Track-Bed™ Roll - N Scale

Track-Bed Roll - N Scale from Woodland

A foam track bed for N scale in a roll form. It is not a model and not a kit but material for building the formation of a line: it is laid between the baseboard and the track and makes the bed the line lies on. The roll unwinds straight along the route of the track, so the length of a stretch is set by you, not by the size of a piece.

When a roll is the better choice

Against individual strips a roll has one great advantage: it handles continuous stretches with no joins. And it is the joins that are the places where a bed most often makes an unevenness and where an audible transition appears under the track. On a long running line, on an inner circuit or on a diorama with one continuous run a roll therefore pays off. On a broken-up layout with a great many turnouts it makes more work than ready-made strips or sheets instead.

Work tips

• Draw the route of the line on the board and unwind the roll straight along the line.
• Let the unwound strip lie a while, so that it loses the memory of being rolled up.
• In curves press the bed down along its whole length, so that it does not lift on the outside.
• Cut with a sharp knife with a fresh blade: a blunt blade tears foam instead of parting it.
• Apply the ballast only onto a finished bed, otherwise it runs under the edges and the bed shifts.

Who it is for

For builders of layouts and railroad dioramas in N scale who lay longer continuous stretches of line and want them laid quietly and with no needless transitions in the bed. It also serves well where a layout is still growing and you do not know the length of the individual stretches in advance.