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Roadbed - what's yours made of?

2K views 26 replies 21 participants last post by  Bill Webb 
#1 ·
Still planning the big ceiling layout. Found a stash of Atlas track. What do you use for roadbed for noise reduction?

I've priced cork. Also looking at the Woodland Scenics foam track bed. I like it for the fact that you don't have to soak it and can just glue and go.

Thoughts?
 
#3 ·
I have Gargraves track. On part of the layout, I have rolled grass mat, on part I have very thin cork and on part I have rolled roofing material. I use these for the appearance, not the sound deadening properties, but I suspect the cork and the roofing material reduce the noise slightly. I don’t really notice much difference in noise level for the three materials. Gargraves track with its wooden ties is already fairly quiet.
 
#6 ·
When I built my current layout, I tried several different types of roadbed. My main goal was sound deadening, but the profile was also important.

I tried cork because that was what I had used in the past and was comfortable working with it. It did not do a very job of sound suppression in my opinion, but is very easy to work with.

I tried rubber and it was very good, but expensive.

Last I tried Woodland Scenics foam. It was by far the best for sound and had the profile I was looking for and was thin so it would take less ballast. I also tried sill gasket foam from Home Depot. It was as good for sound, least expensive, but I would have had to hand cut the bevel for the profile.

So I used the sill gasket in all my tunnels where you can't see it and WS foam everywhere else. I did not use it in my yards because I wanted a lower profile compared to the mainlines and trains go so slow there that the sound wasn't an issue.

Just my two cents worth.

Art
 
#18 ·
As some guy named “Vern” pointed out elsewhere, I don’t have a layout yet, but I plan on using 1” insulation board on top of plywood with cork roadbed under the mainline tracks...

Tom
 
#23 ·
Well, I suspect it's pretty much of a dead heat. Also, I'm guessing a lot depends on what's under the roadbed. I tried to do as much as I could to make the base layout quiet. All the parts of the main layout are solidly attached, no chance of the plywood vibrating on the benchwork below, etc. Then there's a layer of Homasote to add to the vibration deadening properties of the table.
 
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