I've had my guys use it for underlayment when used under thin set Hardwood flooring for a number of years and never thought to use it for road bed as it breaks if you bend it too far. 

Easy-mat is a long lasting rubber & foam material that would more than likely work just fine as road bed for HO & N scale as long as you keep the Curved radius no sharper than 15"r & as long as you cut it in the narrow widths no wider than 1 inch wide making the two piece roadbed described in the MR article in order to avoid the breaking.

The best thing about it is that is Does NOT dry out like cork roadbed at least not for many many years.

For those of you that hand lay track it should hold spikes much tighter than cork or homosote being more rubber and rubber foam and should grip the spikes much tighter.

If you use it for the larger scales "O" and "G" I would suggest cutting it into 3 or 4 strips to avoid the tendedency for breakage or actually splitting and separation of the rubber from the foam balls.

As far as sound suppression I have no Idea how much it would help on model railroads to eliminate the rattle but, under hardwood flooring it takes 90% of the foot traffic noise and deadens it.

So it's really up to you all to try it for road bed. Personally Had I thought of it myself before buying 12 Boxes of Cork road bed it would have saved me some money and instead only cost me more time.

Dan

I read the article too.. I am definitely going to try it.

Chris

I called Terry my interior forman and asked him if he had some he could bring by the shop today but they don't have any right now as we have no flooring jobs until November and I don't want to buy a piece right now so I really would like to here your evaluation on using the Easy Mat.

Terry came over to my shop this afternoon and after the busniess stuff was over we statred talking about Easy Mat. He said that the 5mm thick Mat is almost the same thickness as the cork roadbed I use and he said I was wrong about it coming apart when you make a radius as the Mat is very flexable and said you could take an 8 inch long piece and and lay it flat on the table top and twist it into a circle or flat ring touching the stuff end to end without breaking it. Can't do that with cork.

Like the articule in MR said any type glue will hold the mat and even MEK doesn't have much of any type of an effect on Easy Mat

He also said that if you buy the Mat with the peel and stick make sure the wood surface in very clean and DUST Free. Clean to the point of takeing a wet sponge and a bucket of clean water. Use a damp sponge to wipe down the wood areas where you want to stick it on and then give it a few hours to dry before sticking it down.

If you put the sticky side down in the wrong spot you can pull it up right away but if you press it in place and leave it  and come back an hour later it doesnt come up without a heat gun and a 2 or 3 inch wide putty knife with a lot of elbo greese to get it up.

Any way chris let us know what you think I have a couple of yard areas that the EasyMat may be the hot ticket.

Dan

....with the sample i have then, because when I try to bend it to any kind of radius, it cracked.  It is very dry and stiff to the touch.  So if you can Chris, post your findings, good or bad, about the stuff, that would be great.  And Dan, whatever you find too, would be very helpful.  Though with only 5mm and 3mm available, i'm leaning back towards the more expensive Flexxbed (formerly Vinylbed).  That material comes in several different thicknesses <I use 1/4" (Main), 3/16" (Siding), and 1/8" (Spur) > and i know it works, but it is expensive.   Although, I could if one combines the 3 mm and 5mm though it ends up being  .315", with the  5 mm = .1969", and the 3mm = .1181",

Unfortuantely, to be consistent, i will have to choose either or, so when I start construction again, I need to decide whether to continue ith the flexxbed, or go with the Easy Mat.  Next time I'm at Home Dept, i might try to speak to the Dept mgr and ask if I bought a roll, and kept the receipt, could I return it if I have cut off a couple inches off of it.  I doubt it, but if I can return it if it doesn't work, especially with the pink and blue insulation foam board, then i might just try it, and let you all know. 

Ken L.

It will be a bit of time before I try it.. but I will definitely post back when I do. My model railroad efforts are languishing while I try to figure out what the heck I am going to do next. After another bathtub leak last night I am really questioning if I want to use the part of my space that extends under the kids bathroom for model railroad..

Ken, what radius did you try to bend it to? Was it split like was described in the artricle.. that is.. the roadbed being made up of two strips like cork is?

The photos in the article show long rolling curves... maybe tighter curves are an issue.

Chris

Ken you have to split the roadbed like the cork type comes, having each piece including the beveled edge cut to only 1 inch wide so when the 2 sides are assembled on the table they make a total of 2 inches wide.

If the Mat is stiff set it in the direct sun light for 20 min and it will soften up and stays soft for a few hours. I'm talking about the 5mm as it is almost exactingly the same thickness as the HO Midwest Cork split and flip road bed that I use. If you let Midwest cork roadbed set and dry out it gets real stiff and will split and break with only a 22 in Radius also and if you heat it up it bends and flexes easier also. IMHO I would do the same with the 3mm also as it being thinner it may break easier.

I called Terry back a little while after reading your post Ken and he said the 8 inch long piece he was bending was 5mm X 3/8 inch wide and had been setting on a cast aluminum alloy Table saw that the sun was shinning on for a few hours. That may have been how he made it bend into a flat donut so easily.

If I have time this week I'll run by Lows and buy 4 square feet (I think that's the smallest piece you can buy) I think they sell by the square foot  with a 12 inch X 48 inch Minimum starter off the roll. Then next week end I'll play with the Mat and see what it will take but I'm not making any promesses.

Dan

buy 4 square feet

Oooh thats cool.. I didnt realize we could buy in piece.. I thought I had to buy a whole roll.

When I get back from vacation I will buy some to try spiking.

Chris

is to peak the interests of those grand kids of yours, whether it be with Thomas the Tank Engine or a beautifully detailed scale model.  You'll have a lot of fun with them in any case and maybe get them interested in this fantastic hobby.  And if anyone gets snooty about Thomas next to your BLI loco, you can tell them that you're fortunate enough to operate with your grand kids. 

When it comes to running Thomas on a layout, Rule 1 clearly applies.

One of these days I'm going to wire a decoder into a Thomas and let him loose in the mid-Willamette Valley... I've got nephews.