What ballast ?

[jazzer]

I am just about to scrap and rebuilt a layout to cure some inbuilt problems and one thing I need to get right is noise levels. The present one, laid on 9mm plywood ( as is the intention for the replacement) and everything thing ran sweetly until I ballasted it with Woodland Scenics ballast an it then became, to my ear, unacceptably noisy. It’s not even a “train noise “, which would be more acceptable but seems to resonate the noise of the motor  as it runs slower towards the stop. My Oxfordrail N7, a lovely sweet runner on unballasted track makes a terrible grinding sort of sound on ballasted track. Others are more or less the same. It’s a pity because now the track has been weathered it really looks the part be the noise really grates on me.

The track is laid directly onto the baseboard, without cork. I am thinking about cork on the next version but the general consensus is that it will make little or more difference.

Will some other type of ballast make a difference or do I Just have to put up with the noise? 
The layout is DCp

[philsandy]

12 minutes ago, jazzer said:

I am just about to scrap and rebuilt a layout to cure some inbuilt problems and one thing I need to get right is noise levels. The present one, laid on 9mm plywood ( as is the intention for the replacement) and everything thing ran sweetly until I ballasted it with Woodland Scenics ballast an it then became, to my ear, unacceptably noisy. It’s not even a “train noise “, which would be more acceptable but seems to resonate the noise of the motor  as it runs slower towards the stop. My Oxfordrail N7, a lovely sweet runner on unballasted track makes a terrible grinding sort of sound on ballasted track. Others are more or less the same. It’s a pity because now the track has been weathered it really looks the part be the noise really grates on me.

The track is laid directly onto the baseboard, without cork. I am thinking about cork on the next version but the general consensus is that it will make little or more difference.

Will some other type of ballast make a difference or do I Just have to put up with the noise? 
The layout is DCp

 

What glue did you use to fix the ballast? 

I have read that PVA, because it sets like concrete, increases running noise.

I used Copydex 50/50 with water to fix the ballast, with the track laid on 3mm cork, and the cork fixed to the 9mm plywood baseboard with 100% Copydex. Trains runs quietly, well to my ears anyway.

[doilum]

Thinking inside the box. Has anyone tried gluing sound absorbing material to the inside of the baseboard? This way you retain the solid track foundation but hopefully kill unwanted noise.

[96701]

I'm with Copydex and cork underlay.

[Ben Alder]

Tracklay for me - it gives almost silent running and ballasting is a doddle as well. Used it for years  on several layouts and it takes all the pain out of tracklaying and ballasting.

 

 

https://www.tracklay.co.uk/browse/cat37pG1_961968.aspx