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Many thanks for all the input. It sounds like it's best to stay away from the WS foam. I'm thinking that I either put the track directly on the foam or use Homabed, then put felt on the bottom of the foam and get the scenery going sooner than later. [/font][/font][/color]My bedroom-size railroad (approx.14 by 14 feet) uses mostly Woodland Scenics soft foam roadbed with both WS and Arizona Rock and Mineral ballast. The roadbed is glued directly onto the benchwork of 1/2 inch plywood on Seivers framing. On some sections, the roadbed is glued to blue insulation foam sub-roadbed. My track is Micro-Engineering Code 55 for the main lines and Peco Code 55 elsewhere with Peco Electro-Frog turnouts used exclusively on the entire layout. I am totally satisfied with the combination and would not hesitate to use it again. The noise from wheels and such is greatly reduced compared to cork roadbed (I have a small amount of cork on the layout, too.) It's easy for me to demonstrate the effectiveness of the foam by having someone stand near the joint between the two types of roadbed and listen to how the wheel noise falls off when the train moves onto the foam roadbed. Low volume conversations are possible at all times even when multiple trains are in action. To keep the relative silence from becoming awkward, I employ three CD players to play recorded background sounds of cities, wilderness, and industry at various locations around the layout.The durability of the foam has also been surprisingly good in my case. My layout's track work is now twelve years old having been completed in 2007. I live in Washington State where the temperature varies between 75 - 85 degrees in summer to below freezing in winter. The train room is heated but only when I'm actually in it and running trains. All other times it's allowed to assume the temperature and humidity of the outside, and the layout room's wall is also an outside wall.I use old-fashioned Bright Boy track cleaning methods and have probably applied excessive force to the track during some work sessions and to date have not experienced even the slightest distortion or other type of failure. All of my track has been literally maintenance free (except for occasional cleaning) for twelve years and my trains continue to roll flawlessly whenever I want to run them. It's not the material you use, it's how you use it. Applied with good building standards, soft foam Woodland Scenics roadbed will give you a dependable and quiet running railroad that will last for many years. I strongly recommend this product. And no, I have no connection to that company, I'm just giving credit to them for making a fine product.
A little late to the party, but I've been laying track on foam this way since the early 80s on just about any surface, from plywood to foam insulation panels and more. You don't need to build the contraption I did, but instead just use the principle: double-sided foam tape.http://davidksmith.com/modeling/wrn2-3.htm
I think you need to look at "micore 300". It is a lot like homasote, but is very stable cause it's fiberglass based and will not adsorb moisture at all. I've been using it for about 20 years now and I think it just as good as homasote. It available through US Gypsum.
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Topic: Roadbed Track on Foam (Read 3767 times)
