# best roadbed



## little fat buddy (Jan 14, 2011)

what is the best roadbed out of these 3 homa bed croke or the woodland scenics foam stuff gonna be buying track laying supplies next week so need to imput on this subject thanks.


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## fcwilt (Sep 27, 2013)

I used Woodland Scenics Foam and am very pleased with the results.

I have in the past used cork and homasote.


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

LFB

It's kind of a toss up between the foam and the cork roadbed.
There are guys who prefer one or the other.

Like Wilt my trains run on the W/S foam. It's easy to work with
and is fairly easy to obtain. Do have to say, the
track ballast glue tends to 'harden' the foam and cancel the
sound deadening qualities of it in places. 

Don


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## little fat buddy (Jan 14, 2011)

intresting to know whats the best way to attatch the ws roadbed to a 2inch thick foam board base layout is playwood framed with a 2 inch thick piece of pink inusation foam board on top of it also cuz of my layout size i had to cut the foam board into pieces whats a good way to fill the seams between the pieces thanks.


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## MtRR75 (Nov 27, 2013)

I can't answer the first question, but as for filling in gaps between foam sections, you could use plaster cloth. if the gaps are large, you can put some support in the gaps to give the desired terrain shape before applying the plaster cloth. You can use wadded up newspaper held in place with masking tape -- or some left-over chunks of foam board held in place with tape.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

I use DAP adhesive caulk to glue my roadbed down as well as my track to the roadbed.

I too am using the Woodland Scenics foam.

To fill gaps, Woodland Scenics makes a foam filler paste that works really well. You can also use spray foam insulation, but i found that hard to control.


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## Bucket list (Jun 21, 2014)

I am going to use the WS foam on the next layout. Cork is just too noisy for me. I was concerned that it might get old and brittle, but a friend has had it down for over ten years and it's just like the day he installed it. I think he used liquid nails to secure it. Might have 
been a bit of overkill if he ever wants to pull it up.


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## fcwilt (Sep 27, 2013)

For attaching the foam roadbed to the foam board I used Woodland Scenics Form Tack Glue. I tried other things but I like it the best.


Regards filling your gaps:

I've used the Woodland Scenics foam filler and it works well.

BUT it seems very similar to this:

http://www.dap.com/product_details.aspx?BrandID=136&SubcatID=23

and for all I know it may be the same - just repackaged.

The DAP product is less expensive so you may want to compare the two and see what you think.


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

You have a wide choice of glues to select from. You likely
won't go wrong with any of them.

But, regardless of your choice, go easy on the glue. Just a small
dab here and there, maybe a tad more on curves, will suffice.
You will be making changes, that's a given in modelling. If you
glue lightly it will be easy to remove the roadbed without damage
with a flat blade such as a wide putty knife. The same advice
applies when you attach the track.

I used caulk in some joints between foam, and dry wall paste
in others. Much depends on what scene you want.

Don


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## fcwilt (Sep 27, 2013)

DonR said:


> But, regardless of your choice, go easy on the glue. Just a small
> dab here and there, maybe a tad more on curves, will suffice.
> Don


I second this.

When I started to work on my layout I simply did what I would do in my wood working projects. I spread the adhesive on the entire area where the two surfaces (foam base and foam roadbed OR foam roadbed and track) would touch.

It made for a VERY, VERY good bond as I found when I needed to make corrections.


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## little fat buddy (Jan 14, 2011)

thanks for all the help i found something im thinkign about using to fill the gaps with its made by great stuff and its spray foam in a can that will dry hard and i can then carve the excess off the top once its dry has anyone used that for fillin the gaps between foam boards and i will look into the foam tack glue is it easy to remove if i need to make changes i have some dap latex caulk i am gonna use to glue the foam boards to the table have glued em yet wanted to find a way to fill the gpas beore i did that. meaning fidn a know soloutiong then glue them down and then fill the gaps with it. thanks for everyones help


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

LFB

That foam sounds like a good idea. You could even leave some of it
sticking up and paint it to be boulders.

Don


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## little fat buddy (Jan 14, 2011)

yeah i think thats the route im going to take with the gap filling i like that idea too now to finalize my track plan lol track planning not my strong suiet at all lol.


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## tr1 (Mar 9, 2013)

*fastening down cork road bed.*

Back in the day of laying rails the center lines were laid down with a compass like device.
Contact cement was applied to the cookie cutter style painted rain board~3/8" thick ply- wood. Contact cement(glue)was placed on around the center line to follow the radius of the curve. The curve was glued down in half sections one at a time. Back then the cork roadbed sections came in black, later on in brown. At the time, contact cement worked just fine, too secure the1/2 road bed sections. to a painted brown board. One half at a time. It has
held up excellently in the basements. it has been in.It was fairly easy to move over to my new house.Approximately fifteen (15) years ago. With the thinner plywood(~3/8" thick.
Stop over take alook at the section where I blog about my layout "G.G.& Northern.Allyou have to do is click on "tr1" ( sometime)and that should take you there. tr1<(not here


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

little fat buddy said:


> thanks for all the help i found something im thinkign about using to fill the gaps with its made by great stuff and its spray foam in a can that will dry hard and i can then carve the excess off the top once its dry has anyone used that for fillin the gaps between foam boards and i will look into the foam tack glue is it easy to remove if i need to make changes i have some dap latex caulk i am gonna use to glue the foam boards to the table have glued em yet wanted to find a way to fill the gpas beore i did that. meaning fidn a know soloutiong then glue them down and then fill the gaps with it. thanks for everyones help


Yes, I commented on the spray foam in my post (#6). It works very well, but it's hard to keep it where you want it. If you don't mind the filing and sanding, then it's pretty good.


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