Interested in this thread

I'm interested to hear people's opinions on this one.  I am beginning a new layout, and considering the same thing.

On my first few layouts, I used cork roadbed over foam, and over homasote.  Cork over homasote was the most quiet.

On my most successful layout to date, I used Woodland Scenics foam roadbed over 1" blue extruded foam board.  I glued it all down with white glue.  This was very successful, but it was rather loud.  Also, there is the issue of transitioning to yards with no roadbed.

I built two 4-foot modules for a club, and decided to use no roadbed at all.  I glued the track directly to the 1" blue foam board.  I used a hot wire tool to carve roadbed forms out of the foam for the main line, and left the yard and branch with no profile.  After adding scenery and ballast, you would only know there wasn't actually any roadbed if you looked for it!  I thought it looked pretty good.  I've attached a few pictures here, although they weren't designed to show the roadbed.

Right now, I'm leaning toward no roadbed for my new layout.  It will save a lot of money, and give that feeling of a gritty, not-so-well maintained coal branch line.  I may break down and use roadbed for only the short stretch of main line.

I Wish I had Not

I used roadbed for my industrial layout, and then spent considerable effort building up the surrounding area so that it would not look like my industrial branch was sitting on a high profile right of way. If you aren't concerned about noise levels, I would pass on the roadbed except on the main. Industry tracks are rarely built up much above the surrounding area.

No roadbed? Realistic, sometimes!

I model the Seattle and North Coast short line, and the tracks in many places when this line existed in the early 1980s were literally sinking into the mud, not elevated above surrounding terrain much or at all.  Through Port Angeles, the western terminus of the line, tracks ran past or into pulp, paper and wood mills, and I was always astonished at how far they would sink under a passing train without causing derailments.  The right-of-way surrounding the tracks was generally an oily, muddy mess - probably the primary reason for a low speed limit throughout the line.

One of the nicer layouts I

One of the nicer layouts I have seen as far as differences in road bed go used 3 different heights. It was in ho scale and the main was ho cork with n scale cork on top of that, sidings were ho scale cork, industry tracks were n scale cork. The three different heights looked good on his layout and provided a nice difference in appearance. You may have something else in mind for your setting, the ultimate test will be what looks good to you in the context of your modeled area.

I'd use roadbed ...

... simply to provide the correct profile/contour for what I was modeling.  If the tracks are ground level, then none is required.  Most tracks are elevated at least slightly to provide drainage ... this is what I'd size the roadbed for.

I like the idea of having different profiles for the various "types" of tracks; it is my intention to do the same on my small O-scale switching layout.

I think I'll skip the

I think I'll skip the roadbed. It will help me save a bit of money.

Thank you so much for the help.

I found HO cork to be too

I found HO cork to be too high for my tastes on my last layout, but I did sand it down to a profile that I thought looked more realistic.  On my current layout, I'm considering using N-scale cork roadbed for the ballast contour and then gluing down a 1/4-in layer of foam sheet offset from the tracks by a half inch or so.  I'll contour the edge of the quarter-inch foam for ditches along the right of way rather than dig trenches into my foam subroadbed.

I could use quarter-inch foam for the roadbed.  However, I hate to ballast, and the dark mottled color of cork looks a lot more like ballast to me than stippled or unpainted foam.  Not sure which way I'll go yet.

I've tried Woodland Scenics foam roadbed and wasn't happy with it.

Drum

If you are putting the foamcore on top of plywood no problem. If no subroadbed then the foamcore will act as the cone of a loudspeaker. Verry,verry noisy.
 

sound

It seems odd to put down cork roadbed if we point speakers in locos sometimes facing downward.

This sounds(pun intended) like a sound test experiment!!!!  Wink-wink, nudge-nudge, say no more.

Luis isn`t cork cheap in Portugal?

Hi all. Well, I am a going to

Hi all.

Well, I am a going to skip the cork road bed, and lay own the track directly on the foam subroadbed.

I am going to try to replicated a low traffic branch line, not a class 1 line, so I think this is the correct way to do it.

Thank you all for the answers.