Looking beyond Flexxbed roadbed . . .

Dan, I used the foam roadbed from an eBay seller, his eBay ID is: sparks00033.  It's as good as Flexxbed IMO, and considerably cheaper to boot.  He'll even send you a free sample to evaluate before you spend any money.  I got samples of Flexxbed, Woodland Scenics, and his stuff.  I saw no reason not to go with the eBay product, and it worked out just fine.  It comes in gray and black, I went with the 1/4" thick material in gray.

I used the same roadbed as GRJ.

Thanks John and Oman, I sent him a request.

For my HO and N scale layouts, I originally used the pre-cursor to Flexxbed called "Vinylbed". It was made from ground up foam pieces and wasn't squishy. It was firmer. I tried to order it for my current HO layout but they had reformulated the recipe and the Flexxbed was a lot softer, much like Woodland Scenics' foam roadbed. I was afraid that it might be too soft and give when I was cleaning track (and crack the glued down ballast) so I used regular cork.

For my next O scale layout though I was going to give Flexxbed a try, as anything to minimize sound is probably a good thing.

Well, that is unwelcome news.

I like Vinylbed and prefer its sound deadening qualities.  Cork doesn't do nearly as well.  I still have a supply of Vinylbed from Panhandle 1, so the situation isn't critical.  And track laying has been delayed.  We still have more bench work and structure work to do first.

But it is good to know there are alternatives.

George

@G3750 posted:

Well, that is unwelcome news.

I like Vinylbed and prefer its sound deadening qualities.  Cork doesn't do nearly as well.  I still have a supply of Vinylbed from Panhandle 1, so the situation isn't critical.  And track laying has been delayed.  We still have more bench work and structure work to do first.

But it is good to know there are alternatives.

George

I'm at a point where I would like to get a few things down before I start building over the top of them.

Sparks took care of my order right away.

The reply I received last week from Hobby Innovations left me no doubt that it's the end of the line for Flexxbed.

In the meantime, I have ordered and received 240' of Sparks roadbed. I laid down 36' of roadbed and track. My first order of the Flexxbed took almost that long to get the order in, no online sales. Maybe 5 weeks total. And this roadbed was $.65/foot shipped.

Sparks roadbed (I don't know what else to call it) is a little different formulation, lighter in color, slightly less dense and had a little different profile. Other than the 6' lengths I didn't notice much difference from Flexxbed while working with it around corners.

What's not to like? I sure appreciate you guys recommending this roadbed!

Glad it worked out for you, I bought a lot of it, it's on my whole main platform.  I found it easier than cork to manage, and I'm very pleased with the result.

@turkey_hollow_rr posted:

The reply I received last week from Hobby Innovations left me no doubt that it's the end of the line for Flexxbed.

In the meantime, I have ordered and received 240' of Sparks roadbed. I laid down 36' of roadbed and track. My first order of the Flexxbed took almost that long to get the order in, no online sales. Maybe 5 weeks total. And this roadbed was $.65/foot shipped.

Sparks roadbed (I don't know what else to call it) is a little different formulation, lighter in color, slightly less dense and had a little different profile. Other than the 6' lengths I didn't notice much difference from Flexxbed while working with it around corners.

What's not to like? I sure appreciate you guys recommending this roadbed!

I am currently in the process of planning my O Scale layout. I just learned about Flexxbed, unfortunately it was too late as they had already closed. I decided to order a piece from 'Sparks' and will give it a try. The woodland scenics roadbed is fine and available but is harder to curve as it needs to be cut in the middle unlike Sparks roadbed.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Dan, I used the foam roadbed from an eBay seller, his eBay ID is: sparks00033.  It's as good as Flexxbed IMO, and considerably cheaper to boot.  He'll even send you a free sample to evaluate before you spend any money.  I got samples of Flexxbed, Woodland Scenics, and his stuff.  I saw no reason not to go with the eBay product, and it worked out just fine.  It comes in gray and black, I went with the 1/4" thick material in gray.

John,

A question and a request:

1. What other thicknesses are available?  I'm looking for 3/8".
2. Could you give me his e-mail address (send to mine in profile)?  eBay doesn't like the sharing of contact info and I'd like to request a sample.

Thanks for posting this.

George

@G3750 posted:

1. Could you give me his e-mail address (send to mine in profile)?  eBay doesn't like the sharing of contact info ...

George,

Doesn't this work?:

Mike

@G3750 I couldn't find him on ebay either. I had to search the name on Google. Perhaps I'm just an ebay novice haha

So this stuff effectively deadens sound and provides a somewhat sturdy foundation for the track? I'm also going to be in need of a roadbed material shortly and would love to get a sample if this stuff is great.

For those that have used it.  Would you put the Sparks roadbed directly on plywood, or homasote in between?

Thanks!

@Mellow Hudson Mike posted:

George,

Doesn't this work?:

Mike

Yeah, it does.  I was trying to comply with eBay guidelines regarding contact.

George

I've used it because they make a special wide version for Fastrack (due to the width of the plastic roadbed) and I laid it over 1" X 4" hardwood (oak) for a layout extension I constructed.  I like the foam material and suspect it will perform just as well over plywood.

In the interest of full disclosure, I did apply a very thin layer of self-adhesive automotive sound deadening material, cut into  appropriately sized strips for the 1" X 4", before laying the foam, as an experiment to see if it made a difference in sound deadening with Fastrack (minimal) before laying the foam roadbed.

@G3750 posted:

John,

A question and a request:

1. What other thicknesses are available?  I'm looking for 3/8".
2. Could you give me his e-mail address (send to mine in profile)?  eBay doesn't like the sharing of contact info and I'd like to request a sample.

