Model Railway Forum

How close to the edge of the sleepers should i cut the cork underlay on an n gauge track?

Opinions vary on this but in my view underlay isn't necessary on N Guage if you are laying onto plywood. I don't use it on my own N guage layout at all but we do lay track onto a sheet cork surface on my club layout. However, to answer your question, if you are using cork, you need to think ahead to ballasting. Do you want to use cover the edge of the cork with ballast to make it look like a raised track bed shoulder effect? If so then you probably want to cut the cork about 2 to 3mm outside the edge of the sleeper. If you don't want the effect of a raised track bed then make the cork much wider and then disguise the edge by tapering with scenic materials. If you are laying double track runs then think about whether you intend using one piece of cork for both tracks. If you are using flex-track and underlay, well, good luck with that! Another thing to think of is that gluing down track with Copydex onto plywood is great and you can easily lift it by sliding a pallet knife underneath if you need to (and believe me at some point for one reason or another you will need to). If you glue the track down to cork, even with Copydex, it is much harder to lift without destroying the cork under the track Maybe think about using track pins but they are very fiddly in N guage.

I don’t use underlay of any type on O gauge.

Personally I don't use cork and lay my OO track, laying it directly onto the flat baseboard surface. But if cork is used then I would trim the outer sleeper distance to around 3mm, chamfering the cut edge to around 45 degrees to represent a trimmed ballast shoulder.

If you do opt for cork, then remember you will need to raise everything abutting the track or passing over it by the thickness of the cork e.g. Platforms will need raising by the cork thickness to give the correct height. Loco sheds and goods sheds etc that span the track should also be raised by the corks thickness.

Rather than add a new topic thought I'd add to this one.

Would self adhesive 3-5mm grey foam be up to the job? Obviously not looking at recreating a high authenticity ballast look. Just want something to give an impression of ballast whilst dampening down the running noise.

This with some areas of greenery and maybe a few mock tarmac roads is all I'm looking for a portable layout.

While it may work, foam can with some types, degrade over time and crumble. Old Hornby foam inlayed track bed was one such that suffers long term degradation.
Don't forget as I mentioned earlier, that if the underlay is used only under the track, then all lineside items like platforms, overbridges, engine shed and tunnels etc will need to be raised up from their baseboard level to that which the rail top is then at - above baseboard top to rail top distance.

Brian wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 2:52 pm While it may work, foam can with some types, degrade over time and crumble. Old Hornby foam inlayed track bed was one such that suffers long term degradation.
Don't forget as I mentioned earlier, that if the underlay is used only under the track, then all lineside items like platforms, overbridges, engine shed and tunnels etc will need to be raised up from their baseboard level to that which the rail top is then at - above baseboard top to rail top distance.

Cheers. I guess that's the issue with any foam whether self adhesive or not. Point taken re height adjustments.

Just to add my personal opinion for what it’s worth - I wouldn’t use foam, I’d lay straight to the baseboard and ‘enjoy’ the noise when running locos. This means no altering of building height. If you ballast the track in the time-honoured way then I’m sure you’ll enjoy the overall look a lot more even though ballasting is not everyone’s favourite job. I used cork on top of my baseboard on the third board I built due to discrepancies in the depth of ply I bought and even this I found a pain. Hope you enjoy your modelling. Please show us your progress over time.

I totally agree with Bandit Mick.

For those that pinned the track straight to the board, did you find the scatter ballasting process dampened the noise at all? I’m too far gone on my layout to consider underlay of any form, just curious if the ballast made an audible difference. I don’t mind a bit of noise, it adds to the realism.