Roadbed in Yards

i do not use roadbed in the yards or sidings.

Here are some pictures that show how my freight yard was built. All the track was laid on cork roadbed. The track circling the yard is Mainline 1. The closeup construction picture shows cork placed between the tracks to minimize the amount of ballast needed. Completed pictures show the yard with dark ballast level with the ties. The light colored ballast circling the powerhouse is Mainline 1.

My 4-track yard is on a layer of sound deadening, and I plan to ballast but not raise the individual tracks.

I only use roadbed on the mainline. I do use plywood and homesote under it. My yard areas are laid directly on the homesote. I used cork roadbed which could be shaved to a taper for a smooth transition. If your roadbed is directly on plywood. As long as speeds are slow say 5 SMPH. I doubt you will notice any excessive noise. I just prefer the ground to be at the top of the ties.

I don’t know what your using for track or how realistic your looking to achieve. I know it has a center rail but you can try to make it look more less maintained. I know it’s more money. But Ross track where the rails are mounted to only the tops of the ties. Looks good even with minimal ballast in a yard. With Gargraves flex. The bottom of the rails where they slide through the ties needs to be painted. If the ground is anywhere below tie level. You will have a shiny spot that stands out.

I used a thin cork on my layout. Carried it into the yards just to keep everything level.

Ballast and fill was added almost up to the top of the rails.

Guys - Thanks for the feedback. @RSJB18  @AMF @Dave Love the pictures. Think I might try it with nothing. Most of the noise comes from running trains and not parked ones.

@Dave . This looks fantastic and would be the look I'm going for. I just pretend the 3rd rail is not there. Never thought I would be doing make-believe at my age but wow....  this hobby takes me away from the stress of a changing world!!

I have not ballasted the mains; they are on a formed rubber roadbed, I don’t recall the name. In the first picture you can see how I shaved it down under the yard lead and added a piece of foam board as a filler. The rest of the yard is on the table. In the following pictures I attempted to create an old track that was down in the dirt.

@Dave_C posted:

I only use roadbed on the mainline. I do use plywood and homesote under it. My yard areas are laid directly on the homesote.....

This is how I do it too.   Works well.

I did both - if it is siding is for an industry that is not used a whole lot then it gets junk status treatment right on the plywood and has an appearance of being in poor condition. Stuff that would be considered heavy traffic like a freight yard gets the cork roadbed

I use Woodland Scenics foam roadbed on my mainlines and nothing on my yards.  I want the lower, flat, profile in the yards and don't need the sound deadening effect of the foam in the yards.  Plus is use black ballast in all the yards and grey on the mainlines.  I my upper Milwaukee Road branch line I use sand on everything as that is pretty much what they did.

Art

@Chugman @Rollsington @pennsyfan @CAPPilot  - Thanks guys. Huge help.

We covered the entire area of the layout with sheets of Homasote. For the mainline tracks we put the track directly on the Homasote and add ballast to top of the ties, with the ballast sloping down on each side of the track. For the yard tracks and engine facilities etc., we also lay the track directly on the Homasote, but we put sheet cork (that is about the thickness of the ties) next to all those tracks, which raises the height of the ballast to be level with the ties of the track. Then we ballast up to the height of the ties.
First photo is mainline track. Second photo is track in yards, engine facilities, etc.

@WP Thanks for tips John.  Going to save some ballest re: sheet cork

I used foam roadbed on the mainlines but I didn't extend it into the yard.  The whole main level is on Homasote.

I use foam roadbed under all my track including railroad yard.  What I use to help with the sound is rubber ballast from Scenic Express.  It works well and after the changes I did on my track recently, it is also easier to take out.  I was able to wash it and reuse it with my changes.  The track I took out that had the regular ballast was like sand paper and regular ballast transfers sound when it becomes hard after glue dries.  Scenic Express was the only place I found you can still get it.  There was a guy who used to make it in Ohio but he passed away a few years ago and never gave anyone the process to make it.  It looks good.

@gunrunnerjohn @PRR Joe Thanks John. I do not have access to homasote. My foam roadbed is held in place by the track and the track screws. @PRR Joe Thanks Joe. First time I heard of rubber ballest. Kinda of a newbe in the hobby. I'm currently experimenting with ballest but I really like what I saw with Dave C's

If you have the track screws going all the way into the plywood, you lose a lot of the sound isolating properties of the foam roadbed.  Since my mainlines are mostly on Homasote, the track screws don't go into the plywood base.

