Not sure

Hi,

not sure if I understand what you're trying to do. You're building a layout on a plywood base and you want to reduce the noise?

One way to reduce the "noise" (well, perception does differ) is to reinforce the plywood with more of a sub-frame. Just add some lumber below the plywood to have less large "open" spaces of plywood. This will reduce the plywood's ability to vibrate, reducing the noise level.

As you're asking about the use of carpet tiles, I think they would work well. Just laminate the carpet tiles to the underside of the plywood and - as above - it will reduce the plywood's ability to vibrate, reducing the noise level.

What I don't understand - why would the track go on the carpet tile? I'm not sure what you're trying to do.

Have fun.

I'm a Bit Confused Too

My own experience with carpet dates from when I was a kid. Eventually I got old enough to take the shell off my diesel loco and discovered that through whatever means bits of dog, human and carpet lint? had gotten into the mechanism and wrapped around whatever it could.

Maybe you can post a photo of what you want to do?

Anyway it sounds like you want to put carpet squares on top of the plywood, lay your track on top of that and run trains. Putting the squares on upside down will be safer for the motors and gears. Confusion comes because you are defying one of the unwritten laws of MRing. Laying track on carpet, so a photo would help.

Jack

Sounds like..

Sounds like he wants to use the carpet as subroadbed instead of using cork or homasote? 

I would advise against it, unless he's putting the carpet on the underside of the wood, which may or may not work. 

As Jack asked, can you post a pic of what you want to do?

Neal

Carpet pile

Assumptions:   You are going to put carpet tiles over the entire plywood surface of the layout.

Laying track on the carpet pile is probably a bad idea if you want to add any other scenery or want hills or valleys in the scenery.

If you are just going to have a flat top table and not going to add ballast, grass, dirt or other scenery stuff,  just going to have track on the surface, it will work.  Especially if you use the track like KATO Unitrack.

If you want scenery, then it might not work as well.  You can get other products that have a foam or closed cell rubber construction to use as a base.  A friend buys rolls of "topper tape", used as a seal between a pickup truck bed and toppers/campers, at an RV dealer and uses that for roadbed.  The problem is when you add ballast and glue it, or add scenery and glue it, the rigid glue transmits noise to the plywood.

Carpet and trains don't mix

Track on carpet is a bad idea,. You WILL end up with fuzz in the mechanisms, to the point of eventually binding them up permanently.

the reason carpet works to dampen sound is because of the reduced transmission of vibrations through different densities of materials. There's nothing "magical" about the carpet itself.

You can do the same with successive layers of plywood and foam, and actually, the more layers, the better the damping. Rigidly mounting the plywood on an "egg crate" style framework would help, too, bur it needs to be RIGIDLY attached (screws into the frame every 3-4 inches), not just laid on top of it.   My son bought a condo a while bacvk that had squeaky floors...   when he put in new flooring, we went in and screwed the subfloor down tightly every 6 inches... it took a couple weeks and thousands of screws, but there's only one small spot in the place now that creaks at all when you walk on it.

Layout

Thanks for all your replies they are very much appreciated.

The carpet tiles are 500 x 500 mm in size and rubber backed. My thoughts are to use the rubber side to lay the track on and have the carpet material facing down onto the plywood. I appreciate that a problem that could occur with residue carpet lodging in the locomotive mechanism, I will not be taking that risk.

I have run the noisiest locomotive and the noise reduction is remarkable, well within acceptable limits.

In Australia we had a product called Kanite, very similar to Homasote. Unfortunately no longer available, it was a great sound suppressor.

Sorry couldn't reduce the picture. However it may give you an idea of what I want use. Carpet piole left, rubber backing to the right.

Moderator note: reduced photo size to 750px.

Caution Advised

Unless you're just running a train around a Christmas Tree for a short time, I think you are just asking for trouble.  

The trains will be even quieter though, when they're all jammed with lint, and can’t move at all. 

And the lint will find its way up between the tiles, etc. Even if the carpet tiles are laid face down.  Carpet fibres get everywhere thanks to static charge.  The track will also shift constantly unless you glue it, and then the glue will be a sounding board and have you back pretty much where you are now with the bare plywood. 

Cork and caulking or white glue or spikes.  There is a reason most of the layouts on here use almost anything but carpet.

Rubber Side

My thoughts are to use the rubber side to lay the track on

I think some folks missed the intent here. If you click on the large photo, you can see the track to be affixed to the "rubber side" of the carpet. I don't think I would try this but it could work. Track feeders will have to be placed through the carpet strips which might be a pain in the backside. And you will need to use a generous amount of adhesive to stick the carpet side to the supporting surface. Just a couple of thoughts.

rubber side up

  I guess it could be worth a try. You have to figure out what sticks to the rubber backing for track and scenery installation. The carpet tiles maybe could  just be stapled to the plywood table? Not my cup of tea but i like to see the results of folks thinking outside the box....DaveB  BTW I have those type carpet tiles in my TT scale layout room and they are great, nice tight weave makes it easy to keep them clean and to find dropped parts. 

Your better off using cork or

Your better off using cork or EVA foam for roadbed , Its easier to use .

Layout

GeeTee

Thanks for your input.

I have found this product at a local hardware outlet. It looks promising and address's the issues I have, especially the problems with carpet. the price looks Ok so I'll go and have a look at the product soon.

There is so much more to read on this forum, I'll be looking at it often.

Thanks to everyone for your help.

EddieB

EVA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethylene-vinyl_acetate

There are several examples of products listed that I'm sure you will find familiar.

It's a very dense and firm foam, very easy to machine and sand. . Comparable to hard balsa  wood. I use flip flop soles or kneeling pads to make popper bodies for fly fishing, cutting plugs  and turning them down on a mandrel in a Dremel, then coloring them with pantone markers..