Whats the best roadbed for absorbing sound?
In S and HO gauge.

Thanks

I've used WS foam and cork on my current layout. I regret the WS. It may be quieter at first, but after ballasting, that crap becomes an amplifier! Much noiser than the cork. Plus WS foam has a hard time laying level on curves. Cork is a peice of cake.

Go with the cork!

Hi wp8thsub, I'm in the process of rebuilding in HO & I noticed that you mentioned the Homabed in 1/4" & 1/8" thickness. What thickness would you prefer to use & what do you use to tack it down with ? & is there any down falls with using this product ? My layout will be in a basement room when finished & will be mostly rolling prairies but am thinking about adding at a latter date some mountainous trackage also. Thanks for the web site info. & thank You for your time.

I have been happy with cork. It goes down easily, and is easy to smooth with a suraform plane. It seems fairly quiet to me, but my wife says I'm getting hard of hearing[:I] Don't know yet if that's a curse or a blessing[:)][:)].
Enjoy
Paul

QUOTE: Originally posted by stokerk ...I noticed that you mentioned the Homabed in 1/4" & 1/8" thickness. What thickness would you prefer to use & what do you use to tack it down with ? & is there any down falls with using this product ?

I use both 1/4" and 1/8" in HO. Note that prototype mainlines usually sit higher than secondary tracks on better maintained ballast. I use the 1/4" for mainlines and the 1/8" for sidings and spurs. Homabed sells shim material to connect the two, but I prefer to use pieces of cedar door shims under the 1/8" stuff. Either way it's a good idea to belt sand the transitions smooth before laying track (I have a cheapo belt sander from Wal Mart for this job).

I have not encountered a down side to warn anyone about Homabed, unless you're shopping on price. If you are sensitive to price and want to get away with a cheaper material, cork can be made to work in a similar fashion (it just won't hold spikes as well). Use HO scale cork for the mains and N scale cork for secondary tracks and shim the transitions. Lay the N scale cork in one piece as it comes from the box (i.e. don't split it in half) and it's about as wide as HO scale ties, so the ballast will fill in along the edges and viewers won't know which material you have under the track.

the TNPR (MIT) club layout uses a wood clapboard bed they sead cork or like I have cork and rubber (just got 3 boxes) dryes out


B -

I don't really know what is "best" but I have been very happy for 20 years with the TruScale simple milled wood roadbed (not the kind with the ties). I have used the matching TruScale turnout sections. For curves, one can use the TruScale curfed roadbed or just use the straight sections with homecut curfs. Since it is natural wood, there may be some ever so slight variation in thickness so it is good to use the dial calipers to match the ends. The wood gives a pretty quiet sound and takes spikes well.

From reading this thread, it sounds like most of the options have issues. How does homabed hold up over time? What about the AMI instant roadbed?