best material to mount fastrack?

Plenty of foam board at Home Depot and Lowes.  I use 1" over 1/4 " plywood.  On top of the foam board I have Super Felt Premium Felt Underlay.

 

Fastrack is a noisy track.  At best, you can only reduce that tendancy somewhat.  it will never be a quiet as Atlas, Gargraves, etc. 

 

Use of any sound-reducing material - cork, foam-board, acoustic tile, rubber, etc., is preferable to nothing at all - and there really isn't that much difference in the effect any of them have - they all work pretty much as well as one another.  I'd use whatever you think you can most easily use.

 

A couple of years ago there were long, detailed - very detailed, discussions by others here as well as me on additional measures to take to "quiet-down" the white noise Fastrack makes as well as its tendancy to reverberate and amplify that noise.  Filling the under side with expanding foam, and not using any fasterners, were among the tips.  Those measures made as much or more impact on Fastrack noise as the substrate material you pick.  You might do a search on this site for those if you want . .

I've had good success with Woodland Scenics black foam underlayment on top of 1" foam with my Atlas"O" track and it's very quiet.

I used 1" extruded foam(pink, blue, or green stuff) from Home Depot.  I found 3/4 inch plywood at a builders surplus cheaper then anything at Home Depot or Lowes, so thats what I used.  The store also had 3/4" X 21/2" plywood boards 16' long.  I used those to build my benchwork.

A lot of guy's talk about the deafening noise of Fastrack. It must be me going deaf because it's never bothered me and I have been using it for 8 years now and it hasn't been a problem. I used homasote 4x8 sheets on my layout and it has worked great!

try foam floor tiles you know the ones that are used like in your garage or laundry room.  that is what i use and never had to much noise from my track.  

I agree Chris, I have not had any problem with noise with my FasTrack.  I laid 1/2" Homosote on top of 5/8" Plywood and that takes care of that.  Engine running and if they have sound.........you hear the sounds.  No Da!

 

TEX

Steve

Guys,

 

No problems with sound emitted from hollow fastrac..... or little notice of problem, I should say! A while back I noticed this too....I remedied as best I could by buying a sheet or two of green felt from the LHS and I stapled it to my ping pong table. I completed this about 5 years ago. I never got around to screwing down the track itself,though I imagine this would have helped as well.

 

The sound that it makes is because as the engine and cars go over it the plastic comes into contact with the surface that is under it and it "gives" somewhat or expands. You can rectify this by adding green felt or cork underneath.

 

There's my two cents!

 

Mike Maurice

Try QuietBoard from Home Depot.  Something like Homasote, but a lot cheaper.

 

1/2" x 4' x 8' sheet cost $8.25 and it cuts a lot let messy than Homasote.

 

Good sound deadening material.

 

Corvettte (Paul)

I put a layer of 1/4 inch pegboard on the frame of my layout and then some 1/4 inch indoor carpet...kind of a tight loop pile that you might use in a kitchen glued down. Anyway, the FasTrack is fine I think on top of that...and I can poke a wire down anywhere I need to since the holes in the pegboard are on 1 inch centers.

Quiet Board in not available at every Home Depot.  I took the SKU number to three Home Depots in the county I live in and none could get it.  I called the manufacturer and they told me they only produce the quiet board in one region and can only supply a small area.  There may be something that is comparable, but without a sample it's hard to find.  I chose to use the green, pink and blue foam.