Craig has some great info

I really like listening to Craig on the MRH sponsor Model Railcast.  His 10 Commandments for a Yard are a must read.

Steve

Thanks Dan

Thanks Dan, I'm pretty sure that's where I got the idea to cut the thickness down of the homasote, not to mention the beveled edges.

How many cubic feet of gray

How many cubic feet of gray dust do you get from ripping a sheet of homasote into roadbed?

Charlie

How many cubic feet of gray

From my experience, I'd hazard around 3200 cubic feet of gray "dust" (fluffier than dust though, more like a gray paper snow).

Speaking from experience... 

Speaking from experience...  a lot.  I remember ripping up my roadbed and glad I did it outside in my driveway.  I almost filled up my blue recycling bin with the what I swept up once I was done.  I followed Craig's instructions on his website too.

All that said, I prefer Homasote for hand laying track.  Call me a dinosaur or throwback, but I love spiking track.

See where you are going with your comment though.  It does seem like an incredible waste of material.

Dust

I don't see what the big deal is.  OK, so you create a bunch of dust once a year, so what?  Its not like you are scattering radioactive waste around the neighborhood.  Normally when I've cut Homasote spline or roadbed we've done several sheets at a time so we've made enough material for a year or two's worth of layout building.

A saw kerf is a saw kerf.  Whether you are ripping hardboard into 1/2" strips or ripping Homasote into 2" strips, the kerfs are the same width so "waste" the same amount of material.  Its just that Homasote dust is fluffier so looks like there is more.

If you are really frugal, you could use the Homasote dust in place of Celluclay in ground goop.

I remember a scenery material that was quite a rage 30 years ago

When I first got into the hobby in the 1980's I remember articles in the magazines suggesting using a 50/50 mix of Portland cement and paper to make hard shell.  It was supposed to be much lighter in weight than the typical hydrocal plaster hardshell material that was popular at the time.  I'm wondering if homosote dust could be mixed with cement to make hardshell?

Or Perhaps...

Maybe dye it green and use it as ground foam?

I think the guys were just

joking about it and not really making a big deal of it.

EDIT:After reading another thread concerning Homasote, I retract my statement. 

Hardshell

I have a Kalmbach layout building book from the late 50's or early 60's my dad bought me when I started that suggests that asbestos shorts should be mixed into the plaster mix for scenery to make it stronger.

Funny, I haven't seen that advice in the magazines lately.......

Asbestos

Given that asbestos is a dangerous item to use in any place where there are people, I doubt if you'll find anything but a lawyer's letter announcing a class action suit against anyone who knowingly uses the stuff today.

Irv

Irv, I think his last sentence was "tongue in cheek"