I have hand laid my share of

I have hand laid my share of track and switches. You are right, don't try to go directly into plywood. Even using ME  short spikes you may go through the tie and into the ply which will be increase the difficulty level. What I switched to on the last section of my railroad and honestly what I will use again in the future is 1/2" drywall. I used a sheet of this in my main yard and laid the ties directly onto the material then the rail on top. As you can see see in the picture I attached turnout templates directly to the drywall and built all my turnouts in place.  

Now after saying all that in the future I will probably change one thing. I think I would switch to using ME code 70 flex track. The rail detail is far superior than Atlas. Some will say it is a PITA to lay, and they are right to some extent, but if you take your time and form the curves it becomes fairly easy to lay after a little practice. I believe that I will always hand lay my turnouts. they just look better and you can build exactly what you want, not what someone thinks you want. 

laying on plywood

I would not suggest laying track directly on the base. You can't easily make recesses for ditches and other lowered details.

Homabed in Canada

Greg,

  I am the owner of Cascade Rail Supply which makes Homasote roadbed (Homabed).  I have a number of Canadian customers and ship direct to Canada quite frequently.  If you want to take a look, my web site is cascaderailsupply.com and you can contact me directly through there if you have any questions about the products.

Steve Cox

Cascade Rail Supply

 "Pricing the cost of Micro

The big benefit to hand laying is the turnouts. Flextrack for everything else is more efficient and looks better due to having spike and tie plate details( adding tie plates and 4 spikes per tie to hand laid HO scale track would only be a good way to pass time in prison). Once the PC board and wooden ties of a turnout are painted and ballasted they blend right in with flextrack.  I'd go with Atlas code 83 for the best bang for the buck,check the price from MB Klein.  For road bed I'd use cork sheet and cut it to width for the track and the turnouts, a big roll can be bought at a home depot or other builders supply. Glue the cork to the roadbed with white or yellow glue and glue the flextrack to the cork with a thin layer of acrylic caulking.It just takes a thin layer to hold the track so don't make it too thick, you want it to stay below the tie tops.....DaveB

Thanks Steve

Thanks for the clarification. I will check out the product.

@ DaveB

My supplier here in Canada actually has Peco Code 83 flex slightly cheaper than Atlas. Thinking going that way. I like the idea of the sheet cork.

"My supplier here in Canada

    Hi Greg, If Peco doesn't cost more then I'd go with it.  The cork sheet is a nice way to get blanks for under the turnouts and it's easy to cut it to width for the straights and curves, a good pair of scissors is all it requires. The sheet cork I've used is not as thick as commercial cork roadbed but should be fine for an industrial switching district. If you want to hand lay your turnouts on the work bench you can cut out thin plywood roadbed blanks and glue the ties to them then solder the rails. Once the turnout is finished the plywood can be glued or tacked down to the layout. If the thin plywood is matched to the flextrack height everything comes out nice and smooth.....DaveB

I second the...

cork under layment. I'm using it to cover my entire 2" foam. I bought mine online from one of the big box stores. I than use cork sub-roadbed for the main and transition to just the cork sheet for a lower track profile on sidings and spurs.        John

height of ties?

The height of ties on various brands should not be an issue as they will most likely be almost flush or slightly covered with ballast or dirt, eh? The only reason to question it would be if you were mixing brands it would require some shimming. John Colley, Sonoma, CA

"The height of ties on

and in an industrial area a few bumps and dips just add to the realistic atmosphere.......DaveB 

Handlaying track

Greg

Having hand laid track one bit of advice is to stain the ties first, then sand them. Although the ties before you are supposed to be the same height I have often found they vary some what. By staining them first then sanding you can tell when they are all the same height  once the stain has been sanded off. Use a 120-180 grit sandpaper.

Don

Roadbed material?

Anybody ever try using ceiling tiles?

I bring up the question because the front side with a white coating is covered in holes, BUT the back side is grey and solid. It cuts very easy with a utility knife and I suspect is not prone to expansion with water although it can fall apart. It does dry fast though. It is also available pretty much anywhere in the US in 2x2 or 2x4 sheets and for the amount you get seems pretty cheap. No idea on how good it is in holding spikes or track nails.

Any thoughts?

Jack