Options to Attach Cork to Base

You can use a number of products. From yellow carpenter's glue, too some of the high powered adhisives in tubs.

But what ever you do take an obital sander and sand the cork after it drys and before you put the track on it.

This for one thing will make the edges round and smooth and make your ballesting job a lot easier down the road.

Sanding the cork after

Sanding the cork after installation is sound advice. But I'd recommend using a 16" long sanding block wrapped with 50 grit instead. You'll be less likely to inadvertantly sand dips and hollows into the cork.

Charlie

Shaping the spline

One thing to keep in mind is joe is shaping his spline to provide a roadbed if I remember. If you do not do that, then you may want to have the cork to help provide a shoulder..

I don't know about noise. There was an article about track noise in the recent model railroader special edition but they didnt cover cork on spline. Their whole thing was that cork on camper tape on plywood (or whatever) created the least noise.

Chris

I do a little over kill as I

I do a little over kill as I use 1/2 inch thick plywood then 1/2 inch thick Homasote and then 1/4 inch cork except in yards I delete the Cork and use 1/2 Homasote on 1/2 plywood and I have always used yellow carpenters Glue and steel plates 24 inch, 36 inch and 48 inch long 1/4 inch thick & 2-1/2 inches wide as a gluing aid to help keep the roadbed flat and smooth while the glue dries.

Dan

Material Thickness

I am at the stage of my layout where I will begin laying subroadbed.  I plan on using 1/2 inch plywood, homosote, and cork roadbed below the track.  I've been wondering how to smooth the 1/4 inch transition, due to the difference in material thickness, from mainline to flat or yard areas where plywood is used and the track is laid directly on the homosote without the cork roadbed.

Another option I've been considering because of cost and to avoid overkill on noise dampening, is to use 1/2 inch plywood and cork on the mainline and plywood and homosote in flat areas.  This will still create a transition due to the different thickness of the materials.  Any suggestions?

Use a sanding block

It is not too difficult to create your transition from a ballasted mainline to an unbalasted spur with a sanding block to create a "wedge" of cork for the transition.  If you lay a piece of flex track on cork roadbed at one end and let it naturally fall to the level of the subroadbed, you will get a good idea of how much transition the rail wants.  Just be careful to make sure you don't start your transition until after yur track has cleared the turnout.  Turnouts don't like any twist.  If you are laying flex track, I would continue the full height ballast at least 1-2 inches past the end of the switch, and secure the end of the flex very well to that 1-2 inches and then allow it to transition.  The main thing is don't let the end of the flex that is connected to the switch be allowed to twist or torque the switch in any way.

Hi Brian      I transition

Hi Brian

I transition from HO scale cork to N scale between the main and yard areas. I have used two methods in the past. One is as described above, use a sanding block to create a smooth "ramp" from one area to the next. Another way to achieve the same thing (especially if going from cork to plywood) is to use small wooden shims. These are available in packages of eight or ten from your friendly, local big box lumber store. The shims are pretty close in heigth (hmmm, i before e except?) to HO scale cork at the big end and are easily sanded to a smooth taper at the other. The other responders are also correct in that I leave at least three to four inches beyond the end of either the tangent or diverging track at a turnout. Hope this helps.                                   Gerry S.

glueing cork and track

I have found that just white glue works well with glueing cork to the plywood i just need to use alot of tacks to hold it in place while it dries for 30 minets or so. And i have heard that the glue tubes used for foam board work well on glueing track to cork becouse it never fully harden's but you can still attach your ballast and a few nails to hold the track in place while the balast dries but in useing that glue on the track it can be romoved without distroying the track.