Silencing FasTrack - another idea

I have had very good results using cheap Walmart silicone caulking. I squeeze it in and squeegee it to the center and after a couple you'll get the idea of how much you need so you don't have a lot of excess. Then it takes at least 24 hours to dry. Be fair warned though the track will be very heavy now with all that silicone, not necessarily a bad thing, just heavy. Don't forget to put your wire drops in before hand.

Also, I have found that flat wheels also create less noise than the dreaded "Fast Angle" wheels, don't know why?

You might search for Lee's thread on this from a year or more ago, lots of good info.

I Filled the back with spray foam insulation. let it dry and trim off the expanded portion with a knife, flush with the back of the track.

Not crazy about the idea of covering up the electrical connectors on the underside of the track and also seems like a lot of work. Also wonder if it's the most effective solution. It gets rid of the resonating cavity in the track but then also makes the track more rigid and thus transmitting more energy to whatever the track sits on. 

I am considering this from Lowes for Fastrack sound deadening.

I'm using the Sievers benchwork from Wisconsin with 1/4 inch pegboard over it. Then a good grade of indoor/outdoor carpet with a really tight weave on that. Then the FasTrack on that. Seems pretty not noisy. The pegboard allows me to poke a hole thru the carpet anywhere on 1 inch centers. Added feature.  For wiring.

I have my Fastrack on 1.5 inches of foam.   When I run at scale speeds of under 20mph it is quiet.   Anything more then that it does get loud.  I don't run my trains fast anyways so it doesn't bother me.  

I think if I was directly on top of the plywood though it would be loud no matter what speed.  

Since I am not adding scenery for realism, I used the sound absorbing underlayment for laminate floors on top of the layout deck covered by polyfelt from JoAnn fabric. I get a 21db reduction. I'll make a video. I used the iPad app for the measuring device. Please note that the material is only 2mm thick and reduces noise better than Homosote. Cork is the only material close to it in sound deadening properties.

Then, I expanded on a test. I had cut the sill foam, as Bradfish suggested, into pieces to fit into the bays of the FasTrack. It worked, a little.

So, I made templates to trace the shapes of the bays from the various track pieces, traced outlines on the floor underlayment material and my spouse, my daughter and I had a cutting out party. Yes, RickO, it was tedious. ( He had mentioned that this past summer, when I introduced the sill foam in the bays idea)The I used a dot of craft glue and placed them into each piece of track.

Well, I haven't measured the result of that yet, but now all of the noise is coming from the rolling stock. Well, I saved the trimmings and that will be going into the cars at some time. Yes, it is time consuming but the result is very good.

The outdoor carpet or marine grade carpet with a rubber backing works well, also. I think if you use a roadbed or something under the track made of closed-cell foam or high-density rubber it will provide impressive results.

My theory on sound, and I developed it partly from talking with guys who are sound engineers, is that there are two main sources of sound:

1) The cavity withing the road bed of FasTrack (and the hollow rails themselves)

2) The layout table

To dampen the sound you need disrupt the vibrations which happen in each. The sound guys I worked with advised that putting any sort of rigid material in is not really the best way to go. Yes, it works but it's also the least elegant way to go about things. They likened it to making a shed out of 10 foot thick blocks of stone instead of 2x4s and plywood: both are plenty strong but one is a lot more work than the other. They also said filling the track will solve problem #1 but likely make problem #2 worse. 

When I first started back into trains we had the train on the kitchen table on top of a tablecloth and pad. It was very quiet. From there it went to a hardwood floor which was less quiet. Next was onto the current layout table with a layer of felt which was also OK. Finally it was screwed down to the table and that was the loudest. Pretty much confirmed that softer materials do a much better job than more rigid materials and that screwing down the track made matter worse by providing a better transfer of energy from track to table. Problem with carpets and such is they're not the easiest thing when it comes to landscaping and while I'm not striving for photo realism here I don't want it looking like a toy train set on carpet. From what others are reporting underlayment is the way to go and I'll place it between the pink foam and table. The sill foam also looks nice and the price is low enough that I can experiment. 

I still need to finish tearing down the rest of my track/scenery this weekend but once that's done I'll run some experiments with dB reader and post the results here. 

I use outdoor carpet also - I never hear any noise from the track.

I use 1/2 Homosote on plywood, I do not have any track noise.

2" rigid foam doesn't seem to quiet FasTrack much at all. And neither did adding a layer of indoor/outdoor carpeting over that. I switched to tinplate track over vinyl roadbed and that was much quieter until I ballasted it. It's now just as loud as FasTrack.

I heard a tin tubular track at a show once that sounded silky smooth and quiet. No hi pitched rattle, etc. really impressive mellow sound.

So here's the problem with all the "I use XXX and have no problems" posts: you're not stating if the track is secured or not. This makes a really big difference. Track that is screwed and/or ballasted will be noisier. The more secure the track, the more vibrations will be imparted to the table.

Carpeting is the best since it's the last rigid but not really the look I'm going for.

I don't screw it down, but do put an occasional screw just into the carpet if the FasTrack tries to pull apart at a curve, etc.

Didn't there used to be a ground foam ballast offered?  Seems like that wouldn't add any noise.  I never used to mind the noise, but man, if I were doing it over now I'd look for all kinds of ways to quiet the trains.

my Holiday Temporary Layouts have always used Carpet Padding and Carpet with dry Cork under the Track.  I also use Non Roadbed Track. Every time I use Real Trax or Fast track i get horrendous noise no matter what I do.  If I use Atlas/ K-line Shadow Rail or k-line Snap Track/Tinplate Track or MTH Scale Trax I get almost no noise.  All of these get Tacked down at Curves to stop from seperating and one or Two Screws in the long Straights just to keep them from Twisting out.  Most of the time Track on Carpet does not need to be tacked down as the carpet keeps it from moving. 

