Terry,
I too recently bought the last of my needed Homasote for the known future. It is not as popular as it once was for an insulating building material. 30 years ago there were complete skids of it at the lumber yard. Now Home Depot only has about 15 sheets at any given time. They even store it vertically in a slot rack at my Home Depot which means it can get greatly bowed. Since it is made just up the road in Trenton you may consider yourself lucky to get it out there on the left coast. I was just talking to someone recently that mentioned they cannot get Homasote in their area. We must remember that first it is a building material that does not require the uniformity we would like it to be. But they absolutely know it is used in model railroading. http://www.homasote.com/applications/hobby.aspx In spite of its shortcomings - warts & all, I still think it is the best surface going. I encountered a pretty substantial high spot a few weeks back. I just got my rawhide mallet and beat the hump into submission. I got a steel straight edge and ran it around the area to continually find the remaining high spot until it was gone. My Pop showed me another way to do this. Get a straight board and rub a crayon on it, then rub the surface. Your high spots will be immediately obvious. Both methods are a lot better and easier than excavating the imperfection. I am sure I have mentioned my previous experience as a purchasing agent for a commercial cabinet and millwork shop. By far the most popular material was ¾ thick shop grade birch plywood. I would buy that 2-3 complete skids or lifts at a time. MDF was also pretty popular. It has been a while since I have seen MDF but I dont recall is at being anything even close to a substitute for Homasote. I threw a few more photos on my page this morning. http://www.lanestrains.com/My_Layout.htm Thank You, Bill Lane Modeling the Mighty Pennsy & PRSL in 1957 in S Scale since 1988 See my finished models at: <http://www.lanestrains.com/> http://www.lanestrains.com Look at what has been made in PRR in S Scale! Custom Train Parts Design <http://www.lanestrains.com/SolidWorks_Modeling.htm> http://www.lanestrains.com/SolidWorks_Modeling.htm PRR Builders Photos Bought, Sold & Traded (Trading is MUCH preferred) <http://www.lanestrains.com/PRRphotos.xls> http://www.lanestrains.com/PRRphotos.xls ***Join the PRR T&HS*** The other members are not ALL like me! <http://www.prrths.com/> http://www.prrths.com <http://www.lanestrains.com/PRRTHS_Application.pdf> http://www.lanestrains.com/PRRTHS_Application.pdf Join the Pennsylvania Reading Seashore Lines Historical Society It's FREE to join! <http://www.prslhs.com/> http://www.prslhs.com Preserving The Memory Of The PRSL [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> 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/