Thanks for posting this.

George

I just send him a message with the eBay contact seller link.  I know they came in other thicknesses, I don't recall exact details.

@MainLine Steam posted:

For those that have used it.  Would you put the Sparks roadbed directly on plywood, or homasote in between?

Thanks!

I laid mine directly on plywood with adhesive.

@MainLine Steam posted:

For those that have used it.  Would you put the Sparks roadbed directly on plywood, or homasote in between?

I put in on Homasote, that makes a big difference with sound between that and directly on plywood.  I can actually compare them as my elevated section doesn't have Homasote, and there's a significant difference in the noise level!

I'm actually putting some butyl rubber sound deadening panels under the second level to reduce the track noise up there.

Thank You for the answers!  I am looking to keep the noise level to a minimum, so looks like homasote is the way to go.

Also think it is interesting Richie tried tried the sound deadening material between foam and wood with minimal results.  Applying it under the wood seems to be working better for you John.

Sound attenuation can be a tricky business.  The frequency you are trying to attenuate can have a effect on what material works best.

I'm pretty sure that the reason the sound deadening butyl rubber works on the underside is that whole surface is a sound radiator.  I don't have it in some sections yet, and you can clearly hear when I get to sections that don't have the rubber mat.  That tells me it's clearly doing significant good.

If you're on the main level with plywood, then I would strongly recommend the Homasote, it makes a huge difference!

I bought some of the bed from the fella on eBay. I didn't have any small screws so I nailed about 60" of Ross/Gargraves straights down. One nailed directly to 21/32" (I think) plywood. One nailed through the roadbed to the plywood. I stuck an Atlas two bay hopper and a Menard's boxcar on each track. The hopper was filled with black sand and boxcar door were closed.

Then I got unscientific and rolled them back and forth with my arm, together and separately. At first I couldn't hear any difference. I was expecting silence for some reason. But then I really listened and realized there is a difference. Specifically, vibrations aren't going to the plywood as much on the roadbed track. So then I took a smaller hammer I have and tapped on the outside rail. There it was. The roadbed version was noticably quieter.

I would describe the roadbed track hammer hit as more local and kind of a thunk. The plywood track hammer hit echoed in the basement more and was more of a boom. So I gather that the plywood is a soundboard for the plywood track. But the roadbed insulates the track and prevents the plywood from being a soundboard. It just stinks I don't have the means to be more exact about it at the moment.

I haven't made up my mind just yet. I wish I could run two loops but I definitely am not in a position to do that at the moment.

The sticking point is attaching the track to the plywood!  The reason I got great results on my main level is my screws go into the Homasote and not the plywood  My second level is screwed to the plywood, hence even with the foam roadbed it's still pretty noisy.  I'm working on adding a butyl rubber backer to the bottom of the second level, in the places it's installed, there is a significant effect on track noise on the second level, just have to get it installed on the rest of the layout.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

The sticking point is attaching the track to the plywood!  The reason I got great results on my main level is my screws go into the Homasote and not the plywood  My second level is screwed to the plywood, hence even with the foam roadbed it's still pretty noisy.

I've only built a layout with Fastrack, so I'm a bit of a novice, here. However it seems like you could get around Homasote completely if you were able to glue the foam roadbed to your base (plywood, pink foam, etc) and then glue or ballast your track to the roadbed without using screws or nails? I've read enough comments from folks who complain about how expensive Homasote is and how annoying it can be to work with (i.e. dust, etc) to wonder, has anyone tried something like this to save the cost and effort of Homasote but still achieve a quieter layout?

I don't think you'll achieve nearly the same result with just the 1/4" roadbed.

I suspected my nail going into the wood transferred some of the noise. Particularly because I didn't use a small nail. I used what I have which is much thicker and longer.

I went back downstairs after that post and rolled the cars some more. I think it is quieter. The sound of the wheels going over the joints doesn't resonate through the plywood. All you hear is the sound of the wheels on the track in my opinion. I wonder if my cell phone microphone would pick up the difference so I could post a video here.

I'm sure that not nailing into the plywood would help, but the real trick is to damp the vibration of the plywood, the Homasote does that very effectively!  The Butyl rubber sound mat I'm using on my second level does that as well, but it's not as effective as the Homasote.

You could use a dB meter on your phone to capture the sound intensity...

I did that. I didn't mention it because I was using my hand for the speed as opposed to something more controlled. It was roughly 70 dB moving quickly on the plywood track. It was roughly 50 dB moving quickly on the roadbed track.

Sounds like you answered your own question.

I'm with John on this...

I used Homosote some 30 odd years ago for my layout in NYC... fast forward ...I recently used 'Faced' Sound Board (fiber board) @ 12 bucks vs 42 for Homosote (1/2"x4'x8').   There is no appreciable difference between the two... other than an R value of 1.2 for Homosote and 1.5 for the Sound Board The Faced version is waterproof... paint it if you like... I didn't bother to paint it.

YES, screw only into the Homosote or Sound Board... which, is incredibly easy and it holds very, very well.

Tonight I threw the little 0-6-0 docksider on the test tracks. This roadbed discussed in this thread really shines when a locomotive runs over it. The vibrations were much more noticeable through the bare track than the roadbed track. I'm pleased enough that I'm probably going to plan on using this road bed on the mainline.

I would like to look into this sound board for my yard area @Dennis-LaRock.

I think I'm done rebooting this thread now. I just know it bums me out when threads are incomplete when I use the search. So now I reported back.