Roadbed

Both probably good choices.

I use Midwest's cork.  1/4" thick. 

As to "prototypical" thickness...depends.  What 'class' of railroad are you modeling?  Mainlines?  Branch lines?  Also, will you be adding granular ballast of some sort?

I painted my cork a cheap-o gray latex before laying the track.  It suffices for color until the day I (might) ballast....for me, the last step after surrounding scenery is in, not beforehand.  Mortality and bucket lists will determine whether this EVER gets done.

Going back to the roadbed, though.....lots of choices, all have some advantage over the other....including price...lots of preferences among the madding crowd....'TEHO': the dregs of the argument.

KD ...(where's my cupajoe?)

KD, Thanks for the reply. I will be modeling a double mainline with Dennis Brennan's ballast. I am leaning toward the Flexxbed. I just am not sure which thickness to go with?

Dan

Dan Kelley posted:

KD, Thanks for the reply. I will be modeling a double mainline with Dennis Brennan's ballast. I am leaning toward the Flexxbed. I just am not sure which thickness to go with?

Dan

The Flexxbed protect is excellent! Our whole layout is done with "VinylBed" and Atlas O solid nickel silver track, the previous product name for what is now Flexxbed. We used 3/8" thick for the main line (double track main line) and the 1/4" thick for sidings, yards, and the yard switching lead. It looks very prototypical with the track "tapering down" from the main line to sidings and industrial leads.

I just bought 180' of 1/4" thick foam roadbed from a guy on eBay. He sent me a sample first. I am building with Atlas O. He makes it in different widths for different track, that is roadbed for Atlas O is different from roadbed for Real Trax. It is available gray or black and the sides are beveled.

I have about 400 feet of the 3/8 Vinylbed / Flexxbed under Gargraves & Ross track and switches.  I laid it down using an arrow staple gun with 3/8 staples.  I would get the straight or curvature I wanted then put 3 or 4  staples into the outer bevel about half way down.  Once the track was screwed down on top of it just pull the staples with needle-nose pliers.  If you ballast your track you can remove the track screws for even better sound deadening.  An easy product to use and as HW posted it looks very prototypical.

Bruce

Dan,

I did a lot of research on this before I started building my layout.  Like you, my layout is Atlas O.  I decided on Flexxbed 1/4" for the entire layout.  When I was researching, I looked at samples from Hobby Innovations, Woodland Scenics (cork and foam), and the guy from eBay.  The Flexxbed, Woodland Scenics foam and the eBay guy were almost exactly the same.  The only difference I could tell was the type of foam.  I found that the Flexxbed foam had the better sound deadening properties.  The Woodland Scenics cork looked the most realistic after ballasting but didn't have the same sound deadening characteristics that the foam did.  I have a good portion of the the track work done and am very happy with the Flexxbed.

Here are a few pics to help you visualize;

WANDERER,

That is VERY nice scenery work. I must ask, however, why didn't you weather your rails? Those bright shiny rails don't seem to fit the scene.

Thanks Hot Water!  I'm definitely a newbie and wasn't sure how it would all turn out.  I think I actually surprised myself with the results.  One side effect of being a newbie; learning.  I didn't weather the rails because...well...because I screwed up.  In the process and excitement of building my first layout, I didn't think about weathering until after I was beyond when it would have been easiest to do it.  So for the past few months, I've been experimenting with how best to weather them.

Flexibed! I used Vinyl Bed on my previous railroad in PA. When I moved and had to rebuild I used all Flexibed except for Ross Bed under the switches. Ross Bed was molded urethane that interlocked with their entire switch line. It saved a lot of cutting and fitting getting the Flexibed under all 27 Ross switches. I don't believe they're marketing this product any longer since I couldn't find it on Ross' web store, and really wanted to use it under the one new Ross 0-96 switch. Flexibed 1/4" exactly matched the Ross Bed height. I find that the thinner, 1/4", material looks more real and less "toy like", IMHO. Flexibed bends around curves beautifully without kinking and glues down tight with Liquid Nails or Loctite Foam and Panel Adhesive. I used bricks or whatever heavy object I had lying around to hold it down till it cured.

"Ross Bed was molded urethane that interlocked with their entire switch line. It saved a lot of cutting and fitting getting the Flexibed under all 27 Ross switches. I don't believe they're marketing this product any longer since I couldn't find it on Ross' web store."

It's still in their price sheet.. I hope they still make it!!

It is? I looked but didn't see it. I would have bought a piece for the new switch. For doing an entire railroad (300+ linear feet) it would have been prohibitively expensive, but for switches it's pretty good. Since it comes halfway up the ties, you also save on some ballast, although that really doesn't amount to much.

Is it 1/4" thick below the ties or 1/4" thick overall? It makes a difference because I am doing 1/4" tick roadbed.

Just bought some Ross Bed last week.  They still have it in stock and its on their pricing sheet near the end.