Painting cork roadbed

I don't mean to answer a question with another question, but why would you paint the cork roadbed in the first place? It will be covered with track and ballast and totally disappear. So paint is of no use.

Bob

Roadbed paint in the same color family as the ballast will help camouflage incomplete or knicked ballast and around turnout point throwbars.

I stained my cork a weathered grey color. It takes a lot of stain.  My layout is very toylike. I don't see myself ever ballasting the track. Most of the people in our modular club paint their cork instead of ballasting as it holds upbetter during transporting.

I do not think it made a difference in the noise one way or the other. 

J White

Haven't tried painting in O gauge but, I usually paint the HO roadbed gray as it's a quick and easy way to make it look like ballast.  No problem with sound.

BTW, I paint the flat areas either brown or green depending on whether it is in rural or city settings.

cc

Here's a picture of my stained cork. The track is o27 tubular and the ties are from 3r Plastics. The cork roadbed is from Midwest Products.

For what it's worth, I used an electric stapler with 1/2" brads to attach the cork to the table top. I used clear silicone sealant to "glue" the ties into place, and the two cable tie trick to hold the track in place. Under the table, I added sheets of 1/2" foam glued directly to the underside of the tabletop. I don't think it helped with the noise any, but it sure makes those cable ties bite down better.

J White

Hi,

   Thank you for your input.  At this time I do not plan to ballast, that was a very painful process when I did my HO layout a few years ago.  On my prewar layout I just painted the plywood gray underneath the track, so I figured I would paint the cork roadbed on my post war layout.  Once that is done I can paint the streets and then start the process to paint and apply the green saw dust for my grass areas.

    Thank you,

    Kevin