@gunrunnerjohn Thanks  John - do you think some thin cork between the plywood and the foam would be noticeably different in sound reduction? Thanks....

I think for WAY more sound suppression, gluing the foam roadbed down and gluing the track to it would work much better.  You can use the screws to hold it in place until the glue dries, then remove the screws.

I do not use roadbed in the yard area. It’s all low speed in the yard and with Atlas track there’s not any noise to speak of.

@gunrunnerjohn Thanks John. @poconotrain I know the post originated with a yard question. I was thinking mainline for this. Thanks for your thoughts.

@Dave_C posted:

I only use roadbed on the mainline. I do use plywood and homesote under it. My yard areas are laid directly on the homesote. I used cork roadbed which could be shaved to a taper for a smooth transition. If your roadbed is directly on plywood. As long as speeds are slow say 5 SMPH. I doubt you will notice any excessive noise. I just prefer the ground to be at the top of the ties.

I don’t know what your using for track or how realistic your looking to achieve. I know it has a center rail but you can try to make it look more less maintained. I know it’s more money. But Ross track where the rails are mounted to only the tops of the ties. Looks good even with minimal ballast in a yard. With Gargraves flex. The bottom of the rails where they slide through the ties needs to be painted. If the ground is anywhere below tie level. You will have a shiny spot that stands out.

That is a spectacular effect!

George

I do use roadbed in yards for its sound dampening qualities.  But I plan to use thin 1/4" sheets of styrofoam called "Foamular" in between tracks to make the tracks look lower.  It comes in 2' x 4' panels (fan-fold).

I will cut it to shape to fit between tracks, cover it with spackle or white glue, hit it with ground cover, and then glue it down in place.  I have two big yards that are different.  Weirton Steel has some big spaces between track and will have roads, grass, scrub, and cinders.

Weirton Junction is your typical railroad yards (to the left of the passenger train).  I may double the foam layers between the tracks or use something but the goal is to bring the area between tracks up to that height.  I'm still thinking about how to do this, but that's the idea.

George

Speaking to George's photo immediately above... in HO scale the whole yard would probably go on one wide sheet of cork, with shallower ballast in grooves between the individual tracks.  However, one of the challenges in 3RO is that our yard tracks tend to be further apart than in other scales, and much further apart than on the prototype.  Also, our "code 215" rail on its chunky ties towers over the surrounding landscape.  All of these things make it difficult to achieve the right look.

I've spent plenty of time around real RRs and I know what everyone means by having a yard or sidings "below" the mainline.  However... any significant height difference with an abrupt transition is going to cause unrealistic changes in speed (slowdown or stalling), and possibly derailments if the transition occurs immediately before or after a turnout.

Our childhood layout was built on two sheets of plywood having a difference in thickness.  A switch led into an O27 curve that straddled the seam, so there was a rise of 5/32" in less than 9".  That's a short grade of ~2%, not accounting for the added drag of the curve.  Because of this, we had to run our trains "hands-on."  We never got to just sit back and watch, because NONE of our postwar or MPC steam locos could make it across this transition at a modest speed without stalling!  Modern locos with speed control are equipped to deal with these situations.  But if the transition is steep and short, I imagine that you would see a brief, unprototypical surge until the on-board computer figures out what's going on and adjusts.  And 3R switches, particularly curve-replacement switches, have an unprototypical geometry that is not forgiving of sudden height transitions.  With long-wheelbase unsprung steam, you may experience derailments or loss of traction.

Dave mentions "shaving" the cork to a taper.  If you have plenty of distance to make the transition, then by all means do that!  If you don't have a lot of distance and you want the smoothest, most trouble-free operation, then I would keep everything at the same height and take the hit on prototypical appearance.  My $.02.

The first 3 are Burlington's Junction yard in Montgomery, the second Eola Yard in Aurora & the 3'rd the entrance to the Metro yard in Aurora. Mostly flat, only the second picture shows a little height difference.

I used foam roadbed, so to taper down to the surface for entry into the yard, I used thin pieces of foam and stepped the track down over 18" of travel.  The change in elevation is 1/4" for a grade of around 1.4°.  I've had zero issues with anything I own going in and out of the yard, that includes the VL-BB, the C&O Coal Turbine, etc.