Edavillenut said:
what is a good sub roadbed for handlaying track. i have been thinking about just useing foam and gluing the ties down then spiking and gluing the rail to the ties. do you think that is going to work. i do not want to use homasoat last time i used it my track was always on the move:curse:
Did you use anything underneath the Homasote? Was it real Homasote (not always easy to find)?
Homasote needs a firm support underneath or it will sag. Plywood or extruded foam are common subroadbeds under Homasote.
Many places will sell you a "Homasote-like" sound reduction board. Accept no substitutes! The substitutes (Celotex is a common one) are less rigid, less water resistant, and do not hold spikes as well. I have tried spiking into Celotex, cork, redwood, and soft pine . None worked as well as Homasote, but Celotex was the closest. The wood invariably had "hard spots" that would curl spikes.
Softer materials like foam and cork depend on the ties to hold the spikes, and glue to hold ties to the roadbed. In HO and smaller, in my experience, there isn't enough "meat" to the wood ties to depend on them alone to hold the spikes over time. It might work in larger scales (like your On2) with thicker ties - it certainly works for the prototype. I would use very small spikes that very close to scale size.
Foam and cork do not hold spikes well. The "rubberiness" of cork will also cause the rail to move out of alignment. Then when the cork dries out, it crumbles and does no good at all.
just my experiences, yours may differ