Using cork sheet and cork roadbed

I am trying to get my hands on a cork sheet about 1/8" thick. I would use this to cover my 4x8 table as a bed for the entire layout. The Tracks will be bedded as well with N scale cork slabs about 2" wide.

I'm starting to get ancy since the closest HO hobbyshop to me is in Malden MA when im out by Framingham. I dont have a car so i'd have to take the train in and carrying rolls of cork on a train just wouldnt work.

How do YOU cover your table? Any other Suggestions?

Why do you want to cover your whole layout in cork? Homasote would be a better choice... or even styrofoam sheet. I built a 4x8 layout on a sheet of 2" foam framed up with lumber... used cork roadbed to support the tracks after that.

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I used cork before and just assumed use it again. Isnt the foam white? how do you cover it? What is homasote?

I use cork sheets for roadbed, cut into strips, I get it at auto parts stores, sold as gasket material.

Thats roadbed, im talkin BOARD

Use the same stuff, just don't cut it into strips. If you need wider sheets, try an office supply store like Staples.

cool thanks

What do you mean, how do you cover foam? How do you cover cork, or anything else on your layout? With paint, turf, roads and structures. Styrofoam insulation board comes in pink and white. You paint it with brown latex paint, and you're good to go, you can add anything else you want at that point.

Homasote is a pressed paperboard panel that is pretty common in model railroad construction. Usually a layer of Homasote goes on top of your playwood... most people use the Homasote as a roadbed, since it is very heavy, you wouldnt want to cover a whole layout with it.

Books about benchwork and layout construction can explain this better than I can.

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Thanks. Im mostly self taught so I can be pretty good with some aspects but be completely out there with other stuff. I never covered the cork, That was just the ground. Although on my origional layout (when I was about 9), We (my father and I) just had bedded track on a 4x8 sheet of plywood propped up off the ground by 2 8' 2x4's that ran along either side. So as far as scenery goes, Im not the most experienced one here.

You may want to check out some of the books on layout construction, they can help you get past the basic construction questions, and avoid a lot of mis-steps in the process.

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