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Track Bedding Help
Kent lists his scales as HO and N and asks:
“I bought two 8 ft. H x 8 ft. W Spruce Pine Fir Dog-Ear Fence Panels for an eight foot split gate. I have two 8×4 panels. Is it too heavy to work with? Also what about pool table felt for bedding? Green felt for grass? Any thoughts please.”
2 Responses to Track Bedding Help
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Kent;
Weight probably won’t be your problem. These panels are made from individual pieces of lumber held together with pieces of lumber across the back. Wood is a hygroscopic material so unless you can really control the humidity in your layout room you will probably have issues with expansion and contraction. Plywood reduces the issue by having multiple ply’s at 90 degrees to each other.
As to using pool table felt to simulate grass, my thoughts are that the colour is consistent across the whole sheet. In the real world any grass field will have multiple shades of green and probably some other colours as well. If you wish to model reality this may not be the best option. If all you are trying to do is hide the construction material it could work.
I to researched the possibilities of how to begin a layout just one year ago. Bill is correct about the wood, it would be a huge problem for you, not only due to expansion etc, but just using wood itself is a hard days work, whether plywood or planks.
In my opinion there is only one platform to use for model train layouts. 2″ pink insulating foam that comes in a 4′ x 8′ sheet. I don’t know the metric conversions nor the availability worldwide of this material. I built a 3.5′ x 6.5′ layout bordered the foam with 1×6″ dimensional lumber and cross braced with 3 boards that were 1×4″, laid the foam on that and it is marvelous to work with. I use an ice pick to drop my feeders, and sometimes a long drill bit. it cuts nicely with any type of saw or foam cutter. Also it is very quiet. Why would you want to mess and difficulty of plywood? I have no sawdust to clean. Finally the ONLY track bed I would ever use is Woodland Scenics Foam track bed. it is VERY EASY to make curves, it is very quiet, and extremely easy to cut and it also comes in sheets for ease of working with “Yard layouts” Why would you want to mess with soaking cork and waiting for it to be flexible enough to curve? Again there is no mess. Hope this helps.