# Road bed or Cork



## trashman (Aug 6, 2011)

Is one better than the other? Why? Do you still use ballast?


----------



## cv_acr (Oct 28, 2011)

trashman said:


> Is one better than the other? Why?


Don't understand the question. Cork is a popular option to use as roadbed. What's the other option you're wanting to compare? The WS foam stuff? Homasote? No roadbed?



> Do you still use ballast?


Yes.


----------



## HelmsRacing (Dec 28, 2012)

Maybe questioning roadbed like ez track? I use both ez track with the fixed roadbed and flextrack on cork. Flextrack is cheaper and ez track can be expensive. But fleextrack takes more work that ez.


----------



## freeskier (Dec 11, 2012)

If you're looking for realism you can always ballast the ez track (that's what I doing on my layout). Looks much better than the plastic roadbed and a lot less hassle than flex track. Another thing to consider is sound-my track is glued directly to plywood and some trains will echo and rumble, cork would cut down on noise a lot. It mainly comes down to what your preference is, they both have their benefits.

Or there's always sectional track with cork...


----------



## N scale catastrophe (Nov 18, 2012)

Flex track, cork and ballast. Looks more realistic and gives me more flexibility for turns etc. You also have the option to hand lay all of your track with homemade wood ties...


----------



## joed2323 (Oct 17, 2010)

I Prefer ws foam roadbed. Its cheaper then cork! But alot of people prefer the cork since it doesn't flex or not sponge like, like the foam road bed.

I ballast my track so once you ballast the foam bed its rock hard and doesnt flex at all...

I also like how easy the foam bed cuts, very easy stuff to work with.

I prefer to use a hot glue gun on the low temp setting when securing foam road bed to the benchwork. Its super fast and very efficient using a hot glue gun.

Ive screwed up before and had to rip up some foam road bed, had to relocate it, all that is needed is a gasket scraper and it scrapes off fairly easy where as using cork you would probably have to sand the remaining prices off.

Im not biased to one or the other. I would have bought the cork in the beginning if the foam road bed was sold out, but when i was shopping for roadbed my hobby store was all out of cork and had a full supply of ws foam road bed, so the choice was simple for me...


----------



## rrgrassi (May 3, 2012)

The problem I encountered using the foam, is that if you nail the track down, it gets wavy, and can look and act like real track in the summer heat. Cork, being more rigid, is the best choice for me as I can't seem to work with the foam.


----------



## sstlaure (Oct 12, 2010)

I used cork. Stays flat and provides excellent sound deadening. I bought in bulk to save on $$$.


----------

