The baseboard dilemma continues

[GridNorth]

Which would be best? Laying my track directly to a 12mm plywood base or gluing some 10mm XPS foam to that base? My original idea of using 50mm insulating board proved impractical.

 

Al

[richscylla]

I would put some cork or something onto a 12mm ply top. Are you going to brace the plywood base at all? 

[brossard]

I'm going with Woodland Scenics/Hattons/C&L foam underlay for my layout.  https://www.hattons.co.uk/37698/woodland_scenics_st1461_single_track_strips_of_oo_ho_gauge_track_bed_1_75_x_24_x_36/stockdetail.aspx

 

It also comes in sheets.

 

I'm also using Tacky Glue instead of PVA.  TG dries rubbery not like concrete.

 

John

Edited November 12, 2019 by brossard

[DCB]

12mm ply is great for individual track bases but is very heavy if used as a single sheet to form a solid table top.

[Junctionmad]

If you intend to ballast , cork is a complete waste of time 

 

my advice is two layers of 3mm closed cell foam, such that the ballast which flows around the top foam which is shaped to provide a ballast shoulder then only comes in contact with the lower layer of foam and not the underlying baseboard. 
 

we tried this recently and it’s very effective as in effect a sound insulating layer remains on place under the track /ballast 

[jamespetts]

What is best will depend on what effect that you want to achieve. Cork is often used to replicate the raised ballast shoulder of main line track; at this, it is effective, although some also prefer commercial foam based products. Depending on your scale, however, and the era in which you model, these may be too thick for your requirements.

 

For sound insulation, I do not have direct experience, but understand that foam is more effective than cork, and cork better than nothing; but I have heard that ballasting undermines the sound damping effect significantly, although I am not aware of any controlled tests to show the extent of this and do not have experience of this myself.

[bodmin65]

You could try corex floor protection comes in 2mm & 4mm versions. You can get it in your local selco. 

[Chris Turnbull]

Here is some ballasting being carried out on a layout and you will note that the track is laid directly on the baseboards.  Before commencing the consensus was that ballasting would increase the noise but, much to our surprise, it actually reduced it although we have no idea why.  This is Gauge One so is probably a bit larger than your layout but the noise factor was significant as we run heavy live steam locomotives as well as electric.   

 

Chris Turnbull