Anyone used FLEXXBED roadbed?

My whole layout is exclusively FLEXXBED. Absolutely a FANTASTIC product and VERY easy to work with. Plus,VERY, VERY quiet!

The sample of course is small, so it is hard to understand how this product curves without kinking.  If you curve it, does it hold the shape or does it spring back to straight?  How did you hold it in place....glue, screws, nails?

The long sections supplied (36" long, as I recall) are nice and flexible. I used nothing but TightBond Professional Wood Glue, to glue the FLEXXBED in place, and then later glued the Atlas O track & turnouts in place. When ever I needed to screw the track down in order to hold it in place until the glue dried, I later went back and removed all the screws.

Here's a video on it from ericstrains on youtube.

Track tutorial

Planning on using this myself.

I use Flexxbed on my entire layout. It's fantastic. It curves in one piece so you don't have to work with split lengths or anything like that. Also, it's VERY versatile. I use it for much more than just the roadbed under the track. I use it for a base foundation for all of my structures and I also use it for my roads. It's wonderful stuff. I highly recommend it.

The only drawback is that Hobby Innovations doesn't take Credit Card orders. You have to send in a check to them, then they will cut your order. It usually takes about 3-4 weeks to get your order in your hands. So there's a degree of patience required when ordering it, but it's worth the wait. Whenever I've ordered it, I always order a large amount. That way I don't have to re-order for a long time.

I just put in a new order a few weeks ago so that I can do some roadwork on my layout. It shipped a few days ago so I should have it soon.

Thanks,

Eric Siegel

Thanks to everyone who responded.  I had to leave for the day, so I just got to view your responses.

 I noticed that Eric puts his on top of homasote.  To the other responder that said he uses it, did you do the same?  Would this product work if I glued it directly to the plywood?

Eric, if you see this, you mentioned you used the product for roads as well.  Do you have a video of that? Or any pictures?

Thanks again to all who responded......I appreciate it.

That is exactly how we did our layout; glued the FLEXXBED directly down on the 3/4" plywood. I wasn't going to waste my money on Homosote AND FLEXXBED. The FLEXXBED works great all by itself.

i am happy to know it works directly on top of the plywood.  They sent me two samples.  One is 3/8" thick and the other is 1/4" thick.  What size did you use?  

As as for the writer who used the older version, I will assume the current product will work as well.......at least I hope so.

The product that Hobby Innovations offered until about 2008 was called Vinylbed and was indeed a much more dense product (as well as different color-it looked like ballast under the track)  I build several layouts using Vinylbed and really liked it.  However, when I started to build my current layout and contacted Hobby Innovations to order, I was told they would not be able to offer the earlier product because their supplier for the raw material (recycled grocery bags) had dried up ant they had to change the product to its current construction and the name was changed to Flexbed.

While I miss the Vinylbed product, the Flexbed product is still the best roadbed I have found and by far the easiest to use.  If you are planning to use Atlas track, my experiments with sound deadening found that the Atlas track on Flexbed with Atlas screws attached to the plywood table top was just as quiet as Atlas track on Homasote or Atlas track on Flexbed on top of Homasote.

The biggest problem I have found using Flexbed is that it is compressable  and if you over tighten the screws, you will compress the Flexbed and distort the track.

I highly recommend flexbed.

the people at Hobby Innovations are really nice people and if it concerns you that they require a check up front, please keep in mind that it helps keep their prices down.

Good luck and happy railroading,

Don

Don

Thank you for the  clarification.

Indeed the first product was called Vinylbed.

I am not familiar with this product but use the foam roadbed by Woodland Scenics. It comes in 24 foot rolls for about $18 and is now available in a bulk pack for less. I don't use any glue - the track screws and track hold it in place, then on goes Brennan's ballast. I install it right on the plywood. 

I used the 3/8" thick for the main lines, and the thinner 1/4" thick for sidings, switching lead, and yard tracks.

If anyone is interested I have several of the rectangular pieces intended for underneath switches. Never used them.

e-mail me at lugnuttshirts@aol.com and I'll give you the dimensions and other details.

Hey,

Yes, I do put mine on Homasote for the most part, but I've also used it on plywood and it works just fine. I use 3M Super 77 spray adhesive to apply the roadbed to the table, it works pretty well.

My new shipment of Flexxbed just arrived today, so I'm going to get busy on doing some roadwork on the layout. I don't have any pictures of it yet, but I will post some once I've got some roads completed.

I use Flexxbed and highly recommend it.  On my previous layout I painted it with "stone" spray paint and then ballasted between because the layout was only going to be up for two years.  

Is there any difference in sound deadening  between the 3/8 and the 1/4 ?

  --Joe

Depends

Not on my layout. The reason I went with the 3/8" for main lines was, it is obviously higher, while the 1/4" produces the prototypical  appearance of sidings, yard lead, and yard trackage as being noticeably lower than the main line (just like on the real railroads).