Home insulation

I think it would help somewhat.

Alex

You need to stop the vibration in the table and fiberglass can't do that.

Ideally you should have put Quiet Brace (available at Home Depot; $8/4x8') or a similar material on top of the wood table to cushion the noise.The sound is being transmitted from the track through the nails/screws that are securing the track to your plywood and the whole thing becomes a sounding board for noise.

Do a search on this forum on Quiet Brace.

I've seen rubber cushions under sound proof booths that also might work but I don't know where to buy them. QB would be cheaper.

Some guys use cork track bed, too.

I use carpet underlay as the surface on my layout using Fastrack, glued to the table which is plywood/homasote.  It is cheap and I don't even have to screw the Fastrack down as it holds it in place.  The only negative is that it soaks up paint like mad.  However, if you plan to scenic it, your scenery, grass, dirt, whatever, should make a lot of paint unnecessary.

Since it is on a tile floor, I also insulated the whole table with rubber pads under each table leg.  So, even with Fastrack, it runs quietly.

If it's not too late to remount the track, consider laying a "cookie cutter" layer of quietbrace under the track on top of the pink foam.

Depends what track you have, but if you're using Atlas, Scaletrax, Ross/Gargraves, yes the track will stay in place if well ballasted and you can remove the screws.

-bruce

Do not use wall insulation, as it sheds fiberglass too much unless inside the wall.

Either cork or carpet padding may work better.

Lee F.

3 thoughts:

1) Soundstop by Celotex, It's similar to Homasote but designed as a sound barrier. It also costs less.

Beware, it has very low strength, if you try to lift a sheet by the corner it Will break off.

It does, however, significantly reduce the noise of the track.

There was a thread on the old board about one person who did experiments with sound measuring equipment, on what helps.

Homasote or Soundstop are excellent under the track, followed by something most of us ignore.

2) Fill the hollow cars with foam!!! they also act as sounding boards.

Now we probably aren't going to do that to our passenger cars but a chunk of pillow foam stuffed in each end of a boxcar will still allow small objects to be inserted and removed at the doors. And it WILL reduce the noise level.

You can also try the solid sheet foam insulation under the layout, but I expect it will have marginal results, the top side of the board will remain a sounding surface.

3) If possible, can you simply use a jigsaw and cut slots along the tracks? This can be covered with a small amount of scenery material to repair the visual effect.

And it removes the sounding board area. After the cuts are made, adding 1X2" supports every couple feet (or closer, depending on thickness of plywood) would be a good idea.

Monkiejohnson...

your issue stems from 2 main points... the wide spacing on your braces makes a huge "resonator" of the top.  To reduce the sound, increase the bracing underneath and mix up the spacing a little trying to not make all the same little frequency resonations... this will especially help with the low end rumble frequencies.

Point two is mass ... putting more mass on the top wil be the best benefit to stop vibration/noise. Put a small bag of plaster on top and see what happens, youll be amazed. This will simulate the addition of scenery.

Everything mentioned above in the thread will help on the higher frequencies... some to varying degrees... but they will all add up.

What type of track are you using? I used pink foam underneath my fastrack and feel it made a huge difference in noise reduction. In reference to Bills post you may want to back your screws off a bit or remove some screws if thats feasable.Rob makes a great point about scenery as well, I'm surprised how some ballast and ground foam further quiets the layout as I go. Remember steel wheels on steel track will always make some noise, its when you run your trains and from underneath it sounds like marbles are rolling around on the benchtop that you have a real problem.

http://www.exclusivelyexpoinc.com/0_2/products/

Here you go.

monkiejohnson, your idea of fiberglass insulation under the tables is right in principle but not advisable in practice because, unenclosed, the fiberglass particles will be constantly shedding and airborne.  Jim is right on with his suggestion of curtain drapes around the tables, it is what I did (different product, same idea) and it absorbs the noise considerably.

I was also reading about Frank Sinatra's layout and they built display cases all around the layout and it did the same thing - reduced the drum effect of the table tops by enclosing and containing the sound. 

There are ways to absorb or contain the noise under the tables if you do not want to tear up or rebuld the topside of your layout.  I think that even the practice of storing your train and accessory boxes under the layout helps some in this regard.