cork and controller question

[Woodyncarlyle]

So what is everyone's opinion on roadbed Cork or Foam?

Also I am looking at purchasing a MRC controllmaster 20 high power train controller. This will be my first controller I have purchased, Any thoughts?

Thank you
Woody

 

[engineshop]

I nail down my track and leave the nails even after I will add the roadbed. This means I cannot use foam since it is too soft to nail down the tracks.
So I assume it also depends on how you will do the tracks.

 

[TexDoc]

I used the Woodland Scenics roadbed for the layout I am working on. I like it much better than cork. It's easier to work IMHO and it holds track nails well. Also it is very quite and is very forgiving of little imperfections in track work.
Doc

 

[zedob]

I've tried the cork, foam and homosote and will say that I am divided between all of them. Each has it's own pros and cons, but non retain every pro we wish they had. Cork and Homosote are great nail holders. Homosote is a great noise dampener, but you have to get busy with the jigsaw and it's real messy. Cork is a good sound dampener, but not as good as the foam roadbed.

I'm still up in the air when it comes to the foam. I just can't seem to like it because it's just too smooshy. Not that it's not good, but after driving spikes into homosote, the foam just doesn't seem rigid for my liking. The prefered method is to glue the track to the foam, which works fine, but I haven't yet worked on any track that couldn't use a spike here or there to adjust it for whatever reason.

I have the Control Master 20 and really like it. It will handle pretty much about anything you can throw at it.:thumb: My new layout will be DCC, so I guess the 20 will become a power supply for the DCC or a Christmas layout.

 

[n2trains]

I have used cork, homasote AND foam all on the same layout. For the yard we used homasote so we didn't have to worry about using large sheets of foam (a pain when you're putting it under other parts of the benchwork), for the mainlines we put down what I believe was 1/4" plywood and put cork on that. Then, for the mountainous areas, we used nothin but foam and glued the track down to it (worked VERY well!).

Wow, I'm realizing how much I've actually done as a model railroader in the short time I've been active (about 4 years, and that ended about 1.5 years ago now). Good to get your mistakes out early! I know I got a ton of them, including a full 6x8 layout on 2" plywood... we were young and it was a playtable that happened to be in the room!