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10 Responses to Why Use Cork For Underlay?
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Woodland Senics makes a black, foam roadbed which you can use. It
doesn’t have the structural strengh of cork and track can be bent if leaned upon.
A good question, which calls for an honest answer,
Just because cork has been used traditionally as a track underlay for ever doesn’t mean it is “outdated”. Many scratch builders are returning to paper and card for their buildings even though plastic card is a wonderful product so it is with cork.
There are other products – plastic foam (complete with sleeper impressions); sticky epoxy types more commonly used to seal the joints between panels on motor vehicles; polystyrene foam is gaining favour as a complete baseboard/scenery/track bed.
One reason they are not taken up with the same consistency as cork is their price – cork is cheap. It comes in rolls, pre-cut with a bevel to represent the shoulder of a railway track, it comes as floor tiles and in sheets. All very handy for the modeller.
Sometimes I think we put the cart before the horse. Why do we put anything under our track?
There are two reasons, firstly to imitate the shoulder of the line, as most railway line is built up from the natural surface – even in a cutting the rail will sit on a bed of ballast represented by the roadbed material we use. The other reason, and I think the more important from and operational point of view is the noise abatement properties of our track bed. Rails laid directly on a timber construction convey the noise of gears, motors and bearings to the structure which then amplifies it. Cork or another flexible product between the timber and the rails has a tendency to interrupt the flow of noise and the layout is quieter. Then we bang in trackpins which brings back all thar unwanted noise.
On the layout I am currently building the whole surface (track areas, streets, under buildings) will be covered in a thin (3mm) poly-foam sheet normally used under floating floors. This will be stuck down using a propriety spray glue so that it cannot move in relation to the foundation structure, but will have a certain amount of give. All track, scenery, buildings etc. will be glued on top of this membrane so that there will be no direct connection between the track and the sub structure..
I hope, by using this method, to keep unnatural noise to a minimum and to enjoy the clickety-clack of the rail joints and the sound of my locos un-interrupted.
I actually pondered over this before starting my layout & decided to do a decibel meter sound test using cork v 3mm closed-cell foam laid on 9mm plywood using a latex adhesive (known as Copydex in the UK) and the cork turned out to be 5 to 10 decibels louder although having now adopted the closed-cell foam method as a result of this, it doesn’t significantly seem any quieter, especially as I have several trains running at same time!
Richard of East Mids UK
Hi Bernie, David says it pretty well Cork is preformed to show raised road bed. Noise is reduced by forming a barrier from the track to the plywood. If running straight on the plywood the sound and echo from the trains rolling on the track. You would be surprised just how much quieter your layout is after adding cork. yes there is foam under lament but it also is more flexible and uneven rail can occur. Actually there are diagrams that show in addition to cork layers which makes a much higher raised roadbed. But anything you do is helpful. If you are using the foam roadbed I suggest you use apex caulk to hold that roadbed and in turn use it to hold your track in place. It does help keep the track from sinking and not using track nails will help not pull your rains down into the foam like nails do. Another advantage of Apex caulk is if you do need to pull up a section of track and also the roadbed you can do so without messing it up by sliding a puddy knife uner the tracks and then the roadbed for such as adjusting the track curve for instance. But cork is really your best material to do this. I lay down Homasote as a layer and lay cork and track on top of that . Homasote helps deaden noise, supports well, and gives an easy material to poke in trees and light poles and other things. Really if you were not raising your road bed then laying track straight on the roadbed would work and still dampen noise. from Newman
I use cork on 2″ foam sheets without the Homasote. I run a thin bead of caulk down the center line of my track plan and spread it with a putty knife. I lay the cork right on that. When it comes to track laying I do the same thing, caulk, then track. I use push pins to hold the track until the caulk sets up and then pull the pins. You get little or no track noise thru your layout. Cork sheets make great road beds for yards. I get mine from a home goods store in the shelving section.
Jerry, I like you have got away from nailing down the cork or track. Only on occasion do I use small nails where I might use a piece of flex to cross from one module to the other to hold it in place where I don’t want to glue it down. I also find that for if some reason I need to pull up some track, A thin putty knife srapping under the ties till I am all the way across the track the track will come right up. Same with the cork. a lot less work that setting and pulling nails.
The old way of setting track with nails, I included might get the nails too tight and pull the tie down and that pulls the rail toward each other messing up the gauge of the rail I use APEX Clear caulk and it hold very well. Where nails that you might install to hold the track to styro foam you will find the nails will work back out . APEX clear caulk by Dap works well ,and easy to remove you will find at Menards at probably cheaper than any other caulk there.
I have read all of the advantages of cork in the above replies, but I don’t use cork. In fact, I don’t use any roadbed. My layout’s surface is made of sound board (Homasote), on top of plywood. To me, the cork roadbed is too high. I tack my track into place, then spread the ballast onto it. I don’t spray it with glue either, since my layout never moves, it all stays in place. This allows me the freedom to make any changes to the track work that I want too, without chipping away at glued down stuff, and glue-frozen track. As far as the noise factor, the more noise that the wheels make, I think better. Trains are supposed to be noisy in my opinion, I like it. While this all seems unconventional, and it is, it works for me. My friend calls my layout “Editable”. I find that changing the track work and routes now and then, makes it more interesting. I’m always coming up with ideas for a new spur or added customer on the layout, I just “Edit” it in.
Jay,
Do you have any problems with loose ballast getting into the locomotives gearing?
Well, that’s a good question. I do have a problem with ballast getting into the turnouts points and frogs, but not in my engine’s gearing, but I’m sure it possible. What I do get in the engine’s gearing is dust and little fine hairs, and I can’t figure out where the hairs are coming from ( I keep the cat out of the train room). I use small tweezers to clean the dust and hairs off of moving parts mainly the axles. I do run a Vacuum car and track cleaner around the layout about once/week, to clean the track, and if the vacuum is running too high (it’s DCC controlled), it will such up some ballast and sometimes jam the vacuum.
Jay and Neal, Try not to get the ballast too deep. I have a friend that has areas where the ballast is too deep. The wheels tend to go bouncing through them basically raising the wheels up off the rail riding on the ballast. Once you get the ballast to the level you want you want to seal it down so loose stuff stays out of your switch rails and dragging into your guard rails where it is hard to drag the ballast level down I mixture of white glue and water has worked well so far for me. It coats the ballast down and helps keep it from dragging where you don’t want it. I run on code 100 rail and it is a taller rail but when I go to my friends he has the shorter code 83. It is less forgiving when that ballast piles up from Newman