Does anybody use homosote anymore for the roadbed or is it a thing of the past? I am debating between homosote and cork and wonder if one is better than the other for quietness of the railroad.
Homosote or Cork ?
- Thread starter XavierJ123
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i have never used eather but i do use woodland scenics foam road bed and that makes it run quiter. but my friend uses cork and it also seem to run quite
I have used homosote but didn't like it. I much prefer pink or blue 1/2 inch foam then use cork roadbed on it.
I haven't used homosote either, but I think those that do, don't use it for a roadbed but use it as an underlayment to support the roadbed and the rest of your layout. I used to think I knew what homosote was, but after looking at their website, I had second thoughts. I thought it was the light stuff similar to what is used on drop ceilings, but from what I was reading, it is much denser than that, but is still sold in large sheets.
I used the blue stuff on my layout and used cork for the roadbed since I didn't know there was anything else to use at the time.
I used the blue stuff on my layout and used cork for the roadbed since I didn't know there was anything else to use at the time.
I use homasote. For the last year or two I've been using Homa bed, roadbed made of homasote. More expensive than cork but much easier to work with than sheets of homasote. I don't think it has any advantage over cork for most people, who use flextrack. But I handlay often and the homasote holds spikes much better.
Gary
Gary
Gary,Gary H Pfeil said:
How flexible is that, or does it come in diferent preset radus? From what I've seen on their website, Homasote is fairly dense and ridgid. I've still not ever seen the product. The Homasote website says that the Home Depot carries it, but I can't find it at our local store, so I guess I stand here not knowing much about anything on the product, but still very curious about it.
same stuff, just denser. i do stained glass work and use homosote on which to assemble the pieces. check your local stained glass supply store for homosote.ezdays said:
david
Don, the Homa Bed roadbed is sold in two ways, for straight and for curves. The only difference is that the stuff for curves has kerfs cut in diagonally about every 3/4". This allows it to be curved. For really tight curves, I've gone to 15" radius, the kerf will split further than it was cut. I just spackle before laying track, or in my case, glueing down ties. I think the name of the company which makes it is California Roadbed. They used to have ads regularly in MR, don't know if they still do.
Gary
Gary
Gary,
OK, that makes a lot of sense now. In your case I can see the advantage if you're hand laying track, but for us who don't have that kind of energy and patience and use flex track, cork is a winner there. :thumb: :thumb:
OK, that makes a lot of sense now. In your case I can see the advantage if you're hand laying track, but for us who don't have that kind of energy and patience
and use flex track, cork is a winner there. :thumb: :thumb:
I can't find homosote at Lowe's or Home Depot either so I called some lumber yards listed in the yellow pages and found one that would bring in as many 4 X 8 sheets that I needed for about $22.00 a piece. I also found an article in an old Model Railroader magazine that showed how a London club cut "sweeping" 22" radius curves on the 4 feet width of homosote by making a long extension for a band saw. They just kept making one cut after another the full length of the 8 foot sheet. I would imagine making the straight cuts was a snap. I was thinking about just using it for the roadbed directly on top of the plywood as my 9 X 5 table is already an uneven terrain on both sides of the Red River Gouge.
Xavier:
I cut my previous layout that way. Because of the size of the curves, I used a 2 foot wide piece of Homasote and marked 2 foot radius or 3 foot radius pieces all the way down. (draw centerline, mark spots 4" apart, draw arc with yardstick pivoted on a nail. cut with skilsaw. Draw ends of cuved pieces too!) I used one radius and ignored the way the roadbed bulged a little in the middle. Drill a couple of holes in the yardstick so you can draw both the edge of the roadbed and a track centreline. You may want to work from both ends to keep the pivot pinned in the Homasote.
I cut my previous layout that way. Because of the size of the curves, I used a 2 foot wide piece of Homasote and marked 2 foot radius or 3 foot radius pieces all the way down. (draw centerline, mark spots 4" apart, draw arc with yardstick pivoted on a nail. cut with skilsaw. Draw ends of cuved pieces too!) I used one radius and ignored the way the roadbed bulged a little in the middle. Drill a couple of holes in the yardstick so you can draw both the edge of the roadbed and a track centreline. You may want to work from both ends to keep the pivot pinned in the Homasote.
I use homasote because it just makes tracklaying so much easier. Takes spikes really well. Have also recently used WS roadbed and it's great at dampening sound.
Val
Val
i use WS foam road bed on my layout and it works better than cork in my opinion it is really cheap too. i got 5 rolls each 24 ft long for under 30$!!!!thats over 120 feet
thats over 120 feetCan't compare the two myself, although I've thought about using homabed a few times. I use WS foam roadbed exclusively.