote I glued cork roadbed made of 1/2 HO and 1/2 O > guage > sized cork bed. > On this layout, I was thinking about dispensing with the Homosote (which > can > be quite messy to work with and is not inexpensive) but wondered just how > much > noisier my trains might be. I plan to use both AM .148 flex track and SHS > .125 flex track and would still use the cork road bed under the track > glued to > 1/2" plywood. Any thoughts, suggestions? > > Thanks, > > Jack Riely > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > > To REPLY to the list, use REPLY ALL; to reply to the sender, use REPLY. > For those of you on DIGEST mode, all REPLY messages go to the list > (remember to edit the SUBJECT of your message). > > Change message settings, use our CALENDAR or LINKS, view shared files or > photos, view the list archives, GO TO > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > To REPLY to the list, use REPLY ALL; to reply to the sender, use REPLY. For those of you on DIGEST mode, all REPLY messages go to the list (remember to edit the SUBJECT of your message). Change message settings, use our CALENDAR or LINKS, 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/
