Track road bed

Xaniel

Xaniel

Member
Jun 8, 2002
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Lisbon, Portugal
modelismo.luislopes.net
Hello,

What should I use to make road bed? I know that woodland scenics has road bed... but should I use this or make some road bed with some cork?

I use Peco code 80(i'm a beginner, code 55 would be to hard for me) in N scale.

And what about ballasting? Should I use the PVA/water solution or do you have some other ideas?

Thank you for your time!
 
Originally posted by Xaniel
Hello,

What should I use to make road bed? I know that woodland scenics has road bed... but should I use this or make some road bed with some cork?

I use Peco code 80(i'm a beginner, code 55 would be to hard for me) in N scale.

And what about ballasting? Should I use the PVA/water solution or do you have some other ideas?

Thank you for your time!
Click to expand...

Hi Luis,
For the road bed I personally use 1/2" chipboard with 1/2" insulation board(Sound noard) on top. This stuff is easy to apply track pins into.
As for ballasting, check out the academy/archives, there is an article on track ballasting which I wrote.

Shamus
 
I use the Woodlands Scenics foam cork bed myself. I personally find the cork roadbed too tall, and I also find the foam easier to work with. I've heard arguments both ways about noise conductivity, so my layout is foam.

I was thinking about using something different for the yard, but they also sell sheets the same thickness in large size (can't remember the exact dimensions, but it's 11 x 17 type proportions). So just to keep everything the same height with as little fiddling as possible, I'm gonna use that for the yard as well.
 
About balasting, I tryed something for a small diorama and it seems to work great.
I mix 1/3 wallpaper glue in powder form with 2/3 of balast.
Spread the dry mixture on the rails.
And spray with a plant spray filled with water and a few drops of diswasher soap.
After a day or two your balast is hard as a rock.

Paul
 
Luis I model a shortline and lay the track right on the foam. I ballast with a 50/50 mix of dirt and Woodland Scenics fine ballast held in place with a white glue/ water mix. For spurs and yard tracks I ballast with dirt only. For the mainline interchange with the connecting railroads I use AMI Instant Roadbed and ballast with the fine ballast only (no dirt).
 
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