On my layout I had only Two loops of track out of 10 that made horrendous Noise and this was both Realtrax loops. One of them also extends across a 6 foot bridge.

This is what has worked and continues to work for me.  I intend to get away from the Roadbed track and go with the solid rail track of Atlas for this. 

With this noise issue A Roadbed Track I have found in my Opinion is always more noisy with rumble and vibration than non roadbed track. Also how tight that you tighten the track to the Sub surface has a Big influence on the amount of noise you get

Also for the OP Here is an Idea if you don't want Carpet on the entire Layout Use Carpet padding and Carpet Cut to the Width of your Track pieces and leave the rest bare Plywood.  you get the sound deading of the carpet and the Padding with out the rest of the layout looking Toy like

I have found an improvement with spraying the foam insulation as well.  I took it one step further and bought the woodland Scenics N scale roadbed, cut it length wise down the middle and laid along the edges of the fastrack I found this to greatly reduce the noise associated with the track  I ran it on just the main loop and ignored sidings for cost reasons and due to the low speeds on sidings have found it not to matter

As you can see in the photos it's just stapled down.  So can easily be pulled out and adjusted to get the placement correct. 

Not to speak for Jumijo, but I read his post as talking about balasting the tubular, which would make sense if there is now a more solid connection from track to surface if the balast mix is glued down around all the ties and also maybe along the length of the rails. 

This would have a lot more impact in adding (for tubular) to the surface area for the track to table interface than balasting the edge of the FasTrack that is already resting on the table.

I could be mistaken in my interpretation, of course.

-Dave

Yah, this has been discussed.   Years ago, it was suggested that SilSeal (TM) a roll of flexible foam with a wavy surface about the width of Fastrack would make a good filler for Fastrack.  Its available at building supply stores, though perhaps not by that trademark name.

I have used that idea, and with a hot glue gun, glued foam inside every piece of fastrack on my layout.  It took me about 6 hours total for my 6' X 12' double-track layout.   The wavy surface facing up, the flat surface down facing the layout surface.    It works pretty good.   In my informal testing (I also have Atlas-O on my layout) the sound of trains rolling by is about the same for the treated Fastrack and the Atlas-O.

Neither track is nailed or screwed down, just left floating.  [I don't have issues with the sections coming apart].   I use cork roadbed beneath the Atlas and N-scale cork roadbed beneath the edges of the fastrack.   It is important that neither track contact directly your train board surface and transmit vibrations.  -Ken

So I did some quasi scientific testing today. In each test I kept as many variables the same as possible: throttle set to the same position, same engine/cars and in the same order, same oval of track (O36 with 2 10" straights), and iPhone with dB app held at the same spot. Here's what I have so far:

FasTrack sitting on plywood table top = 90-95 dB

FasTrack sitting on 2" glued down pink foam = 88-92 dB

track + foam + 1/4" cork = 85-90 dB

This seems to confirm my hunch that rigid materials really don't do much to reduce noise. Next round will be to put some sort of thin, soft material such as the SillSealer foam or flooring underlayment between the track and pink foam. 

I know carpet would work best but that's not a look I want. As for the idea of cutting the carpet to fit just the track, all I can say is have you ever tried cutting carpeting? 

I also know Atlas track is much quieter. Problem is I already have money invested in FasTrack and given the absurdly high prices that Atlas and Lionel demand for switches I can't really afford to go out and drop $600+ on new track. Later this year/next year the layout will hopefully be moving into the garage at which point I'll switch over to Atlas and repurpose the FasTrack as a below the table staging area. 

BTW why are O gauge switches so expensive?!?! My N scale Kato switches are $35 with the switch lever. That's less than half what a Lionel switch goes for. Yes, I know there is more material involved in a larger switch but material costs are usually one of the lowest contributors to price. Labor is the biggest and I'd guess that putting together tiny N scale switches is more difficult/time consuming than a larger O gauge switch. I can only assume it's because there is less demand for O gauge.

I know carpet would work best but that is not a look I want.  As for the Idea of Cutting the carpet to fit just the track, all I can say is have you ever tried to cut carpeting?

yes I have done this trick.  I used a special Carpeting knife that can cut both directions it is expensive but did the trick for me.

SeattleSUP,

Check it with just an engine and remove the rolling stock noise from the test. They are their own noise chambers.

You guys kill me me, you want a easy track system then you complain it is too noisy. It has a plastic road bed what did you expect? With all the supposed fixes that really don't work and adds to the cost of the track.

use GG or Ross track and switches with a cork road bed on top of foam and your noise problem goes away. Pretty simple eh!

Solution-earplugs

Good Day,

I would suggest Midwest cork inserted under the track. You will need to modify the underside of the track and insert the cork. This will reduce the noise considerably.  

Regards,

Swafford 

JAM-ACDC,wide open.

I don't understand the issue.

Trains are loud.

Even a doubleheaded, 18-car consist going at full speed on my uninsulated Fastrack run isn't what I'd consider loud, and it has an almost realistic "roar" of a train going by.

I used shingles, then trimmed away. No problems with noise.

 Put sheet foam reasonably thick, or some cork, under your table legs. It will drop it to a degree til you put sub-roadbed in, assuming you have the legs on tile or concrete

I found what works really well under the legs on concrete in a basement.  I bought a package of those 2 ft square 1/2" thick rubber mats that fit together and cut one up intp 4" pieces. They cut easily with a box cutter. Put one under each leg and presto  -  sound is cut way down.

I'm surprised to see the multitude of posts.  It is an easy task to reduce noise via sound deadening wall/ceiling materials and placing track on a sound deadening, rubber or cork works very well, material.  Trains, real or model aren't designed to be quiet.